Densho Digital Archive - Mary Hirata Interview (denshovh-hmary-01-0029)

<Begin Segment 29>

BK: Well, now during this time, then you were working at night, is that correct? Your husband was working during the day?

MH: Uh-huh, yes.

BK: And you were watching the children, or least doing that, and then he would come home and then you would be working at night. Is that correct?

MH: Yeah. Well, if he was going to be late we had a neighbor girl that would baby-sit until he got home, but usually he came home by the time I was ready to leave, so it wasn't really that hard. When I was at the Space Needle, then I got into doing some of the decorating, so I decorated the Space Needle for Christmas for three years. Everybody would come to the house and say, "Is it Christmas?" It'd be June or July and I had Christmas trees all over the house, because I would usually make, make them. One time I made them out of ribbon, a five-foot and three small ones and three taller ones I did. But I never made any money with this, and I think about it now, I was such a fool, I just charged them for materials.

BK: For the materials.

MH But I did that for three years and decided that was too much work. I made eggs also for a company down in Portland, so I would drive them down. She'd call me and order so many eggs and so many, what do you call it... decorations? Like I made dolls, angels about this high for her one year. One time I made a little boy and a girl out of fabric you put it in, what do you call it, glue, and you form the hats and the heads and the faces.

BK: And was this for a commercial store?

MH: Uh-huh. And so I would do that.

BK: And your eggs, can you describe that process a little bit more?

MH: Oh, the eggs. I'd been doing it for, gosh, I don't know for how many years, it was just a hobby. You blow out goose eggs or ostrich eggs or whatever and then cut them out. In fact, I've not done many since, but I used to do a lot. I used to do -- one year I did, I sold Frederick's eggs. That was fun, the only thing is they're kind of hard to deal with; it's not like a private store where you can just -- like in Portland this lady had this fancy store and she just said, "Oh I want this, this and this." But at Frederick's you have to have more, go through all the right channels to get there. I really did it only one year because it was too much like work for no money at all.