<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So let's go there, let's talk about who you met. What's the first time you met your husband?

BH: Well, Mr. Takizaki, he was one of the people, because I didn't have any parents, so he told me about him. And it just so happened that Lucius' father, this father and my husband were cousins, and so after that, I went over there. But they had a lot of children already, Lucius, I think, was the youngest at the time. And so...

TI: So do you recall, before you met your husband, how they described him? When they said, "We want you to meet this young man, how did they describe him?

BH: Oh, he says, "Well, he's," first they were warning me, says, "You know, he's from out in Wyoming." And I thought, "Wyoming?" But he said, "He works outside so he's very dark." And I thought, "Oh, my." They were describing him, I think.

TI: And so when you heard that, so he was Wyoming, he worked outside a lot, so did you think of him more as a laborer type of person or a farmer type of person?

BH: And when they told that he worked on the railroad...

TI: And what came to mind when you heard that? I mean, what did...

BH: Well, they were trying to marry us off, because, you know, to get rid of us, I guess. [Laughs] And I met some people at sixteen, and I didn't like them. [Laughs] So when Mr. Takizaki described, well, told me about him, I thought, well, they said, "You're getting older," said, "you should hurry up and settle down." But he was just like a father to me, took the place of my father after my parents died. He was just like one of the family. To this day, they treat me like one of the family.

TI: But going back to this, before you met Paul, it sounds like you felt that they were trying to just move you along.

BH: Well, in those days, girls, they expected girls to be married when you were about sixteen, sixteen, seventeen.

TI: So you were getting old, you were eighteen...

BH: I was getting to be eighteen.

TI: You had finished high school, so they were...

BH: Then I stayed with this Rogers family until I got married. I was through with school by that time.

TI: So describe when you first met your husband. What was that like?

BH: [Laughs] Well, so I expected somebody who was real dark. He came over to the Takizaki family to where I first met them. I've never told any of my kids. [Laughs]

TI: Go ahead, what's that?

BH: They said, "Well, you're not getting any younger," he said, "you should settle down." And they were so worried about me being, running around single, you know, "You should settle down. I have a man here that I want you to meet." And, of course, he had no idea that he was gonna have a meeting with me, either.

TI: So Paul did not know he was going to meet you?

BH: Well, his cousin, Lucius' father, of course, described me. Because we knew his father from years ago, too, my father knew them. So, "He's visiting from Wyoming and you should meet him," and all that. So I, finally, we met over at Takizakis for the first time, and he wanted to, I guess, impress me that he's not exactly a railroad man, that he also does painting. So he brought over a painting and showed it to me, so he's talented. [Laughs]

TI: And so what did you, when you saw his painting that he brought, what did you think of the painting?

BH: It was his self-portrait, which we still have.

TI: And do you recall, when you saw the painting, what you thought of it?

BH: Well, I always liked art anyway, so I thought that was pretty nice. He does this kind of work besides railroad.

TI: And so when you saw that self-portrait, did it come across as anything special?

BH: Oh, yeah. I knew he was above a lot of people, 'cause most of 'em I met were farmers or something like that. So I thought, "At least he's talented."

TI: So you recognized his talent.

BH: Oh, yes. He showed us the painting and everything.

TI: Now, in the same way that people told you about Paul, that he was from Wyoming, he might be dark, what did they tell Paul about you when they described...

BH: Well, he's the one that said, "Looks like Mona Lisa." [Laughs] That's where it got started.

TI: So do you recall who said that?

BH: I think Mr. Takizaki or Mr. Horiuchi, Lucius' father, I don't know. I don't know what went on in the background.

TI: So when they talked to Paul about who you were, one of the things they said was, "She looked like Mona Lisa"?

BH: That impression, I guess. [Laughs]

TI: And they knew that would be a good description, because he was an artist and that would interest him.

BH: They said, "What do you think about him?" And I said, "Not bad." [Laughs]

TI: And what was it, when you say "not bad," what was it about him that...

BH: Well, like I think I could tolerate and live with somebody like that. [Laughs]

TI: So you saw his painting, you noticed that there was talent. What about his personality? How would you describe his personality?

BH: I thought he was very nice, and I remember he had nice curly hair. And his personality was good, and I thought, "What am I going to do? He speaks Japanese only." And I said, "How am I gonna converse with him?" At first it was just short words, but then I found out that he could speak a lot better than I thought. But he was fluent in Spanish since he had Mexicans working for him. So it wasn't bad. And he was telling me what kind of a place he had lived in, and it was just one of the railroad houses. It was a big, being the foreman, he had the biggest house, 'cause the rest were all bunkhouses. So that was kind of nice. So that was it, I guess.

TI: And so when he described Wyoming, living there, it sounded pretty good? Like a large bunkhouse or a large house...

BH: Yeah, I never thought about what kind of a place.

TI: And describe the dating process back then. I mean, so you met that first time...

BH: Then they asked me, "Do you think you could marry him?" or something, I guess. I said, "Well, maybe." He's gonna give me, I think we had a couple of dates, three dates or something. The more you got to know him, he was very different compared to a lot of the farmers that I'd met. Said, "What are you gonna do?" And I said, "Well, I don't think I mind marrying him." So we first got engaged in the first three months. And then he went back to Wyoming.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.