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MN: Now, going back to your childhood time, what memories do you have of Moneta and the Avalon area that you were born?

TY: The memory I have around there is I know there was a big brick factory over there, and a row of eucalyptus trees, and big pastureland, and well, let's see, there was no electricity as I could remember, and then no gas. And you want to, do you want to know how we lived utility-wise and all that too? Okay, before the waterline came in we used to pump water by hand with a water pump. And then we never had a real bathroom to wash our hands and all that, so we, my dad had a little pan, they call a pan, that's what we used to wash our face and body and everything. And then we had a bathtub, wooden bathtub -- ofuro, they call it the ofuro -- build fire under that and boil the water and took a bath, naturally.

MN: Did your father build the ofuro?

TY: I really don't know. I didn't pay that much attention to it, but I know he changed the bottom many a time because as you burn it you wear out the metal, and then he changed that a few times. And then, I don't know when, but after so many years of that there came a metal, metal furo. Have you seen those? They made, they'd, sheet metal shop figured it out, I guess, sheet metal shop figured out and they came out in the field, not our field, but other people's place and my place and all that, they built a metal ofuro. It was about five foot, maybe four foot by three foot, something like that. And then we would, we couldn't get in on the ofuro bottom, so they made a little, what do you call it, wood platform so we won't burn our body or foot or whatever. So then we took a bath in, bath in that. And then my father, I don't know whether he was funny or not, but he always said the boys take a bath first and the women last, so then we had the privilege of taking our bath first and the women last, so my sisters really didn't like that. "Why can't we take our bath first?" And they used to have a little hassle with that, but my father was so, so hardheaded or strict or whatever. Men first, women later. I couldn't figure out why, so I used to ask him, "How come, how come, Dad? How come we can take a bath any time we want?" And he told us this story, but I won't tell you that story. [Laughs]

MN: Why not?

TY: You want to know?

MN: Yeah, tell us the story.

TY: Well, he said, well, men have, what do you call, male, male thing, right? Penis and balls, you know? And then he was saying that women is inverted, right? So then I was inquisitive, so he told me why. He said, well, the women smell or probably the liquid or whatever, you know?

MN: The bleeding?

TY: Bleeding or whatever. And that's what he said, so okay, so we were honored to take a bath first. [Laughs] What else do you want to know about it? Oh, yeah, we never had, my mother used to cook, as I can remember, when I was a little bitty kid they used to have a wooden stove, wooden iron stove with a chimney through the roof, used to burn wood to cook our food. I can remember that as a little bitty kid. And then later on as time went by they got a kerosene stove, one, two, three, three burners. And then in order to use the kerosene stove we had a kerosene tank, and then the kerosene oil man would bring the kerosene to put in, put in the tank for one week's supply or one month's supply or whatever it was. And we used to help, we didn't help at that time, but as time went by, we grew up, three, four years old, we used to help Mother fill the, fill the stove, cooking stove bottle for the kerosene to supply for the cooking wick. Then she'd light it and then put the pan on to cook, right? And then, so then, well, then again, as I can remember now we used to have an icebox. They called it the icebox, so I guess it was about three foot by about four foot high, and then we used to have a guy called, named, we used to have a guy named Iceman come over. He used to come with a horse and buggy truck sometimes and he'd bring an old, old, old panel truck or something. He would deliver the ice, he'd know how long that ice'd last, so I think we used to have a fifty pound icebox, so he would bring the fifty pound icebox and just open the door and the service boards and put this ice in and away he goes, and I don't know how they paid him, but anyway, they paid him and then that's how we kept our food cold, cool, rather. And then some people, some farm that couldn't afford an icebox, they used to have a little... see, in those days the houses were on stilts. When they used to have a place where air would come through to cool, when the westerly blows everything cools, right, because it's cold, so then they used to store their food under the house because it was built on stilts. That's how they preserved their food. But we had an icebox for some reason, and that's how we cooled our food. And then my mother used to wash our clothes by washboard. I said, "Mom, what're you doing?" "I got to wash the clothes. Don't get your clothes too dirty now 'cause it's hard to wash so-and-so." She washed, as I can remember she washed our clothes for the longest time, about two, as I can remember about five years, five years old, six years old, about, maybe when I was about six or seven years old they finally bought a washing machine. First they, there was no electricity in the house, okay -- I'm going back -- and then lived out on the farm over there and the electricity came, and that was the greatest thing that came. And then we got our electric light and done away with the kerosene lamps, kerosene lantern. We didn't have to clean the kerosene stove light, every night we had to clean the, they called that glass thing, glass lens a chimney. I didn't know that, but that's what it was. Because as you burn the wick the black smoke comes out, and we were the folks assigned us to clean that every night, prior to the night. [Laughs]

MN: When you say your mother got a washing machine, though, you're not talking about a washing machine we have now. That's when she had to do the wringer?

TY: Wringer, yeah.

MN: That's what the, you're saying when she went from a washboard and then next step up was that agitator with the ringer, right?

TY: Yeah, right. Then it had a little motor on the bottom, a kick start motor. It was turning the washer, the, what do you call that? What do you call that thing that goes around and around?

MN: Is that the agitator?

TY: Agitator, yeah. To turn the agitator.

MN: And then you said your icebox had a fifty pound ice in it.

TY: Yes.

MN: Was that considered a big icebox?

TY: Big icebox, yeah. It was about, I don't know, four foot. Well, the ice, fifty pound ice not, not too big. Fifty pound ice only about that big. Ice is heavy. It's all water, see. Eight pound, what is it, eight pounds to the gallon. No, no, no. I forgot the measurement, but so many pounds of liquid, so many inches of liquid is so much gallon, okay, that's how they figured it out.

MN: So fifty pound ice, how long does that last, for about a week on average?

TY: I don't recall. I think they used to come once a week. About one week, yeah.

MN: And tell me, what years are we talking about when you said you got metal ofuro?

TY: Yeah.

MN: When did that come out?

TY: We had a wooden tub... 1929? Around 1929, let's see, 1929 I know we had it. Around 1925 or something like that the metal, metal tub came out.

MN: Doesn't all the metal get hot, though?

TY: Well, yes. The fireplace was built with brick, and the koya, the small house, so then say this is a house over here, the bathtub, bathroom, right here, then they had the fireplace outside and so they had, they had a brick wall to burn the fire on, then they had the ofuro on top of the brick. See, and the ofuro was inside the house and so the fireplace is inset in the house, then they had metal so they won't burn the house, and so it was pretty well organized. So that's how we took a bath, by eucalyptus wood, light the fire to burn the eucalyptus to heat the water so we can take a bath. [Laughs] Chores for every night.

MN: So who had to collect the wood, one of the kids? Or who collected the wood and who started the fire each night?

TY: My dad used to buy one or two cords of wood -- I don't know exactly how many, how much wood he used to buy -- once a year. He figured, well, it takes so many cords of wood to take a bath, so then I think it's about one or two cords of wood, and then he used to assign us guys, one of my brothers, to burn the fire. And so the wood was right there, the cord of wood's about, what, six foot, eight foot long, eight foot by so high, three foot, four foot high. And then we had our wood automatically 'cause he bought the wood. The wood, eucalyptus wood salesman used to come once a year or twice a year to sell wood. That's how we got our wood.

MN: So this wood, person who sells the wood, was it a hakujin man or is it a Nisei or Japanese?

TY: Hakujin, yeah.

MN: How about the man who was selling ice?

TY: Hakujin man.

MN: And the ofuro, the person who made the metal ofuro?

TY: He's a, not a blacksmith, but sheet metal shop, they built it. They built a bunch, man. They made money.

MN: And they were hakujin?

TY: Hakujin, yeah.

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