<Begin Segment 4>

MN: So you talked about this a little bit, but around what age did you start helping your father out at the store?

BS: Probably nine, ten, because then eleven, right after that went into camp.

MN: So nine and ten you're very young. What can you do at the store?

BS: In those days, the soda pop bottles, the buyers had to put a deposit on it, so they always brought back the bottles, whether it's a Coca-cola, 7-up, RC cola, we had to sort them and put 'em in the right case. And then lots of time we just had to empty the soda, too.

MN: So by the time you're helping out, had your father been able to expand into the bigger store?

BS: No. That was mainly the bigger store. I don't recall anything at the smaller store, I was too young.

MN: Do you remember the first store your father had, the smaller one, do you remember, was there a name to that store?

BS: No, I don't recall any name to that.

MN: Can you describe that smaller store to us? And I think you have a photo of that small store, too.

BS: Okay. Here's the front edge of the grocery store here, and then here's, we have the interior right here.

MN: And it has a soda fountain.

BS: So I remember the soda fountain because we were always trying to get soda or ice cream soda there. But other than that, we couldn't do too much help, but sometimes we tried to wash the dishes from the ice cream dishes on Sundays, things like that. But usually they didn't want us to do that because we might break the dishes.

MN: Can you point out where you are in that photo?

BS: That's me right here, just probably between one and two years old right here.

MN: So that's the first store that your father had.

BS: Yes.

MN: Do you have a photo of your second store at all?

BS: Yes, I happen to have it. So here's the general neighborhood, and you could see the city hall here, Los Angeles City Hall. And the first store was about right here, the second store is this corner right here, so it's twice as big. Then we have an interior shot of the grocery store, and it was a service store, so we had at least, usually two butchers and a couple on the grocery side.

MN: So then I see the butcher, the meat counter on this side, and then those workers look like they're Latinos.

BS: Yes.

MN: And everything was in Spanish.

BS: Yes, because, like I said, we all had, all Mexican clients there. And I think once in a while, my dad used to ask this older Japanese girl, she was probably about three, four years older than I, so maybe fifteen years old as a teenager, she used to come and help.

MN: Okay. So your father moved into this... he was doing well enough to expand from the smaller store to a bigger store.

BS: Yes.

MN: How were they able to do that? Do you know how he was able to expand?

BS: I'm not sure, other than I know he had to go early in the morning to the market and then stay up late at night, and he's counting the, I guess the money and everything. What we always liked, that he always come home with a cake and soda. So we always tried to stay up, but most of the time my mother would make us go to sleep because we have school the next day. But I know he's been working day in and day out, and very seldom got day offs, because he couldn't go places on Saturdays and Sundays because those are the busy days at the store.

MN: So did your parents work seven days a week?

BS: I believe so.

MN: And I asked you, like the first store probably didn't have a name. What was the name of the second store?

BS: Mercado Plaza. So it's "plaza market" in Spanish.

MN: How many other grocery stores were near, in the general area of your father's store?

BS: Well, half a block south of our grocery store was another store, but on the next block, there was about two or three more grocery stores about the same size.

MN: So there was a lot of competition.

BS: Yes.

MN: So somehow your father was able to expand despite the competition.

BS: Yes. So I assume he did well, because eventually he leased the hotel there, half a block away. So we ran the hotel there. Would you like to see the picture of that hotel?

MN: Yes, show us the hotel. Do you remember what the name of this hotel was called?

BS: Yes. Hotel was called Hotel Plaza because the Plaza Park was right across the street. So this is an earlier picture, and then this is the latest picture. Because if you look in the background, there's building behind here, and this building is gone now. And ironically, today, this is part of the (L.A. Plaza de Cultura y Artes that opened in April 2011, a Mexican Museum.)

MN: And I think there's a photo of your father in that museum, the current museum in that building now, is that right?

BS: No.

MN: No. Is there an interview? There's something about your family history in there, right?

BS: Yes. There's a picture of the store, the grocery store, and then I was interviewed. So they have me on the interview if you go in the museum there.

MN: You know, you mentioned that your father sold on credit. Do you remember your father complaining about people, like, absconding without paying?

BS: Not really, not too much. But then we had, like I say, all Mexican-speaking workers, so they would go after the money, too.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.