<Begin Segment 13>

TI: Okay, you talked about, at some point, how the families were sort of consolidating because they knew that they would be leaving pretty soon. Your father had a store, a business property, so what kind of preparation did your family go through?

TH: Well, my dad then had to basically close the store. And I guess, fortunately for us, when the war broke out suddenly there would be rationing, and so there'd be shortage of goods, and so then whatever merchandise or food that you had had apparently a more inherent value to it because of the rationing. Things would be short. And so he had no real problem getting rid or selling the things (...) he had in his store, and also, and so I remember taking, say, box of canned goods (...), putting 'em into (a) panel truck and loading it up and finally realized that you had a slight overload, so went over to the service station and filled the tires with more air, and you wondered if... what it was instead of, say, thirty pounds of pressure you probably put, I don't remember, may have pushed it up to fifty pounds so that it can take the load better. And then we drove it from the Hollywood area, out, can't really remember where, but it, to the east, the other side of the Civic Center, and so delivered all the groceries to this one particular place, and in several truckloads. We had two trucks and I think we made several (...) trips doing that.

TI: So you're selling to another retailer or wholesaler, I guess?

TH: My guess is to probably to another retailer.

TI: And your sense was then, because these goods were in demand, your father didn't have to sell at a discount or anything, that, that he found a willing buyer?

TH: (...) Willing buyer at a decent price, would be my guess. And with the closing of the store and then now the question became all right, we had these two trucks, and I don't know whatever happened to the one of them. I think he may have sold it, (on) the property that my dad (...) had built in 1937 had four garages, and so we put two cars and one was a passenger car, and then he put the truck, so we had two garages with the cars and the other two garages, they were filled with the, I guess the showcases for the meats, into the garage. So he took some of the store equipment and put those away. And then we also had, had some room that he used as a little warehouse that he had put (...) on the property, plus the rooms where the two workers stayed. And the old talk was that you can only bring what you can carry, so when you finally gathered all those things together you had other items that you wanted to keep but yet you realized it was kinda silly to carry it in in place of some of the other, more essential items. So my dad says, "Well, we have room in the back and if you people want, you can (...) go ahead and store it if you wish." So the people from the neighborhood then brought all their, I guess their second choice type things and, and put it into that mini warehouse we had. So the whole place got stacked up from floor to ceilings and wall to wall with all these boxes that people put their name on it, fine. And so that, that's what happened, but then the flip side of that is when people came back and said, "We have this item there." And he said, "Well, when did you put it in?" "We put it in kinda early," so it's way in the back somewhere. So I wasn't there to do that 'cause that's another part of the story. But so they finally began to clear out that back area, and it was something like ten years before we finally got most of it cleared out, as people went back East and stayed there and then gradually started to come back.

TI: That's interesting. And your parents kept it, all through those years?

TH: Yeah, just kept it there. Okay, Mr. So-and-So is gonna be (back), they're still alive, so they'll probably come back and pick it up.

TI: What strikes me as I, as I listen to you describe this was how, it's almost like how calm and methodical your parents were during this time, that there are other people I've interviewed and for some other families this uncertainty caused them to perhaps sell things, like their stores, their cars, all that at pennies on the dollar, whereas your parents didn't do that.

TH: Yeah. Well, (...) I think (...) the saving grace was we had that house. The name was in a citizen because (...) my dad and mom couldn't buy property, and then instead of saying, as you say, panic and then trying to sell the property, my dad turned around and (...) leased the house. We have, diagonally across the street from us (...) the grammar school that I went to, and so my dad apparently talked to the principal and gave him the opportunity of leasing the house from the family. And the amazing thing was that my dad, again, looking ahead, figured that the war would last about three years, and so they made about a three, I think it was a three-year lease, and I think the lease ended, I think a few months before the war ended, (...) kinda mind boggling when you think, projecting ahead and then guessing fairly close as to what was (going to) happen. And so with that fact that the school principal now was living in the house, in turn protected the other property and the things stored in the back, because there was now somebody living there, and the rent was such that it was enough (...) to pay for the property tax, so the family was able to keep the house, and then when we got back with the proper lease papers (...) they got the property back. So, as I said, it's kind of an amazing thing.

TI: That's really extraordinary, for him to even do a three year lease.

TH: (Yes).

TI: And so for the lease to come up just, again, months before the war ended, and to then even probably pick someone prominent in the community, in a way, to protect the house.

TH: (Yes), the house and protect the area. Well, we also had next door a black family and their son and I virtually grew up together. We played together, so again, we had another neighbor who was (...) watching, the watchdog type of thing.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.