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TI: So let's, let's talk now about growing up in Ketchikan, and so you had the store, but now where did you live in Ketchikan?

RO: Upstairs. This building here goes quite a ways back, and there was a big sort of a storage area downstairs. It extended way back and upstairs was our living quarters. In fact, I think it was when they were first in Ketchikan, he started to make rooms for renting as, like a hotel.

TI: And so it sounds like a fairly large building.

RO: It's good sized.

TI: And so describe kind of your living quarters. I mean, what did that look like?

RO: Just there were small rooms, with a bed and dresser and... we had about, let's see, one, two, three bedrooms upstairs. Yes. See, it was actually one, two, three flights, three stories. The store area is the first floor, then the second area was the kitchen and a few of these extra rooms, and upstairs was three bedrooms and a bathroom.

TI: And did you share a bedroom with any of your brothers or anyone else?

RO: Not really.

TI: Okay. And then, so describe, when you're growing up, kind of a typical day for you in Ketchikan. So you, when you wake up in the morning, kind of, let's just walk through a day just so I get a sense of what you did.

RO: Well, I could say that we, we enjoyed playing a lot. And in those days playing was just clean fun, not like today. But, well, I had a lot of Native American friends, and they all lived in that area which was called Indian Town.

TI: And what would be, when you say playing with the Natives, what would be some games or activities you would do?

RO: Marbles, swimming, roller skating. We used to roller skate all around. The only place that had concrete was the center of town, this one block, and we went all around, and that's where we used to roller skate, right in the middle of town.

TI: Now, describe the skates. I mean, what kind of skates did you have back then? Were they the type, those ones that you would put your shoe and then you would fasten the skate, or where they, do you remember what kind of skates they were?

RO: They were metal. That's all I remember. [Laughs]

TI: And so what, so going back to your typical day, so you liked to play, but when you woke up in the morning, like what kind of breakfast would you have and what would that be like?

RO: Toast, I'm sure. Cereal. But my mother was a good cook, and to this day I can remember so many good dishes that she's cooked. And like a lot of Japanese families, New Year's was a special occasion.

TI: So she would really do this large Japanese feast.

RO: Yeah.

TI: But day to day, kind of like your normal kind of menu fare, what would you have for, like one of your favorite dinners growing up?

RO: Halibut. I liked halibut a lot. Then she used to always make it with this sort of a tomato sauce. It was really good. But then there was this one dish that, it was a killer. [Laughs] She used to make bacon fried rice, and it got so greasy, and I just had a hard time holding it down. You know, we were not the most expensive, not expensive, but wealthier families in Ketchikan, but I think we were probably the more ideal family, actually.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.