<Begin Segment 11>

PW: And I love that you said, "We were both twenty-seven and getting on, so we just got married." Where did you get married?

HS: San Francisco. We got married in sort of a... my brother-in-law, Katie Yamashita's father, John Yamashita, a minister. And so we got married and it's called All Saints or something, on Polk Street. It had several ministers, and everybody was rotating through, so John married us. John actually married my son, Richard, too.

PW: And where were you living at that time? Were you in the East Bay, or were you in San Francisco?

HS: San Francisco. I was a resident.

PW: Where?

HS: UCSF.

PW: And tell me a little bit more about Jean's family. Like was she from the San Francisco Bay area?

HS: She grew up in Los Angeles, father was prominent, doing well in the produce business in Los Angeles, and they had relatives from Oregon and Washington growing flowers down here in the flower business, good business. So they came up and apparently bought this land that they used, these glass houses. They grew gardenias first, and Jean was attending UCLA when she came up here, and they needed the help, so she had to quit Berkeley, and she helped. And the other father's son was helping, he was an apple farmer from, I said, Oregon or Washington, or something, Hood. Anyway, so they did do well, I guess, they grew carnations later, carnations was easier than gardenias. And the other son... oh, Jack took over the flower business with his brother-in-law, and so they jointly worked it. By that time, Jean was married to me, and they didn't need her.

PW: And so when you were all in San Francisco, I can picture this, and where did you and Jean move to, or where did you settle for yourselves?

HS: I was lucky, I can tell you that. One of the residents, he was Japanese American, he was leaving. I was graduating, and he said, "Do you want a good house?" And it was a good house, it was a two-level house and we lived in the lower level, and it was reasonable, we can afford it. So we were always afraid because the baby's crying, Rich is crying, so it was the tradition, we gave it to another resident or whoever was coming in.

PW: Which neighborhood was that?

HS: That was just east of the UC campus, it was, on the streetcar it's Carmel, that's where the fog stops, so it was a nice area.

PW: And you were explaining that Jean waited until the day she was delivering Richard to stop working. I think you told me a story before that Richard also is named in honor of Mr. Collins?

HS: That's right, Richard Wayne. When did I tell you that?

PW: I came and interviewed you casually with a friend probably about three years ago.

HS: I'm sorry.

PW: Well, I didn't ask you all these other questions. So how many children did you and Jean have altogether, and tell me their names?

HS: Four. It was three boys and one girl, they're all tremendous. Actually, we lost one baby after Richard.

PW: Tell me the children's names.

HS: Pardon me?

PW: Tell me all of the children's names. So first there was Richard.

HS: Richard was the oldest, Richard Wayne. And next was David, David Ralph. Ralph was, David Ralph is an obstetrician. At that time, the professors of obstetrics would be delivering all, because they knew the residents and interns were not being paid well, so they did all the... free surgery the second child who died had was called a hydroma, that's a growth, and didn't survive, but was operated on by the surgeon, and they're never paid. And the third was Jon, Jon Philip, where did the Philip come from? I think we made that up. And we got wise about keeping the first name short, J-O-N. And Ann is, I wanted A-N-N-E, for British monarchy, but she wanted Ann, so we got Ann.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.