<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So you were married in 1950, you're in Los Angeles, and so what kind of work did Chester do?

WY: He was going to school, and I was... what was I doing? Oh, I was working in factories and this and that. We weren't being able to make ends meet, so I started going with this friend of ours, black friend of ours that used to do catering, and weekends I used to go catering with her. So that we could have --- well, she used to give me twenty-five dollars a day, and that was a lot of money in those days, you know. So I started going to cater with her, paying our electric bills and things like that. Then pretty soon he says, "I bet I can get Rose some parties so that she could cater, I could get her the parties and she could cater." But black people are not like Japanese, they're not (obsessively) punctual, at least Rose wasn't. And that used to burn him up, you know.

TI: Oh, because he would find these parties for her...

WY: Yeah, and then, and he'd be the caterer and she'd bring the food and she'd come in late, or she'd be singing while she's cooking and not worrying about the next day or anything like that. And he didn't like it so...

TI: And you were probably caught in the middle because she was your friend.

WY: No, she was his friend.

TI: Oh, okay. The other job, I read someplace where you did something with shower curtains?

WY: Oh, yeah. After that I used to paint shower curtains, hand paint. I was working in... yeah, I was working as a helper in a shower curtain factory, you know, where they hand paint shower curtains. You go over there and do the pink flamingoes, blackbills, blackbills, like that. And the woman that was the head of it got married and had to leave. And so she said, she trained me to be head. And then the boss came in, and all of a sudden, the woman is training another person to be the head. I said, "What's going on? I thought I was supposed to be the head." Well, he thought, the boss thought that the customers, the clients might come in and see me head, and not like it and cancel the order. I said, "Well, let me talk to him." I (told him), "You're a Jew, you ought to know what prejudice is. Why are doing this to me? I'm next in line here." And, "I didn't do that to you, I didn't do that to you," (he said). "Then," I said, "we have no quarrel then. I'm the head." And so he had to make me head.

TI: Wow, you were really direct, weren't you?

WY: I was. Because you've got nothing to lose at this point. And then...

TI: And it's interesting, earlier you said... it didn't seem like you were as direct. You used to say, you used to do what people told you to do, and now, at this point, you're much more direct.

WY: Yeah, yeah. But I had nothing to lose. And then he's Jewish, and I said, "You ought to know what it is to be Jewish, what it is to feel racism." And then he says, "I didn't say that." "Then there's no problem." I was very direct, you know. There's nothing to lose. And then you get kicked around so much, you just got to stand up for your rights.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.