<Begin Segment 4>

MN: Now, I know your mother was a really good cook. Where did she learn to cook?

RW: Well, she learned to cook like that because, according to my sister, she was doing housekeeping for a lot of the hakujins, the richer people in Redlands and the people from the university, the wives, so I guess she would go there and clean the house and then cook dinner for them, and I guess that's how she learned to cook all, all kinds of food. So I consider ourselves as being poor at that time, and most Japanese do, yet we always ate good. We didn't have a lot of spending money. If I wanted twelve cents to go to a movie, if I asked my mom she didn't have twelve cents. I asked my dad when he was laying on the bed singing and drunk, he'd hand me his coin purse and so we'd take out twelve cents for each of us and go. But we never hungered for food and she cooked for each day of the week, she'd cook something of a different country, so when we came home from school we knew what we were gonna eat that day. Like, I don't remember which exact days, but Monday would've been sort of like Mexican food, tortillas and beans. She used to make a big pot of beans, enchiladas and tortillas and stuff. And then Tuesday would be maybe some kind of food like Irish stew or curry, which was my favorite, and things like that, American dishes. And then Wednesday she might make Japanese food, and then on Thursday she might have spaghetti or ravioli or other things. And then Friday was, usually I think it was, it was one of the Japanese foods, and then Saturday we did just whatever. It was not an eat at home type thing. And then Sunday my dad, no matter how drunk he was, would make a meatloaf, so that was very unique 'cause, I learned that from him because I did the same thing. I used to bowl on Wednesday nights and have to make the turkey and stuffing, and I'd come home at two in the morning from the bowling alley and I'd be there stuffing the turkey, even if I was drunk from drinking at the bowling alley. And one night I was sicker than a dog, but I was making the turkey and the stuffing. [Laughs] So it was kind of like father like son.

MN: Now you're talking, your dad liked to drink.

RW: Yeah.

MN: Who were his drinking buddies?

RW: Well, when he went out to the downtown he would drink at a bar and -- Redlands is a small town and I just found this out a few years ago from one of my classmates, his father was the Chief of Police, his uncle owned the bar, and it was kind of like a family thing there, and my dad used to go there and drink. And then if he got real bad then the chief of police would drive him home in the squad car. [Laughs] But he was always a good, good provider. I used to wait for him to come home from work, and he had a lunch pail and he'd always leave one nigiri with umeboshi in it for me when he'd come home he'd give it to me. Now, when I think about that today, and I've thought about this, it's that, gosh, he probably wanted to eat that, but he'd bring it home and give it to me, so that was kind of nostalgic to think about that. He used to make his own liquor. He used to make sake and he used make wine down in the basement, and he had these big Japanese vats, and so whenever he was unlocking the basement door I'd call my brother and say, "Hey, Hank, Papa's going down to the basement." So we'd follow him down there, watch him. He'd take the cover off of the sake and push the rice aside and he'd taste it, then he'd say, "Mada hayai, mada hayai." Then he'd cover it, then go to the next one."Ii, chotto ii." So then he'd take that one and he'd screen out the rice and bottle the sake, and to this day I don't know how he got rid of all that sake 'cause I know he didn't drink all that, plus the wine. He even had me walk on the wine. I don't remember if I washed my feet or what, but I was walking on the grapes for him. [Laughs] And he used to put it in a big gallon bottles and I guess he gave it to his friends. Kind of like what I used to do when fishing for tuna, come home and vacuum pack tuna and then go around giving fresh tuna to friends. So I imagine that's what he did with the sake and the wine.

MN: Now the wine, the grapes, did you grow that on your property?

RW: No. We did have some grapevines, but I don't think he had enough to make wine. I think he would buy the grapes.

MN: And then your father used to like to sing a lot when he got drunk. What did he sing?

RW: [Laughs] Well, I don't know if he was really singing anything, but it was just more like a hollering sing, so we'd close the windows because we knew the neighbors could hear, but then they were used to it. It was only on Sunday when he did that. The other days he was very serious and, well, he was just a good Issei father. Yeah. Didn't bother us, just left us alone. Well, my mother too, we were pretty much on our own.

MN: There is this peculiar habit that you have of salting your food before tasting it. Can you share with us how you got into that habit?

RW: Well, just to tell you what happened once, when we used to bowl in bowling tournaments we went to this place in Gardena to one of those clubs to have dinner, and we sat down and this friend of mine, Hiro Shinoda from Orange County, grabs the salt and pepper shaker, puts it in front of me, "Here, Wada. Here's the salt shaker. I know you're gonna want the salt." I guess what happened was when we were kids and we went to grammar school, we had to walk through orchards, and there was always orange trees, lemon trees, so we'd always pick a lemon and bring it home, bite off the tip of the lemon and pour a mound of salt, and I'm talkin' about a mound of salt, not just lightly but a pile of salt, and then we'd suck on that lemon. And I just assumed that must've killed my taste buds. Until later, and then once I got into this high blood pressure bit, I cut down on the salt, but I never got into any situation with a real high blood pressure from that before, but that's how, I think, I would salt my food before I'd even taste it.

MN: The city of Redlands held this annual arts and crafts show. Can you share that story with us about when you and your mother entered the floral arrangement contest?

RW: Yeah, I thought I knew it all, but I sure didn't. Every year all the grammar schools had a flower contest, and then each school would have a contest and they would pick the arrangements that the kids would bring. And then the winners of the blue ribbon and the red ribbon on whoever got a ribbon at the school, they took them all down to a train station in Redlands. There was a long building and they would display all the flowers. So when I went home and told my mother, "Mama, they're having a flower contest. Can we enter some flowers?" She said okay, and I noticed she had this big Japanese vase with all these designs on it. "Oh, Mama, that's a good one. I'll put that in." No, no, no, that's... "Yeah, that's okay," and I insisted, so she put flowers in it and then she says, "Take this one too." And so she had this kind of an oval, flat, white vase, and then she had one iris and a couple of leaves sticking out, and I said, "That's no good, Mama. That's not gonna win." She said, "Take it. Take it." So I took it, and I got an honorable mention for the big Japanese vase and she got a first place ribbon and also a first place in that final contest downtown for that single iris. So that goes to show you, I don't know flower arranging, that's for sure. But she sure did.

MN: Now your parents are from Hiroshima ken. Were they active in the Hiroshima kenjinkai?

RW: No, not that I know of. I think the only time they did anything was, San Bernardino used to have a big community of Japanese and I have to think some of 'em were probably from Hiroshima 'cause they were all good friends. So they used to have a picnic over in the Santa Ana riverbed, and I remember those picnics, that all the Japanese went there, but I don't know if it was necessarily a kenjinkai picnic. But they were very close knit, the Riverside, San Bernardino, Redlands people.

MN: What memories do you have of these picnics? Did you play, what kind of games did you play?

RW: Well, they didn't have that much. If I remember, as kids, we just got to know each other and got together and we just went off and played and did things on our own, and the parents, they were all doing something. I don't remember that any, anything really organized. They might've had some, but I just don't remember that much about what we did for activities. I was too young.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.