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TI: Well, did you notice, in the weeks after December 7th, any issues or experiences or problems with the Caucasians in the valley? Did you hear anything about that?

MY: No. I think we were real lucky as far as the neighborhood was concerned and everything. And people would ask... there's this one Italian family, and it was probably like the Nisei marriages, you know, and this guy was probably, seemed like he was old enough to be his wife's mother and father. So when that happened, the boys had the gas station and so these kids would buy the oil by the case, and they would give it to them at a sale price. So then they told 'em, "Well, gee, why don't you leave your oil here and then you can come over and use the hoist and change your oil, you don't have to go lay in the mud or someplace and do that." So there were several kids that had bought several cases of oil and left them at the station. So this one family, he got mad and the boys, well, the oldest one was about George's age, so he was two years younger than I was. They came over to the station and said that, "We got to take our oil home." Said, "How come?" He said, "Well, my father said to bring the oil home, so we came to get the oil." And the boys just knew what was happening, so they just let 'em pack it up and take it home. (We never saw them again.)

>Then it was, when my dad, after we moved back there, then Dad and Mom was over there and they were trying to help us clean up the farm ground. Because it had gone wild over the years and they didn't take care of it. So Dad and Mom were there, and all of a sudden I looked and he's got company, and it's this Mr. Crispy. And I thought, "Well, you've got lots of guts, what are you doing here?" But then they didn't say anything. And so my dad was quite diplomatic, and he says, "Gosh, Mr. Crispy, I have to thank you for being so good to my family while I was gone." And he just kind of mumbled around and acknowledged him, but I thought, "I don't know how he could ever forget what he did that bothered us kids." It might have bothered his kids, too, but...

TI: So Mr. Crispy was the man who wanted his oil back.

MY: (No, the boys owned the Gilmore Gas Station and had an oil and gas distribution business before the war as well as Iseri Insurance.) And so that's the only thing that I really remember that really hit me. To think that they were no better than we were, they were an immigrant father and, you know, Nisei growing up, and that was, with boys, their boys, you know, they were second generation. And I thought, "You sure got a lot of guts. Just because your color is just right and I got picked on."

<End Segment 22> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.