<Begin Segment 5>

SY: So that's a good starting off point to talk about, a little bit about what you know about our mom's family.

PM: Okay. Mom had a family that, she was, Mom was born September 24, 1909, in California so she was a Nisei, and her parents were Yasu Shimizu and Teru Saburo Shimizu. Now, they came to America probably in 1908 and they probably had a hotel, called the Boyd Hotel, in Little Tokyo, but they also had a restaurant that he was the chef, so we enjoyed his cooking whenever we went to the Boyd Hotel to have his shortribs. It was delicious. [Laughs] And Baachan always said, "Oh, kita kita," when we used to go there. And she used to give us a little kozukai, a little bit of, dollar or something to all of us whenever we went.

SY: Right.

PM: So grandparents are good for that.

SY: Yeah, exactly. They must've done okay because they had this hotel that they kept their whole, their whole life, right?

PM: Right.

SY: And eventually they, they gave it to their son.

PM: Right.

SY: And he ran it.

PM: And he sold it.

SY: He sold it. And you remember this restaurant? Where exactly was it?

PM: No, that I don't remember, but it was a little bit away from Little Tokyo.

SY: And how many children did they have, the Shimizu family?

PM: They had three.

SY: Three.

PM: So Mom and Uncle Tari and one that passed away, Miyoko, Auntie Miyoko.

SY: And how did she pass away? She was young, right?

PM: Yes, I think she became sick, and I don't remember what illness it was. But she was married at that time.

SY: So she was older. But yet still very, very young, right, when she passed away?

PM: Right.

SY: I had heard that she got hit with a baseball. Is that --

PM: This I don't remember.

SY: You don't remember. Interesting. Yeah, 'cause that was the story I remember. [Laughs]

PM: We have different stories.

SY: Yeah, exactly. Interesting to know what you know and what I think I remember. But anyway, so our mother was born in Los Angeles.

PM: Right. She also went to Cal State L.A. when it was downtown. Actually, I think it was UCLA. She went for one year, and then she was working for our dad and they met and got married in 1928.

SY: So she met him...

PM: While she was working at the Yamato Service Bureau.

SY: Oh, so he hired her and then he eventually married her.

PM: Yes.

SY: Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, so she was a secretary. And how did, I remember she learned, she knew how to speak Spanish?

PM: She probably learned it in school, and then there were so many Spanish-speaking people around us in Boyle Heights that she had a chance to use some of it. Yeah, so she was good in Spanish. I remember that too.

SY: Right.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.