Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Tom Matsuoka Interview
Narrator: Tom Matsuoka
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Ridgefield, Washington
Date: May 7, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-mtom-01-0028

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TM: Well, so start growing lots of hay. Well, hay first time, lots of men work in hay, but when men get short and all those equipment company invent the self-harvesting machine, pretty expensive, too. And you just use expensive machine, harvesting and all rest of the year you have to live in the next fence line. I quit. So I finally I quit around 1961 or so sugar beets... I thought I would quit the sugar beets and I had most of the hay and little grain, and I always owned about fifty head of cow. So I kept those cow then I bought about 350 sheep and quit sugar beets altogether. And I cut down some pasture, farm land is fenced off to the pasture, and that's what I started around 1962 or '3 or something like that. That way I have don't have to look those hired, hired men. And like if I have hay, just I buy is hay equipment. I don't have to buy the other stuff. Well, that's the way I did, and I did that until I retired and I retired 1969. '68 crop, that was my last crop. That time I retired.

Then I move to the small place in town and sure funny. There is one road. One side is belongs to the county; one side belongs to the town. And where I stayed was the county side. There is running water and everything, telephone, electricity everything but I don't have to, everything belong to the city license and just... I done pretty good. I built, I built a small greenhouse because Kaz, she like the flower and raise the flower. And, man, you be surprised how much she spend for those plants. How would be. We made, grow the plant ourself. Well, we started about 16 x 16, small house, we started greenhouse. And, by gosh, grew pretty good then, more than she can use. So what leftover we start to sell, and here is too many customers and we run out of plants so quick. So, my God, we make a little bigger and so a little bigger and a little bigger, and by the time Kaz died, we had a chunk of greenhouse. [Laughs]

AI: So you weren't retired anymore.

TI: A new business started.

TM: And she passed away 1986. And this month, just a few days more, that's twelve years, twelve years ago. Then I keep going until the '90. About like my dad when started the farm, same thing. One person try to do cook and washing and then do something in the greenhouse and small garden, that's too damn much so I quit. That's is in 1990 so that's enough. That's it. [Laughs]

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.