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TI: And so describe just a, you know, for the family, or for you, a typical day. A typical day, like a Tuesday, what would happen in the family, from waking up and going through the day, going through school. Just why don't you describe a day for me?

HH: Well, everybody would go their own way 'cause they all have different kind of jobs. But my father would always be out 'cause he is not only in the office, but he has a lot of community work that he does, but everybody was out because the kids would go to school. We all walk now, so you leave the house early and the only person, generally, at home would be my mother. And she raised ducks and chickens, and raised beans, things that we could eat.

TI: But before everyone went their own way, in the early morning, did you eat breakfast together?

HH: Yeah. Well, I don't know if we ate together. Everybody had their own timetable, but there was only one room where you could sit down and eat. There was huge round table and you could sit all of us and stay, so I know that dinner we always ate together, but breakfast I think you just ate what you could and then left.

TI: And who would make breakfast? Would you make your own or would your mother make it?

HH: I think she made a pot of something and then we, we just helped ourselves.

TI: And do you remember what you ate for breakfast, usually?

HH: No.

TI: But you said a pot of something, so something warm that you...

HH: Yeah, you can always have soup, miso shiru, with an egg inside.

TI: And then you mentioned you walked to school. Did you walk with your sisters?

HH: My sister, and then -- everybody walks, so you had people all walking to school. I think it was a little under one mile.

TI: Okay, and when you went to school, what was your, what would people wear when they went to school, generally?

HH: Regular clothes. Nothing fancy.

TI: But like --

HH: No uniform...

TI: No uniform.

HH: No shorts, just... because mostly dresses.

TI: Okay, so the girls wore dresses, and the boys wore long pants?

HH: Uh-huh..

TI: Okay, so they were dressed pretty well.

HH: Yeah. I'm not sure we had shoes. [Laughs]

TI: Yeah, on the Kona side it seemed like they were more casual. They didn't wear shoes when they went to school.

HH: I can't remember.

TI: And then, so you're at school...

HH: And you come home, then you --

TI: For lunch time? Or...

HH: No, no, you have lunch at school. Lunch was cheap. I think it was twenty-five cents, something like that, so you had lunch at school, 'cause that was a pretty good meal. Then you come home and then you go to Japanese school. There's no time.

TI: Now what about the children who couldn't afford lunch? You know, twenty-five cents actually sounds like it might be a lot for some families, or did everyone...

HH: I think they had help. Everybody ate. Nobody went hungry.

TI: Okay, and so after school you said you came home.

HH: You went straight to Japanese school.

TI: Oh, you went straight to Japanese school? From English school straight to Japanese school. And then that went for another hour, and then what time would you come home?

HH: It would take at least half an hour yet. School two-thirty, three, three-thirty... about four or five, four-thirty you'd be home.

TI: And then what would happen when you got home around four-thirty, five? What would happen next?

HH: When you're very young you don't have to do anything. [Laughs]

TI: But the older ones had to, what? They had to do chores, or...

HH: Yeah, they would have chores, and if you have enough older ones the chores are finished by the time it gets to you.

TI: But then, so if you didn't have to do chores what would you do?

HH: No, I did. We had what we call furo, bath, you know what a furo is? Okay, we had a wooden one, and we had to burn firewood underneath to make it warm, and my job was to burn the wood.

TI: So you would have to heat up the water.

HH: Yeah.

TI: Would you have to fill the tub with water and things like that?

HH: Of course I did. Otherwise you'd burn the thing. [Laughs]

TI: So that was your job, to take care of the furo.

HH: And then we'd cook rice outside, too. What, they had what they call kama, you know what a kama is? And you'd burn fire underneath. That was my job.

TI: Okay. And you would start that even, well, obviously, the rice before dinner, but even the furo you would start heating the water before?

HH: Yeah, 'cause there's too many, and you'd just, you'd go one by one practically.

TI: So would you take your bath before dinner?

HH: You'd take it whenever you can with eight people around.

TI: Now, for the family, was there an order in terms of who went in the bath first and who got the last one?

HH: How you... no, no, not necessarily.

TI: It was just whenever people could do it.

HH: Yeah.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.