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DM: So what kind of work did your family do there?

BS: Well, going back to my father, he was very fortunate that he became a gardener for the Alameda County tax assessor. He had, his name was Emmanuel George, and he had a pretty good-sized estate with about maybe a thirty-forty acre orchard of cherries and apricots. And so my father became a full-time employee as a caretaker for the orchard and his estate.

DM: Did he continue to do that for a while?

BS: Yes, that's where really he got, he got his start. Mr. George really befriended my dad and saw how dedicated he was in growing things. So he offered Dad a ten-acre farm that he could sharecrop and go on his own. And still, even farming that ten-acre farm, he still helped Mr. George with managing his orchard and so forth.

DM: Oh, so he actually worked two jobs.

BS: Yes, yes.

DM: That must have been an incredible amount of work.

BS: Oh, it's amazing what he did.

DM: So tell us about life on your ten-acre farm there.

BS: Well, I think I could probably explain it this way. That after, after working on that ten-acre truck gardening farm, I said to myself, "I shall never be a farmer." [Laughs] But here I am. It was a very rewarding experience to really work so hard out in the field and see the rewards and the nice crops that were grown. And so it was a rewarding experience, but it was really one of the hardest work because agriculture then was all done by hand, everything. We didn't have the herbicides and the chemicals and so forth that we have today. So weeding would be everything by hand and everything by hoe and everything with horses. I walked miles and miles behind the horse, cultivating.

DM: What kind of crops did you grow? You mentioned that it was a truck farm.

BS: Yes. My dad had the ability to just grow anything when it came to vegetables. But I think, looking back, one of his major crops were tomatoes, celery, lettuce, cauliflower during the winter months, and that he was of the earlier pioneers of learning how to grow pole tomatoes, make tomatoes grow on poles. He was a natural farmer, just one of these natural common-sense farmers.

DM: Now, did your, did your father hire other people to help out on the farm?

BS: No, it was all done with mother and four kids.

DM: So mother and the four kids all out in the fields?

BS: All out in the field. My -- and I really, so much credit is given to the deserving Issei fathers, but I personally would give the Issei mothers a little more credit. For them to come to this strange United States without knowing who their spouse is going to be, but just knowing their reputation and having to come here and work so hard. Can you imagine, in our family, my late brother Harry was just one years old, just one years old, and right after that, my two sisters, who are twins, came following right after that. So really, you could say there was three with diapers, and with no modern facilities. No washer, no dryer, no hot water heat, but she did have running water. But the story is that when I was born, my baby crib was a Del Monte tomato box out in the field, and she would be out picking tomatoes. And whenever she heard my cry, she would come and breastfeed me until I would be relaxed, and go back and pick tomatoes again. That's sort of unheard of today. And of course, I can't remember that, but that's the story that my sister, who was six years older than I, have told me.

DM: Well, they would be the ones who would remember.

BS: Yes.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.