<Begin Segment 16>

TI: And so tell me how you met your husband.

PF: Oh, I brought my broken watch. My boyfriend, not friend, watch, broken, so I took it to him. And then I didn't talk to him about it, but one year later, I started to go around with him.

TI: So how did you start going around? So one year later, what happened? Did he ask you for a date?

PF: Yeah, yeah, date, yeah. And then I... well, he's smart enough, that's okay. But he can't dance good, but that's all right. And then I said, one thing I told my father, that he doesn't drink that much, and I don't want to marry somebody that drink too much or gambling like that, but he doesn't do that. And then he had four sisters I found out later. [Laughs]

TI: So is that good or bad, having four sisters?

PF: The four sister, and then the mother and father, and then we had to live together. And then I said, I told my father that, "Why I have to?" Yeah, but that's all right. I could live and I could do my way. I won't be like Mom, I'm gonna drive, and I could do, so it's all right. Then his father built the house and we lived together in camp. And then I thought, "Gee, four sisters, somebody will take care of the parents," I thought. But this is America, so the daughter usually... but they never took the parents to their home. And I said, "Gee, it's funny," because all the daughter does that. And that's all right. Yeah, when the four get together, they all talk together, and then I'm there, and then when it comes to my husband, they let the girl be all the boss. And then when it comes to my husband, he's a man, so my mother-in-law says he's got to be the boss. And then she let her girl all be the boss. But it didn't bother me, that's not gonna bother me. So I said as long as Mr. and Mrs., I'll never be the Mr. When they changed that "Mrs. and Mr.," then it's all right. That don't bother me. Then I could go out when I want to go out, and then my girlfriends say, "Hey, Peggy, you're making more noise backing up than with your high heels." Well, I hate to wear my high heels in the house because my mother-in-law and father-in-law could tell I'm gonna go out. So I take the shoe and go outside and put it on. But when I back the car, he's right there by the garage sitting down, my father-in-law. And then he know where I'm going.

TI: Because you're going to go, what, dancing?

PF: No, no, we'd go out and have lunch and this and that. But sometimes when I go out with my husband, we'd go restaurant, and then her and her husband stayed there, and then we'd go out the liquor side and go to the bar, Bamboo 7. And then the bartender knew me because I was in sixth grade and he was there, too. And so I know him. He said, "Oh, Peggy, you could dance with him." And I said okay, then we danced, and then I took my husband there one time, and then he stands up and says, "She doesn't know how to dance." Then I can't dance with nobody. So I said, "No, no, we're not taking our husbands, we leave 'em there at the restaurant." And then my husband said, "How come you took so long?" "Well, there was only two hole in the bathroom." And then he says, "Oh." [Laughs] And then I tell my girlfriend, "Hey, we got to go, we got to go." She look at the time and she said, "One more dance." I said, "Okay, then dance." Then we go home. Her husband is a little bit like that, he can't dance too good, but he dances. But we used to have fun with my girlfriend.

TI: Oh, so you liked to dance. Now, your girlfriend, did she also live in Japan, too?

PF: No, no, she didn't, she's American. I met her when my son was in kindergarten, so I knew her years. And then she was my best girlfriend. Yeah, she passed away three years ago.

TI: That's sad.

PF: Yeah. And then all my girlfriend that we used to go out with, they're not here no more, they passed away. But I had fun. My girlfriend said, "You go out?" I said, "Oh, yeah." I said, "I don't want to do, break the family, go around with your husband like that, I don't want to do that." But I did waitress six months, Okayama Restaurant I worked. And then that time, this girl was going around with this Caucasian, and then I said, "No, that's not nice." And I said, "She got two girls." But I said, "We're not doing that, we don't break up the family," so I said, "That's not nice, going out with this and that." And then one lady was going around, and she had a baby, too. And I said, "Uh-uh, that's not nice." I told my girlfriend, "We're not doing that, we're not breaking people's husbands like that." So when I go to the bar, said, "Peggy, that's all right, you could dance with..." okay, okay.

One time, my husband used to do that dance, Bon Odori dance, and touch the record, and somebody gave him noodle tickets, two ticket, and he was looking for me, but I was at the bar. Somebody in the bar was there, said, "Oh, she's in the bar." My husband came and he said, "Get out." So I had to get out with my girlfriend. But that was an Italian girl, she was with me, and she said, "Boy, your husband got mad." I said, "Yeah." I said, "I wonder who it was." But you don't know this Japantown, everybody know everything. Yeah, you can't go out. Because we were going bowling alley, and my girlfriend and I, we said, "You hit a strike and we'll buy you a drink." And we're doing that, somebody walked back of me and told my husband. And he was working that time, nine o'clock, but they said, "Peggy, you got two drinks." How do he know? He's working. Somebody walked back of me, told Bill, said, "Peggy got two drinks." Hey, you can't do nothing here. Everybody watching you. And then when I was walking to my husband's -- I live on Second -- and I walked to my husband's store, how do he know I'm coming? He's right there on the front door, standing up, waiting for me to come. Somebody in that Jackson called and let my husband know I'm coming.

TI: Now would that be very, is that different than what, if you stayed in Japan, would that be similar do you think?

PF: No.

TI: So Japantown here is different, kind of.

PF: Yeah, yeah.

TI: People really kind of watch...

PF: Watch. You don't know who's watching, though, that's it. You can't do... boy, I'm telling you, you can't do nothing. But I said, I have to learn how to drive and I got to go where I want to go. That's what I decided, so when I was married... but you know, my husband and I, we never argue, we never fight. But after he had the stroke, he got this way. He doesn't know he did sixty year of working...

TI: Right, he had the stroke.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.