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TT: And then I'd get job offer, and then I went to San Francisco. And so that's where my daughter resents the fact that I took her out of school here and took her down there.

TI: Wow, what kind of job would, or what kind of company would offer you a job in San Francisco?

TT: That was another big brokerage. See, I was working for Foster & Marshall at that time, learning the back office, and they were our correspondents for anything that we did on the San Francisco exchange. So I was talking to them a lot if there were any problems, and I'd solve 'em, and I said, "Well, look up this and look up that." But in the meantime, I also learned the dividend department, I learned the annual reports, I learned everything in that office. And so they were looking for someone --

TI: So they recognized your talent.

TT: Yah, so they wanted me to come down there and work, so I said okay, so I took my daughter and we moved down there.

TI: I'm curious, when the company from San Francisco makes an offer, why didn't Foster & Marshall match that? Why didn't they say, "Tak, we need you here"?

TT: Well, they did. They wanted me to stay there, but I said, "No." They were a bigger company, they were a corporation, and they don't have anybody that knows anything about dividends or annual reports or anything. And I says, "I know all of those things and they realize that, so they want me to come."

TI: So it was an opportunity for you.

TT: Yah.

TI: So how long did you stay in San Francisco?

TT: In San Francisco, I don't know. I was there for years. And when I was working for Schwabacher, one year I was doing the proxies and the annual report. And so you know how... it's not like now, but the securities would come to my office, and if it was a new security or a dividend on something, they'd leave it all on my desk. I took a couple weeks off, when I came back, I had told the boss --

TI: Just get a bigger pile? [Laughs]

TT: Yah, I told the boss, I said, "Okay, I'm doing all that work by myself, I need help." And he says, "Well, we'll get you help, don't worry." And I says, "Okay, I'm going on vacation, and in two weeks, when I come back, I don't want all that stuff on my desk." I'm a nikurashii, young Nisei. [Laughs] When I came back, my desk was overloaded with securities, and nobody was opening the envelopes. So, you know, when companies had splits and everything, the certificates, in those days, they didn't have the clearinghouse, they had everything coming to the name of the brokerage firm. And I'd have to take it, find out how many shares, what the record date was, and then divide it up to whoever was the stockbroker.

TI: How interesting. It astounds me that a company would be so dependent on one person.

TT: Yah.

TI: I mean, it's good from your perspective, but from a company's perspective, if you left or something, it would put them in a real difficult spot.

TT: Well, that's it. So, see, then when I came back and saw all that, I went to the manager and I said, "Well," I said, "it's been nice working for you, but I'm gone." He says, "What?" and I said, "I told you two weeks ago if nobody touches my desk, I'm leaving." And so then with the brokerage firm, I'm talking to all the other companies, because we had to get stock from them, or they claim us, so I knew all the connections. I had five offers from all these companies. And so I went back to him, then one day, Mr. Schwabacher, he was going on vacation, he's going around the office saying goodbye to people. And he came to my desk, he says, "I'm only going to be gone a couple weeks." And I said, "I don't care about you, I'm leaving the company." And he says, "What?" He says, "I didn't know that." I said, "That's the trouble with the head office." I said, "You guys don't know anything about what's going on in the (back) office." And I said, "I've complained about not having any help. For all these years I told them I was going on vacation, and if they didn't get somebody to help me, I'm gone." He just blew up, went downstairs and talked to my manager. And he came back and he says, "You've got to stay here. We're gonna give you a raise, we're gonna get you help." I said, "Okay, we'll try it for a little while." I had five offers from different firms.

TI: Interesting.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.