<Begin Segment 6>

TI: And so when you weren't working, you were living in Japantown.

CH: Japantown, uh-huh.

TI: So tell me what that was like for a young single woman in Japantown, San Francisco, 1939.

CH: Well, I'll tell you, that part, gosh, I guess I had a lot of nerves or anything, walked all over Japantown. If you know... do you know San Francisco?

TI: Uh-huh.

CH: Fillmore Street was near, it's a Jewish area, and I know the food was cheaper there. We used to eat there down on Fillmore quite a bit. But I walked that, all over there, from Fillmore down Post and Bush and Sutter.

TI: And so where was your apartment located?

CH: Right there on Sutter and... let's see. Is it Bush that runs this way? And Sutter runs up, down to Van Ness, doesn't it? Sutter?

TI: Right. Well, there's Geary.

CH: Geary and... Geary and then what's the next one that comes?

TI: Post?

CH: Post, okay, Post. Post is Japanese town right there, yeah. And then Bush runs this way, and so it was Bush and Sutter, and the apartment's right there. And you know, San Francisco is all old fashioned type, you know. And I don't know, it was one stairs up, and then another stair up. It was stairs in those days, they didn't have elevators.

TI: Now did you participate in any Japanese community things? How about like church or...

CH: No. I looked into the Methodist church, but when we were working, too, it was kind of hard because on Sundays, that was a busy day for us, too, so it was kind of hard to attend services and stuff. So I kind of ignored that. The reason for that, I was born and raised church-going, my parents were church-going Methodists, and I was just born going to church, Sunday was church day.

TI: Now did any of your friends from Sacramento ever come down to San Francisco to visit you?

CH: Oh, you mean to the fair?

TI: Either to the fair or to Japantown.

CH: Well, yeah, all my friends, yeah. From my hometown, yeah, they stopped by. It was good to see them.

TI: And so both in Japantown or at the fair?

CH: No, at the fair, I was talking about.

TI: How about your family? Did they ever come down?

CH: Uh-huh. Yeah, they came down. My brother... see, it was only about five, I guess four hours' drive from Loomis to San Francisco, so they come for the day. I didn't spend too much time, I was working most of the time.

TI: Now, did you get a sense, were your parents proud of what you were doing?

CH: I think they were, yeah. I think they bragged about, "My daughter working at the fair," or something. Because yeah, when I came home, the first time, my first paycheck, I bought a mirror to put over our fireplace in my parents' home. I can't remember what they had there, I think they had one, my dad's Japanese print. And in those days, when I was young, I want to modernize this place. And so I remember the first paycheck, I bought a mirror to put over the fireplace. And I think to this day, Lila has it now. And I also bought a lamp, floor lamp. My parents had a sofa and, of course, just general, everybody had a sofa and dining room set and stuff like that. So I bought a lamp, floor lamp, that and a mirror. And I can't remember... I think that was with my first paycheck.

TI: So you wanted to do something for your parents.

CH: Yeah, I wanted to modernize it and make it more...

TI: That's sweet.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.