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MN: Now I want to ask you a little about your farm life. How old were you when you started helping out on your family's farm?

TY: Well, how old was I? Ever since I could work. Ever since I was able to work, so that was about, I'd say ten, maybe ten years old.

MN: Well, at that young age what can you do on the farm?

TY: Pull weeds, help Mom, this and that. Mainly pull weeds and help pick crops. We had to work, man. We didn't have one minute to waste. I guess Dad would put us to work because he didn't want us to be a bad boy or spoiled boy or whatever, so they put us, soon as, soon as we were able to do something.

MN: How about, how many acres did your family farm in west Hawthorne?

TY: Probably about, well, up to prewar I can say we used to farm about fifty acres.

MN: And what did your family grow?

TY: My family grew all kinds of vegetables, say like strawberries, cauliflower, cabbage, string beans, onions, carrots, more or less.

MN: So can you kind of share with us what your work and school schedule was like, like how early did you get up to go help out on the farm and then after that did you go to school? Or tell us what your schedule was like.

TY: We really didn't have a schedule. [Leans over] Oh, you don't want me, you don't want me to bend down. We really didn't have a schedule, but we had to get up early. If we don't get up early Mom will wake us up. "Hey, five o'clock, time to get up," so we'd get up and we'd have our breakfast, and at dawn we're out in the field helping the folks pulling weeds or digging carrots or picking beans or whatever. It was all work. And then we lived on Johnson ranch and the school was about, I'd say five hundred, thousand, maybe fifteen hundred foot away from us, Wiseburn School was, so they had two bells, one to get ready to get in and the next one we should be in the class. So when the bell rang we used to run, the first bell rang, we used to just leave our work and run 'cause we had our books and school materials at the ranch when we, I mean, in the field when we went there. So then when the bell rang, first bell rang, we would pick up and boom, we'd run over there to school so we would be in time for the class. So then we studied in school, recess, play games, soccer ball, baseball, whatever else, and then, then go into class for two, two or three more subjects, then we'd finish about three o'clock, I think. School was out at three o'clock, 3:30, 3:00, yeah, three o'clock. Then we'd go home and then we'd get a bite to eat, and then we had to help the farm again 'til nighttime, 'til dark. Picked beans or cultivate or, or... my dad was kind of weak so then I had to help him cultivate the, cultivate the rows with the horses. I was responsible to do that, so I would come over and Mom would say I have to take over Dad's cultivating, so I would cultivate until nighttime, take the horse and take the harness off of the horse, put him in the corral, feed the horses and see if he got water, this and that. And then it'd be dinnertime so we'd eat dinner, and then we'd do a little studying for homework or whatever. And then that was one day's life every day. One day's life was the same every day, work, work, study a little bit, work again, back and forth. And then as I was growing up my dad would say, "Well, you can harness up the horse and plow the field." I'd plow the field after school when it had to be done, just the field. Then as I grew older, then I had to work Saturday and Sunday to help cultivate, plow, disk, whatever else to help him out. He was having it pretty rough that, I can see that he was having it rough, so then I just was a good boy, I guess, and helped him. People used to praise me, "Oh, Taka-san, you're a nice boy. Taka-san, you're a nice boy, you help your folks," this and that, so I don't know whether I was or not, but that's what I'd done. And then my father, well, he caught Asian flu during 1917 Asian flu attack. That's why he was weakened by that, so I'd done a lot of work to help my folks. And I was a delivery boy. Well, maybe I told you this already, I was twelve years old when I got my first driver's license.

MN: How did you get your driver's license so young?

TY: Well, you got to be a honest boy to get it so young. I got caught. That's why I got my driver's license. I was twelve years old. I was twelve years old and helping my folks deliver his produce to the grocery stores and get orders for him, and then I'd bring the orders home and they would fill the orders, and then I would I have to deliver after school. So then one day I made a wrong turn and the policeman was right behind me. "Say, little boy," he says, "you're hardly old enough to drive, aren't you?" I said, no, I'm not. He said, "Well, are you fourteen? You got a driver's license?" I said no, "Yeah, I'm fourteen. I don't have a driver's license." He said, "Go to the police station and take your test over there and get your driver's license," so I got my driver's license by taking the test, and I was twelve at that time and I faked my age 'cause fourteen was the limit, you see. So then I got it at fourteen, and then I drove until World War II, two years, two years, fudging two years. The only way I was able to change to my true age was evacuation, which was one good thing that happened to me. [Laughs]

MN: You said you were taking orders for your father, you were taking these vegetable orders. Where were these stores located?

TY: Hawthorne. It was about, let's see, I would say two and a half, about three miles from the farm, maybe five.

MN: And were these mostly Japanese grocery stores or hakujin grocery stores?

TY: Both. One was a Nihonjin and the other was hakujin. Roth Market, as I can remember, and the other was, let's see, Roth Market and Sam's Market or something. I don't quite remember the name, but I can remember one, it was Roth Market and... used to be Japanese. Japanese used to run the fruit and vegetable there. I forgot what the name was. I can't think of it. What the hell -- oh, yeah, Fukui. No... I guess it was, I can't think of it. Fukui? Fukui or somebody. Anyway, something like that, Fukui Market or something.

MN: Now you're very young at this time. How did these store owners treat you?

TY: They treat me like a nice boy. "You're a nice boy, you're helping your father." Yeah, they respect me as a little kid. [Laughs]

MN: You're talking about, when you're working on your farm, you're talking about horses, so I'm assuming there was no tractors at that time.

TY: At that time, no.

MN: Now, when you're young and you're helping your father, was it difficult to manage the horses?

TY: Well, in those days the farmers used to buy good, good, what do you call it, good, small farm working horses, and then they were all trained already. And then as the horses got older they would buy horses from up north, for some reason, I don't know. They were trained real well, so then the new, the folks would buy a new horse to replace the old one and they were pretty well trained.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.