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TI: Tell me about your home that you and your father lived. Where was this, where did you live?

MN: Well, we lived right downtown between... well, off Broadway and in front of the, there was a park, North Park Blocks. And it was situated close to the immigration, I think it's the Immigration and Naturalization building, I think it's still there. And the old post office, which was on the other side, we lived not close to those places. But anyway, this house that was situated, was on the corner, and on the side street, on this Flanders Street, used to be a railroad. And it passed by our back door, side, and the railroad engineer, I mean, the engine would come by, and I can't remember if there was many... I don't think so, it seems like it was just the front engine. Anyway, the engineer would come by, and I would be, of course, waiting for it, it was something exciting to pass the time away for me, and he would throw out Black Jack gum. So to this day, I mentioned it to my daughter, and a year ago or so, my daughter brings me a pack of, "Guess what I found?" and she gave me a Black Jack gum. [Laughs]

TI: So it was like this conductor was waiting for you, or see you, and he would just, like, throw candy, the gum at you so you could have a treat?

MN: Yeah, he knew... well, he saw me, I think, one day, sitting on the back porch by myself, and he probably had a pack of gum with him and just threw me some.

TI: Did it only happen one time?

MN: No, it happened off and on. So that was kind of strange, really, when you think about it, that there was a railroad track running right downtown.

TI: Yeah, right behind your house.

MN: Well, it was on the side, 'cause the... well, it's kind of hard to explain. But as our house faced the park, that is, the front faced the park, and the side faced this Flanders Street. So I would sit on the back porch, the back side, on the side.

TI: Now how about inside the house? Describe the inside of the house.

MN: Inside? Well, this house had about... what would you call, stairs, about ten or twelve stairs to go into the house. So there was a basement, and then the main floor more or less. And then upstairs was, were rooms, bedrooms upstairs. Then it had a little veranda thing out on top, so it was a real old house.

TI: But it sounds like a pretty fancy house.

MN: Well, I don't know. I mean, that's where we lived for a while. And then eventually I think we had to move. I don't know, this house probably... I don't know whether the owners wanted it back, or I don't know anything about the arrangements. And then we had a, there was a garage so my dad could park his Model A. And then curiously, there's, I think it was a Beacon Storage building on the end of the block, which took about two-thirds of the block from our house. Our house was at the corner, and then the rest of the block was taken up by this big storage building. And I think it was the Beacon Storage, but I'm not quite sure.

TI: And we'll get that to that later, because after the war, you worked there.

MN: [Laughs] I did.

TI: So we'll get back to that.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.