Densho Digital Archive - George Fujimoto Interview (denshovh-fgeorge

<Begin Segment 14>

MA: So you moved, then, from Brighton...

GF: Brighton to south Texas.

MA: South Texas. And was it you and your wife? Didn't your, your father also come with you?

GF: Yes. My father and my mother, of course, and then my youngest sister and my third brother went down there.

MA: Did you know anyone in that area where you decided to move?

GF: The only one I met is the real estate man. 'Cause he was up here recruiting so I met him and went down to locate some farm and that's what we done.

MA: And what area of south Texas was this?

GF: This is in the lower Rio Grande Valley. It was in the valley. It's a tropical place.

MA: I imagine it was quite a change from, from Colorado.

GF: Well, yes. But I just tried to get used to whatever place you go because you have to. And so I thought I'd farm over there, but that didn't turn out very good. [Laughs]

MA: What happened with that farm?

GF: Drought, mostly. And the water, irrigation water, we got from the Rio Grande river, which is right there. It was all pumped to a higher elevation. And the water flowed, gravity flow. But with the severe drought they had, they didn't have any water in the river. And we walked the river and almost anywhere we could walk across the river without getting wet. That's how dry it was. So, even after buying the farm we couldn't farm so that went to pieces. I said, "Gotta quit." So I turned it back and I was gonna keep the citrus 'cause I figure I could take care of the citrus by buying the tank truck and that's what I done. But that was another mistake. I bought the truck and got a tank on there and got water to water the plants. And most of the places I saw the water which I thought was water, to me was at the time I didn't know it was alkaline, It didn't have salt in it. So I start taking that up and watering my little trees and all of a sudden I saw trees dying out. Well, salt water killed it. So that took care of the citrus. So I got clear out of that business.

MA: And what did you do after the citrus?

GF: I worked for a produce company and then finally to Wallace, a company which he raised carrots and thing, or contracted carrots for Campbell soup, Gerber soup, and that's where I worked. And, and he needed somebody to go out and pioneer a different land in Texas because he wanted to spread out. So that's what I was assigned. I went out and got some different land, contracted farmers and, and helped them raise the carrots. Because they didn't know. They (weren't) familiar with vegetables. And that's what I'd done for, oh, two, three years before I tried to get into myself raising cucumbers, pickling cucumbers and selling them and contracting to growers. Oh, I was selling 'em to a company in Arkansas called Brown and Miller, pickle company.

MA: And you were doing this on your own. This... you quit the other company. Kind of went out on your own to do the, the pickling.

GF: Then I thought, well, that's not any good. So I kind of worked a little longer until I built up a little more money and then in 1970 I decided I'm gonna go open up a bowling alley. So that's what I've done.