<Begin Segment 23>

SY: So you would commute from Altadena to Little Tokyo every day, huh?

PM: I wasn't working for a few months and then -- 'cause the kids were small -- then we found babysitters and so, yes, I was commuting.

SY: And was it, what was life like in Los Angeles? You're outside of Little Tokyo when you, where you lived, your neighborhood. Was it --

PM: Yeah, when we found that house in Altadena there was a question as to whether they would sell it to us or not because it was, quote/unquote, "breaking the block." We were the only non-Caucasian to go into that neighborhood. But after we moved in there were blacks and Hispanics that had moved in.

SY: Did you have to fill out any special forms?

PM: No. they finally accepted us to move in, so we lived there, I've forgotten how long, but until the kids went to college, so that must've been at least, let's see, three, five, we were there at least ten, fifteen years.

SY: And that, that was sort of an unwritten law? Altadena city, City of Altadena kind of had that sort of unwritten?

PM: Yes, the realtors did. I don't know that Altadena is an incorporated city.

SY: I see. But they didn't want necessarily to sell to you.

PM: To a Japanese, yeah.

SY: And do you remember the realtor you worked with? Was it someone that --

PM: It was actually a Japanese American, but he was saying that he was having a hard time.

SY: Interesting. And then Betty moved very close by.

PM: Yes.

SY: She -- where, where was that?

PM: In Pasadena.

SY: In Pasadena. So she didn't have the same problems that you did?

PM: No.

SY: So then did it end up that your neighborhood became more Japanese American?

PM: We did have a few Japanese Americans down the block, but in the block we were in, no, there weren't. Around the corner there was a Japanese American family.

SY: And did you feel, you felt comfortable there?

PM: Yes, I did.

SY: You liked that neighborhood growing up.

PM: Yes, for the children it was fine, but once they started college then we had some neighborhood children vandalize our home and finally the third time they set fire to it, so we had to move out and we found a condominium in Alhambra.

SY: And that's where you're living now. So your children, then, grew up...

PM: In Altadena.

SY: In Altadena, so that was --

PM: They went to John Muir High School.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.