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MA: So at some point, did you open your own greenhouse? Or did you work for someone else?

MH: Well, my brother had a, they bought a greenhouse in Trinidad. A very big area there. They were one of the larger ones in that area. They found this place for us, it was on sale. They wanted to know if we would want to take a chance and take in this, raising flowers. And so, we did. And not much of an experience, but anyway, we did. It's a twenty-four hour job, I tell you. Because once you get involved, you can't leave anything watered, unwatered. It has to be, everything has to be on time as scheduled. Plants, how we had potting plants and bedding plants and we had nursery on top of that. And so on top of that, so it was not much freedom to take the kids out to go anywhere. Eventually, after they got into school, they joined the Boy Scouts and things like that. Then home... 4-H for the girl. She was born in La Junta. And then, they all went to school there, from grade school up to junior college on to college. And then after they finished school, nobody wanted to take over the greenhouse. They said, "Well, this is not worth the trouble."

MA: A lot of work.

MH: And a lot of work. And they said we can find better jobs with less hour working, and get better paid and all this other stuff they hear about. So they went on their way and they didn't want to come back so we were sorta getting to a point we'd had enough of it, too. So we closed the greenhouse and we had the flower shop. Well in the meantime, my husband...

MA: So what year, around, when you closed the greenhouse? What year was that?

MH: I think it was, they were in high school, we were there during their high school years. So I'd say after '70. After '70. About '72, she graduated in '72, my daughter did from high school. Then she went on to college, too, after that. She got a job in Montana, as a special ed. And then my second son got a job as a lawyer in Boulder, and then, then worked for the Continental Airline. And so, there wasn't gonna be anybody coming, you know. I mean, they got their own jobs of their own. And so we gave it up.

MA: So at that point, you said you closed the greenhouse and opened a flower shop?

MH: Well the flower shop was just for after we closed the greenhouse, 'cause it was too much work for us to take care of, and the kids were not around to help us anymore. And then his father had emphysema, so we, he went back to Japan. And he passed away after a few years later. My husband got a job at the junior college which is a state job. It became, is considered a state job. So he took ground management, which means he takes care of the yard and the ground area and planting. And taking care of the little experimental greenhouse they had there at the science building. And he was there, he took a full-time job over there. So then, I decided we would quit the greenhouse, I mean even, the flower shop, I was for a while I did it. But then he took, he had ten years of working for the junior college, so we decided we'd go back to Denver. And that's, we left for Denver in '79, so from '53 to '79, we lived in La Junta. And there were very few families there in town. There were several farmers in Swink and Rocky Ford areas, but we don't see them every day, you know, just on certain doings, like picnics or New Year's or something special we would get together. The JACL had, we had a Arkansas JACL member, we're all members of it there, so whenever they have their meetings, that's the only time we'd get to see them. And whenever they had their big doings like scholarship fundraising, we have a chow mein dinner. That's when we all get together and help each other. That was the only entertainment we had to do, I was there. 'Course, in the meantime, our kids joined the Boy Scouts, but they were known as the Koshare Indians. They were well-known Indian dancers. They go travel to New York and back east, or wherever they're asked to entertain for the summer. And our two boys joined it and they were in for, since junior high until high school. In the two years that were in college that they helped advise the younger kids when they get into college, they're more advisor. They don't take participate, they can participate if they want to.

MA: So this is a Native American traditional dancing?

MH: The scoutmaster there, he was very interested in American Indian. And he took the kids to New Mexico and to the Navajo reservations and places like that on their summer trips and learned the Indian way of living and their making the costume was part of their project. They made all their costumes and they danced authentic dances. They taught, they learned from the Indians down in the south. Basically New Mexico area. They went to Taos, and they went to the Hopi Indians, and the Navajo Indians. And we, and Colorado is Indian country, basically. We have the Shoshones, Utes, and all in this area. Some in the Colorado Springs area, there's Indians. We have a reservation, but we don't call them reservations too deeply, because they can live outside now. They're living outside of them. And they're going to North Dakota to the, where the Pinehurst Indian reservation up there, Sioux Indian country. And they learned a lot of the Indian culture and that's how they got the town La Junta as a main area for this. They have a museum called Kivo. And they had all the traditional things that happened in that. And Ben's Fort is a trading post for the well-known brothers had a trading post for the Indians. They have a museum down there at Ben's Fort, if you go down there, there is a new museum that they built after we left there. It's a lot of Indian history down in that area, where the trading was done. They even made a movie, Centennial, down in there. With famous, what is his name? He played in Gunsmoke. Anyway, they had a lot of the school kids were in that as extras, uh-huh.

MA: So then you moved back to Denver in 1979.

MH: And then 1979 we moved back to Denver, but we moved into Aurora, Colorado, because we had a friend that was running a motel and they needed somebody to help with the motel. And they were going to go into another business, the restaurant business. And we decided we'll help them out. We stayed there until '82. Then I moved to Tamai Tower in '82. So I've been living in '82. And we're right back where we started. I lived in that area before the war. I mean, right after the war, 1945.

MA: And now you're back living here.

MH: I'm back where I started. So this is home for me. California's my home, but I've been away so long, it's, it doesn't seem like it's home anymore. This is home for me.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.