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TI: So they then moved to Bainbridge Island. They have, like a nursery, but before we talk about their work, let's just talk about, how many kids did they have?

TK: I've got, how many kids? They had six children, four boys and two girls.

TI: Okay. Can you just go down the line and just tell me your brothers and sisters?

TK: My oldest brother is Tom. He was born in 1923, I think. And the next one was Ray, and he was born in '24. My sister Yoshiko... wait, there's something I got to add up right. [Laughs] I think she was born in '26. And my brother Kee, he was born in '27, and myself, I was born in '29, and my younger sister, Martha, she was born in '32. So in, I think in nine years there were six kids or something.

TI: Wow, so that's quite a few.

TK: Yeah, quite a few. [Both laugh]

TI: And they're so close together.

TK: Close together, yeah.

TI: So tell me a little bit about the house you lived in. How would six kids and two parents live?

TK: Real close. [Laughs]

TI: So, like, the brothers lived in the same, or had the same bedroom, or did you share a room? How did that work?

TK: Like, we had two, on the property was, it was two homes. One we called our winter home, and that had the boiler in the basement. And we had, I guess, one living room, a kitchen, my parents' bedroom, and we had a, I think a junk room, and then one big bedroom where the six of us, was it six of us in that one bedroom? I'm not sure.

TI: Okay, so you had a winter house --

TK: Winter house.

TI: -- with a boiler.

TK: And a boiler, yeah. And we lived in that winter house because it was, my father had to get up every so often to check on the boiler to see that the fire was burning and everything was working alright, and the boiler was burning heavy oil.

TI: And was the boiler for the...

TK: Heating the greenhouse.

TI: Oh, the greenhouse.

TK: Yeah.

TI: Because otherwise the plants would freeze or be too cold.

TK: It'd have been too cold, yeah.

TI: And so why didn't you guys just stay there year round?

TK: Because the so-called summer house was, I think it was a little bit bigger. Not that much bigger, but it was, the dimensions I don't know, but it was a house with four rooms. We had a kitchen and had, was it three bedrooms? I'm not sure. And then my father added another room to the house, but I think at that time we didn't know where the property lines were, but I think the addition he made was in the adjoining property.

TI: So on your neighbor's property?

TK: Neighbor's property, I think. [Laughs] I'm not sure.

TI: So it sounds like the summer house was a bigger, nicer place to live?

TK: Right.

TI: Then, but then the winter house, you were there because, one, I guess the boiler was there.

TK: The boiler, that's right.

TI: That's kind of interesting. So during the summer what happened to the winter house? Was it used for storage, or what did people do with this, the winter house during the summer?

TK: I think in the, I think in the summer, maybe my two older brothers lived in the winter house because, to make a little bit more room in the summer house for us.

TI: Okay, so it's kind of like the bachelors' quarters. [Laughs]

TK: Bachelors' quarters, yeah.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.