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VI: And by the way, when we had to move from Sprague Hotel, we bought a, or leased a hotel on Thirteenth and Yesler, Ritz Hotel, Ritz Apartments.

TI: I forgot to ask that. So yeah, so when the city came in and essentially moved everyone out to do the housing projects, you moved, what, you said to Twelfth and...

VI: Thirteenth.

TI: Thirteenth to the Ritz?

VI: Ritz Hotel.

TI: Ritz Hotel?

VI: It's still there.

TI: And I'm curious, do you know if your parents received any, like, financial assistance to move or anything like that?

VI: No, I don't know that.

TI: And the moving process, did they have to do it themselves, or did the city help them move? Or did they have moving days or anything like that, do you remember?

VI: I can't remember that. All I know is when you get there, I think my parents had to buy all the furniture and bedding and stuff for the apartment. So that's what they owned. Of course, they leased the building.

TI: I'm sorry, so they had to buy it for Ritz Hotel? So they didn't own it back at the Sprague, they had to buy new stuff.

VI: I don't know if they brought that over there, but...

TI: Now, was the Ritz a better building than the Sprague Hotel, or how would you compare the two?

VI: It was a much newer building. Sprague was pretty old.

TI: And for you, this was right about when you were starting high school? And so it'd be closer to Broadway, is that kind of about the timing?

VI: Yeah, just about the time. Because Daibo Fujii, who lived down the alleyway from us, The Fujii brothers, they had nicknames, too, starting with Seibo, Joe, and Daibo and Shobo.

TI: Yeah, I know Shobo, Frank Fujii. So they lived just down the block from you?

VI: There's an alleyway that they had their little apartment type.

TI: And so I'm curious, back then, I know Shobo was really into basketball. Did they play a lot of basketball?

VI: Shobo would be twirling a basketball every day.

TI: In that neighborhood?

VI: When he was a little kid, yeah. Of course, that was influenced by Gene Boyd and stuff at Collins Playfield.

TI: Oh, because you were closer now to Collins, too, by being there. You're just a couple blocks away from Collins.

VI: Yeah.

TI: Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for... this is fascinating just to kind of get all the details.

VI: The funny part about that is Mrs. Fujii had a little beer parlor on Yesler, and she used to give free chicken, deep fried chicken, but she puts lots of salt on there so it'd be so salty that they had to buy the beer.

TI: I think that's a trick for a lot of bars where they do lots of pretzels and salty things.

VI: Really salty. [Laughs] Her chicken was salty.

TI: And so was that a pretty big hangout for people, they'd come by and drink beer?

VI: Because that corner you had Howard Drugs, which was a hangout for the older people, older kids. Like Tokuda Drugs became a hangout once they opened up on Yesler Way. But for the older guys, Howard Drug was the corner of Fourteenth and Yesler.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.