Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Norm Hayashi Interview
Narrator: Norm Hayashi
Interviewer: Virginia Yamada
Location: Emeryville, California
Date: March 12, 2019
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-468-18

<Begin Segment 18>

VY: Well, you've been in this area your whole life, right? You've been in the East Bay your whole life.

NH: Like I said, I went to L.A., I stayed in L.A. for five years, (nineteen to twenty-four years old).

VY: Five years.

NH: And basically, I think that period was one of the best periods because it molded me to who I am now. Airhead, you know. [Laughs] Because it got me out of that elitist type of profession, because, like I say, one group of guys, like auto and body fender, and they did other things. And I don't know why, I always thought I had to go to college to get educated. And they were having, they were at ease, having fun and everything.

VY: It seems like when you came back from L.A., you came back from L.A. knowing more who you were, or more comfortable with who you were.

NH: Yeah, I didn't have the high expectations of myself. And when I was in L.A., I never had problems finding a job, and I've walked out of a couple jobs where the mother... I had a job as a draftsman, and they argued and I'm in the front office, and they'd been arguing almost every day. After two days, I quit. I just didn't like that environment. I had another job in the aircraft industry as a draftsman, and the guy showing me around, there's miles and miles of desks, and draftsmen and all that. And then he tells me, it was the killing point, he says, "You got the job, but can you redo your application and print?" I said, why? Well, I went home and I thought about it, I thought about all this, so many people, and I called him and I said, "I don't think I can accept the job." That was one reason (to redo the application), the other reason is so much people there.

VY: A lot of people.

NH: Yeah, doing the same thing. And it would have helped me, I only had to work just, I think, two days versus five days drawing the same type of salary, it was a good salary. But then it didn't mean anything to me. All through L.A. (time), all I had was a hundred dollars in the bank, I never needed a whole lot of money, just very little expenses.

VY: What other kind of jobs did you have when you were in L.A.?

NH: Delivery boy, at a printing shop, and I learned the printing (trade) so well that, I was twenty-one, that the owner, he says, "I'll turn the business over to you, you can run it." I said, "No thanks," I don't know why. I didn't want to do that. Then when he sold it to another guy, that the guy kept me on as kind of the lead man, like a foreman type of job. It was okay, but then the conditions were different. The previous owner, he treated me like family and everything, so I decided to quit and I went to work in the gas station for half the salary, because I actually wanted to learn how to work on cars. So before I got an interview, I said, "Can I work on cars?" He says, "Yeah." "I don't know anything," he said, "That's okay." So I worked with a bunch of Hawaii guys, I had a great time. [Laughs]

VY: Did the Hawaii guys seem different than the other folks?

NH: Oh, yeah. Friendly, all of them. And they all treat you, embrace you. My best friend now is kind of Hawaii roots.

VY: Sounds like you were always interested in how things worked, figuring out how to build things and make things work.

NH: I wish I could stop. Because everywhere I go, it's just like that. I look at this thing and how you guys operate and everything. I don't know what's wrong, I'm never going to use it in my life.

VY: Sounds like you do, though, sounds like you do use everything.

NH: I drive Gayle crazy, though. [Laughs]

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.