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TL: Were you able to maintain some connection with your birth parents, and if so, in what ways and how often did you see them?

YB: We lived, in those days, horse and buggy days, it took so much longer than a car. But my foster parents, both being well educated; their only means then was farming. And so he went really into farming and raised the most beautiful vegetables and melons. And we didn't have a car, so it was horse and a little wagon, loaded a truck full, a wagonload of vegetables, and fruits and melons. And they'd go up into the oil wells and peddle them, and do very good business. And Mother never done anything like that, and my uncle and Mother would go up and come home at the end of the day. And then on weekends, we'd take the horse and buggy, the little surrey top buggy four of us could ride, and go to Santa Maria which was, I think it's about twenty miles or fifteen miles from there. In horse and buggy takes a little while, car didn't take any time at all. We would go visit them. Then at that time, there was two younger brothers and my youngest sister that were very little and I would go and play with them. And the oldest of the three, Ken, my brother Ken, say, "I want..." he would want to come. And Mother, my real mother, would say, "Oh no, you can't go today." And when we'd come home. I'd be sitting up in the front because it could hold three and in the back of the truck, we had a little canvas that would cover things. When we got home and we get off of the wagon, and who comes crawling out from behind -- my little brother. He'd say, "Hello, Grandma," that's my mother, he'd call her Grandma too. And she says, "Uh oh, I better call Santa Maria right now or she'll be looking all over for you." So she'd call up, she says, "Mamasan, if you're looking for Ken he's with us." She says, "(How) did (he) get there [Inaudible]?" She says, "We didn't know until we got here that he was on the wagon, behind the... the little wagon truck." And here it was he gets to stay another week with us, follows me to school and sits with me. So they're some very blood, close blood collection without either one of us knowing it. But he would follow me all over like a shadow, sleep with me, he was just a little tiny tot, he would sleep with me, go to school and sit with me. And if I crocheted he would crochet, he did beautiful crocheting. [Laughs] And he's passed (away) now with cancer. But he had moved to Los Angeles after he got married, and they kept, we kept very close (in touch). We were raised apart, but very close. And my brother Darrell and I, talk to him at least once month. Who married a very lovely Caucasian lady and they had no children, but he lectures on Buddhism and Zen philosophy. And doesn't do it for money, he does it to, for people who want to listen to the lecture. He's got a house full; they come two, three times a week.

TL: How many brothers and sisters did you have in your foster parent family?

YB: I was the only one.

TL: Oh, okay. So you were the only one --

YB: Yes --

TL: And so, for them it was really a treat for Ken to also come.

YB: Just one, yes, yes.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.