<Begin Segment 11>

MN: I'm gonna go back a little bit. So by the late 1930s your mother's life is stabilizing, the kids are getting a little older, and she might have a little bit more time. Did your mother take you out to, like the Hiroshima kenjinkai picnics?

BT: We went to a few, but not to all of them, 'cause... let's see, yeah, the later years, my brother in law, he had a car, so we were able to get around a little better after that.

MN: Do you remember what kind of obento your mother used to pack?

BT: Well, it's usually, you cook wieners or some pieces of meat, and make musubi, that was, yeah. Even nowadays I enjoy that kind of stuff. [Laughs]

MN: How about Oshogatsu, did your family celebrate Oshogatsu?

BT: In the later years, I'd say maybe two, three years before the war.

MN: What was the spread like?

BT: My mother was a good cook. Yeah, she had all these, the Japanese vegetables and stuff. I just enjoyed that. But then the first day, New Year's Day, we weren't supposed to touch it. That was for the okyakusan people. The second day we got, got to eat some of the stuff, and if there's anything left the third day, we just ate everything up.

MN: How about mochitsuki?

BT: We didn't participate in that. I remember, I think first few years we, when we went to Fresno town, this one family used to do it, so we went there a couple of years, yeah.

MN: Now, I know your mother wasn't a Christian, but did you observe Christmas?

BT: No. The first Christmas party that I've been to was in the year my father died, 1933. When we moved into town, there was a Salvation Army there and a Japanese was the head of it, and he invited us. So that was the first Christmas party we had. That was nice.

MN: Now, did the Buddhist, Fresno Buddhist Church do anything during Christmas?

BT: Yes, they used to have some program for the kids, and I think they gave out candies.

MN: What about the Fourth of July, what did you do?

BT: Well, if we were lucky enough to get firecrackers, in those days there wasn't that much restriction. But I take that back, Fresno you couldn't buy it. We had to go out of the county line, so we'd go to Madera and we'd buy some. Yeah, we couldn't buy too many anyway, but just to have some, make some noise, it was exciting.

MN: Did you ever get injured playing with firecrackers?

BT: I didn't get injured, but I remember I had one firecracker left over and I had one of these cap pistols, so I thought I'd stick it in the barrel, stick a firecracker in the barrel and see what happens. It blew the gun apart. [Laughs]

MN: Now, you mentioned earlier that the last two summers before the war broke out you went grape picking. What was that experience like?

BT: I don't know how my mother did it, but that's hard work. It's, you're out there in a hundred degree weather, and you just have to keep moving. Some people used to go early in the morning, when the sun is just breaking, and then quit around two o'clock, it got so hot.

MN: You know, I know how hot it is in Fresno. I can't imagine working out there.

BT: Yeah.

MN: Was it, do people faint out there?

BT: They're, I guess, acclimated to that condition. There were a few Filipino grape pickers, and they dressed differently. We dressed cool, just, maybe just a shirt. But they would put a jacket on or, and a scarf. And we asked 'em, "Man, it's hot." I said, "Why you dressing that way?" Well, you, actually, when you're wearing, like, a jacket and stuff, it insulates, so it keeps the heat out. So it works, I guess, but of course, we never followed that pattern, but that's how these, couple of Filipino guys were doing.

MN: Now, your mother worked in vineyards. Did she work there all year round?

BT: No. Well, working in a vineyard, I'd say, about eight or nine months out of the year. There's different things you do all season. But when there was nothing to do in the vineyard, she'd go out, maybe picking strawberries or peaches, and my sister worked in a packing house, stuff like that.

MN: Two years before the war broke out your mother found another job. Can you share with us what she did?

BT: Yes. The foreman that used to take my mother out to the ranch decided to quit because he had a chance to buy a restaurant in the J-Town there, so, and he took my mother with him. And my mother, she never, at that time, not too much English there, so when the customer would order something they would point to what they want and all the items are numbered. So she would holler the number out. Instead of saying, "Ham and eggs," they say, "Number two." So she got by on that.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.