<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So after Japanese language school on Sixth and Flander, you would then, you said you went to the Security Market, because your mother was there?

TH: (...).

TI: And then what would happen?

TH: That's where my dad would pick us up and then go home, which was about seven o'clock, I think, it was getting dark sometimes.

TI: So describe when you'd go to Security Market. What was it like? What did you see? You said other, there were other Japanese stalls there?

[Interruption]

TI: So was it kind of similar to, in Seattle, the Pike Place Market where they have stalls and sell flowers?

TH: Yes, I meant Pike, yes. Years ago, the ladies used to have stalls. Then mostly Japanese people.

BY: And where was it? Was it in Japantown or was it someplace else.

TH: What's that?

BY: Where was Security Market? Was it in Japantown or someplace else?

TH: I think near the waterfront, (...).

BY: So then most of the merchants and venders there, were they Japanese or were they all different nationalities?

TH: All differently. Mostly Italian, I remember an Italian lady was there. But most of the Japanese ladies (...) were together.

TI: And the customers were just, who were the customers?

TH: Caucasian people.

TI: And during this long day, you wake up, you eat your breakfast, you go to school, and then you take this bus. At some point, where did you eat? Did you have snacks someplace?

TH: I don't remember any snacks.

TI: So, like, at the language school, maybe they had snacks there? I'm trying to think...

TH: I don't think they ever did.

TI: It's just astounding. I'm just trying to imagine my six year old kids taking a bus to another town or another city, being on their own, roller skating downtown, going to Japanese language school and then going to the Security Market on their own, it just astounds me.

TH: I know. And then those days, nobody, I mean, now, the police would probably stop and ask you, a six year old kid, "Where are you going?"

TI: Do you remember ever being, maybe, worried or afraid or anything like that?

TH: No, because I thought everybody did that. In those days, it was pretty common to be independent, because most parents were working out in the fields or wherever, whatever they were doing.

TI: Now, as you got older, so going back to, kind of, the farm life. As you got older, you're now a teenager, did you start acquiring chores and things that you had to do at the farm that were kind of your jobs?

TH: Not necessarily your job, but you just did whatever had to be done, I guess. I don't remember anybody telling me what to do, I just went out and picked tomatoes if everybody was picking tomatoes.

TI: How about things like cooking and washing and things like that?

TH: Well, in those days, I don't think my mother had a washing machine... she went someplace to pick hops when we were in Tigard (...) where the strawberries were. She went someplace with her friends to pick hops -- oh, to Salem, Oregon. And then when she came back, I was out in the back washing my dad's overalls like she did with a brush. She felt so sorry for me. And then that same time, I was canning pears, and I was still pretty young. I don't know how old I was, but maybe ten.

TI: Wow.

BY: So then your family truck farm and greenhouse were, you said the strawberries were in Tigard?

TH: But, see, by then we moved. He gave up that part of the farming.

TI: Oh, the Beaverton farm?

TH: Right.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.