<Begin Segment 22>

TI: And so at the UW what did you study? What was your major?

RO: Pharmacy.

TI: Okay. So you became a pharmacist.

RO: Yeah.

TI: So tell me, after you graduate, your, tell me about your career as a pharmacist. So where did you start after you...

RO: Well, I always did work at the Bon Rob when I was in college and I worked a little bit there, and then I worked at Jefferson Pharmacy, which was up by Providence.

TI: Okay. So Jefferson, I was thinking Jefferson up in Beacon Hill, but Jefferson Street on, by Providence Hospital.

MO: Jackson.

RO: No, it's Jefferson.

MO: Jefferson Pharmacy.

RO: Yeah.

TI: But you mentioned Bon Rob. I want to ask you about that, so that's kind of short for, what, the Bonnie Robinson Pharmacy?

RO: I brought a clipping for you to look at just for your interest. She was a very fair woman to pay us what she did, and there must've been about half a dozen of us pharmacy students that worked there during that time.

TI: Now, these were all Niseis that were...

RO: Niseis, right.

TI: So tell me, where was the store located?

RO: Fourteenth and Yesler.

TI: Okay, so just really close by here, just a couple blocks away.

RO: And a lot of the Nisei used to come there to drink coffee and stuff.

TI: So it had a little counter also, then?

RO: We had a lunch counter.

TI: And this is where you and other Nisei pharmacists would kind of get their starts, or would they work there during school and things like that?

RO: Whatever hours they had open, like after school probably.

TI: And describe what else was nearby the pharmacy, Fourteenth and Yesler back then.

RO: Back there, there was a couple of beauty salons run by black women who were very, very nice. They used to come to the pharmacy for coffee or whatever too. Then there was a dry cleaners run by another black gentleman, and Mar's Grocery was right on the corner, plus --

TI: So Mar's Grocery is, like, Chinese then?

RO: (Yes). And Mutual Fish was right next door to us, the original.

TI: And that's the Yoshi... I always get it, Yoshimura? Yoshihara? Yoshimura, yeah.

MO: Yoshimura.

TI: Yoshimura. Yeah.

RO: Mutual Fish.

TI: And so very diverse kind of neighborhood in terms of black, Chinese, Japanese.

RO: Oh, definitely. Definitely. But you meet some interesting people, believe me.

TI: Well, it was also known in later years, I'm not sure about then, but Fourteenth and Yesler was, it was kind of a rough part of town too, in terms of --

RO: Well, I think it was the Central Area portion of it. It didn't have that good a reputation because I think, like in the pharmacy we're open twenty-four hours, and I'm sure there was, well, I knew there were prostitutes and such coming into the store. While I was there, there was a guy had his gun out to shoot somebody outside in the street there, but thankfully it misfired, so he got away.

TI: Yeah, so a really rough part of town.

RO: (Yes). Not compared to nowadays.

TI: [Laughs] Yeah, well, now it's pretty gentrified, I think, in terms of what it looks like now.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.