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MN: And so from Del Mar, your family moved to Los Angeles. Do you know what he did in Los Angeles, your father?

SA: He was, let's see. Going back to Del Mar, that's when my mother was a midwife, right, so she would be at midnight delivering babies in Del Mar. When they finally went to Los Angeles, I think that's where he could have been in the soy sauce business. Then he went into the newspaper. Oh, then he was teaching Japanese school in San Francisco, going back.

MN: Which Japanese school was he teaching at?

SA: I don't know. All I know is that he had my oldest sister help him. They were both teaching maybe on their own, I have no idea.

MN: So your mother was doing midwife work in Del Mar.

SA: (Yes), and in Los Angeles.

MN: Tell me her stories of, she's got all these young kids herself, and you said these babies were born at night. How was she able to...

SA: She had a car, Model A, I think it was. She'd drive and take all the children and they'd be sleeping in the car while she did her work.

MN: Your mother is unusual in that she knew how to drive a car. Who taught her?

SA: I don't know. I guess my father did.

MN: Did your father go on these trips with her to do the midwife work?

SA: I don't think so. Like I said, he was a scaredy-cat.

MN: But I imagine, I mean, this is late at night, it's probably lonely roads...

SA: Exactly. She was very brave. A lot of these mothers were farmers and they didn't have any funds. She'd tell me how they'd pay their fee with vegetables. So that's how it was in those days.

MN: Also it was during the Great Depression.

SA: Depression, exactly.

MN: You know, in later years, did you ever meet anybody who was delivered by your mother?

SA: No, isn't that strange? I wish I did. She has very interesting stories, too. I can imagine she had like one infant, she said it was the saddest thing. He came out without an arm. You know, and then she had the breech babies, I don't know how she did all that, but she did.

MN: I'm sorry --

SA: Breech baby was, they're born upside down, feet first. That's pretty hard.

MN: Usually now it's cesareans, huh?

SA: Right. In those days, they didn't do all that.

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