Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Clara S. Hattori Interview I
Narrator: Clara S. Hattori
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 8, 2014
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-426-6

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TI: Okay. So they're now in the United States kind of in that Loomis area. They're living on a farm, the Kelson farm?

CH: Well, that was in Penryn. And then...

TI: And then what happened?

CH: After he... I imagine they made enough money, and then he wanted to get away. So I think he wanted... as I recall, I think through... okay. This is quite a number of years. By that time, my uncle had, he had a girl and then a boy, and Barton was about eighteen, I think eighteen years old. Then he's an American citizen, and he could buy land. And so through Barton, my dad... my uncle had already established himself on the farm in Loomis. And my dad wanted to have his own place, so he used Barton's name and acquired this property in Rocklin. And it had an old shed on there, and had about forty acres. And it had some trees, some fruit trees. And then there was an old house there, and I remember living in that house. It was just kind of a shack, but the horses were tied up on the lean-to on the house, and there was just a, as I recall, there was kind of like a table, an eating quarter and a stove. And then I don't know too much about the bedroom, if there was any bedroom area or not. It was kind of one room type of thing. And that's where we lived for several years I guess until my dad was able to earn enough money to build a house on that property. And he did build a house.

TI: And when you say build a house, did he build it, or did he have someone else build it?

CH: He had the church people build a house. In those days, the PG&E... I'm kind of skipping from one thing to another. But anyway, the PG&E is Pacific Electric and Gas...

TI: Yeah, Pacific Gas and Electric.

CH: They owned the water rights, and so they had canals made to go through Auburn and Loomis and through Rocklin and then it went to a reservoir in Roseville. And I remember that canal getting close, it went through our property up on the hillside. They lived on a hillside like that, and there was a ditch that went down. And then you buy water, I don't know how they measure it, but they measured the hole, the pipe that goes into it. And that's how my dad got the water. And then he put a pipe in, took it down. No, that's right. First he had to dig a well for our house, and put a pump on it to get water. So first thing, that's what they had to do, is to make, get water and get a pump on.

TI: But it sounds like it was a nice piece of property, because...

CH: Yes, oh, yes.

TI: Because it had...

CH: It had the hillside, and the water, and all you do is the water would go up with the lay of the land. And so my dad would go with a horse and a plow, and he'd make, on the hillside, and go up and down the rows of trees, and then us, my mother and I and my sister and them are too small, but I remember I had to help cut the ditch around the tree and block that plowed one and make the water go around the tree and then go down and then go around the next tree. [Laughs]

TI: So it was like your own personal irrigation kind of canals.

CH: That's what we had to do. That's what we had to do, that was the way they irrigated their orchard.

TI: Now, between the trees, did you ever plant crops between the trees, or was it just for the trees?

CH: It was just the fruit trees in those days. Early on, before... of course, it took three years, you know, for the trees to bear. Up to that point, I remember my dad had a bare land that he raised watermelons and cantaloupes to sell on the market and get some money in that way. The jackrabbits used to come, and we had a man named... I guess he's a relative of ours, Saburo Umezu, and he had a tent, and he planted himself, or slept every night in that watermelon patch. And every once in a while the gun would go off. [Laughs]

TI: So his job was to watch the jackrabbits.

CH: Shoot the jackrabbits. [Laughs] And that was just to make a little money before the orchard was old enough to bear fruit.

TI: And what kind of fruit trees did your father have?

CH: Well, first it was plum. And when I say plum, there's all different kinds of plums that come at different times. And the first ones were called Beauty plums, and my parents had quite a section there of Beauty trees. And then in between, there were some plums that were called Dewarde, and oh, I can't remember. Then he had peach trees, and there were different kind of peaches, cling peach and there were free... what do you call it?

TI: Freestone?

CH: Freestone. Freestone peach. Albertas are freestone, and the clings were, I can't remember what they called.

TI: How did your father learn how to do this?

CH: Well, of course, like I say, the Fruit Association helped out a lot, I'm sure, Harvey, and then my dad, you know, talking to the rest of the farmers around there.

TI: Now when you say Fruit Association, was this a company or a cooperative... or a company?

CH: Well, you know, it was just a Fruit Association, it was Loomis Fruit Association, and I don't know if... let's see. I know there was a man in the office, and he was more or less the president or the owner, and then there was, Harvey was, I don't know what he was, I don't know his title, but anyway, he was my dad's advisor for everything.

TI: Yeah, I was trying to understand if it was owned by the farmers.

CH: No, I don't think so. I think this was a separate association.

TI: And then they would just help the farmers as much as they could, because the more they raised, the more they could sell.

CH: Yeah, uh-huh. And then the shed and this office was right along the railroad tracks, and everything is put on the rail and went back east.

TI: And your dad's friend Harvey worked at the Fruit Association.

CH: Yeah.

TI: Because we'll get back to him later, because during the war, the Fruit Association took over the farm, so I want to talk about that.

CH: Well, then I don't know about... by that time, I was...

TI: You were about twenty-one, twenty-two years old?

CH: I was in San Francisco, well, anyway... I don't recall.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.