<Begin Segment 7>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: So are some of your earliest childhood memories of the store?

SA: It was the store. In fact, I cut my finger slicing the meat, and we had a little meat cutter. And you know, it was interesting because we sold Copenhagen... Copenhagen snuff they called it, but we had to open up the little cans, we had this mechanism. And of course we'd get these jokes like, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" And we'd say, "Yes," and they'd say, "Get him out," you know, things like that. So those things kind of stay with you. It's really... we had the cigarettes, very few that they have now, but Camel, (Chesterfield, etc.). We didn't sell any liquor, though, I don't think that that was allowed in those days, I'm not quite sure. But my father didn't drink or (swear), and I think -- well, he smoked, but he didn't swear which I was very happy about. Because my mother was a strong Christian, and as I said, she doesn't say much, but...

TI: And how big was the store?

SA: Well, you know, the size of Tai Tung. I thought it was big for the times, because we put all (canned goods, meats, grains and) our groceries, though, the (fresh) vegetables (were placed) outside. In fact, we had to do that in the morning. I think you could (imagine) the size now, I'd say it was a pretty good size. When I look at other small stores, I think we had twice their size and we went back quite a ways.

TI: Right. And I should probably explain to people who sort of see this tape, so Tai Tung is a pretty well-known Chinese restaurant in the International District, and so a lot of people in Seattle, if you say, "Tai Tung," everyone knows what you're talking about.

SA: Yeah.

TI: Let's talk a little bit about your customers at the store. Who, who were the customers?

SA: We were very fortunate. We had the Chinese restaurants, and we had the Filipinos, the cannery boys, but they had a place called Rizal which was like a dance hall now, but it was a place they ate and where they hung out. Because the Filipinos had no women at all coming in (from the Philippines), there were single fellows. And (...) so they had to buy all the groceries from us, they were in the hotel rooms with a hot plate. And then we had the Japanese which, because we were (part of Nihonmachi), on that edge. On the same block with us was, I don't know if you know Raymond Sing, they had the Wa Sung grocery. There was the Chinese grocery but it was (...) small. So the bigger restaurants would come to us.

TI: Yeah, so it must have been large for the restaurants to shop at your place.

SA: Oh, yes, we were very fortunate to get them. We had one (called) King Fir, which was up the block, and we sold to (them). I (also) remember Chinese Garden restaurant, (a) smaller one. I (knew) the chef (at a nearby cafe and he) used to give me hum bow when I (walked) past, which I really liked. The great thing was we'd walk through Chinatown every day, 'cause our home was at 815 1/2 King. And so (...) we crossed the blocks. We're in the 600, the 700s was Chinatown, and then 800 block, we were (home). So it's about a block and a half. However, when the curfew came, of course, it was the King Fir Chinese that would bring a car down so we could (avoid being on the street after curfew hours).

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.