<Begin Segment 11>

MN: Now, your parents come from Ishikawa-ken which didn't have a lot of immigration to the U.S., were they invited to other kenjinkai picnics?

DM: No, because there were very few Ishikawa-ken people in Imperial Valley. I can only count two other families besides ours. So we were close, but we were never invited to the other kenjinkai picnics. We had our own picnics.

MN: When you had your own little gatherings, where did you go?

DM: Each other's house to eat, mainly.

MN: What sort of gochiso did your mother bring over?

DM: Oh, I don't remember too much, but then I remember she made onigiri and things like that.

MN: What about New Year's? Did you do mochitsuki?

DM: Yeah, I remember doing mochitsuki, pound the noodles with a mallet that my dad made. So we had mochi for New Year's. Yeah, I remember, I think they call it kazari where they have a large round mochi on the bottom and two other smaller mochi on top with a tangerine on top. Which was sort of supposed to have been a tribute to the emperor of Japan or something like that.

MN: How did your family eat the mochi?

DM: She boiled it in broth with some vegetables in it.

MN: Ozoni?

DM: Yeah, it's called ozoni.

MN: During the New Year's, did your family rest for the three traditional days?

DM: Oh, yeah, we didn't do any work on the farm I don't think except irrigating. Irrigation had to be done. Other than that, we didn't celebrate New Year's much, nor Christmas. Christmas, we did have Christmas program at the school, elementary school.

MN: What kind of program was that?

DM: I don't remember, but it was something like, depicting the three shepherds and that kind of thing.

MN: During these celebrations, did your father like to drink?

DM: He drank after work during supper.

MN: Was he a heavy drinker?

DM: He was quite a heavy drinker, because he made his own... not shochu, whiskey, but the other thing, rice wine. What do they call that? Well, he made that and drank it with his supper. At times he would get, he would drink too much and get drunk, so my sister would pour water in his wine to dilute it, which he didn't know the difference.

MN: How did he make his rice wine?

DM: I don't remember. I think he bought the material from the store and soaked it in the tub which he buried under the ground. Of course, I wasn't into that so I don't remember.

MN: What about Japanese movies? Where did your family go watch Japanese movies?

DM: The Japanese community center did have Japanese movie occasionally. And my mom and dad would go to watch the movies. Of course, the kids would tag along, but we couldn't understand the language too well, so we mostly played outside.

MN: When you played outside, what kind of games were you playing?

DM: Gee, it was dark, you don't know. Probably played tag at the most.

MN: What other games did you play on your free time?

DM: Well, in school we had our usual activities like softball, volleyball. And when I went to high school, I went out for softball and tennis. I made the team in tennis. Of course, the team was made up of four singles player and two doubles team, and I was the last one picked on the doubles team.

MN: Did you go compete with the other schools?

DM: And we did compete with El Centro High and Calexico High.

MN: For tennis and also for softball?

DM: Yes.

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