<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So let's go back to you, and you talked about earlier taking the tram to high school. But in Steveston, what school did you go, like, in elementary school? Do you remember going to elementary school in Steveston?

MO: How many what?

TI: Like grade school, did you go to grade school in Steveston?

MO: Grade school was right in Steveston, Lord Byng school, Lord Byng school. So I think elementary school was right in Steveston.

TI: And so describe that. Who were your classmates? If you think about your, like, first and second grade classes, tell me about who your classmates were in terms of Japanese and Caucasian.

MO: Half and half, I guess. There's a lot of Japanese in Steveston that time.

TI: And so for you growing up, who were your best friends? Were they Japanese or Caucasian or both?

MO: I got both. Mostly Japanese, though, in the tram, in the streetcar to go to high school, from Steveston actually there was mostly all Japanese.

TI: For your friends who were Caucasian, did you ever visit their homes?

MO: Yeah.

TI: Okay, so tell me about that. When you went to their homes, did their homes seem any different than...

MO: No, they were all the same.

TI: Pretty much same, so the way the houses were set up, the furniture... but the food, was the food different?

MO: Hmm?

TI: How about the food?

MO: Food was... you know, we'd tasted English food, too, before.

TI: Okay. How about, like, Japanese community events? Were there, like, kenjinkai picnics?

MO: Well, my dad was pretty active in a young men's club or something like that, you know, when I was growing up.

TI: And so what would the young men's club do? What type of things would...

MO: I don't know what they actually did. [Laughs]

TI: Well, how about things like, so I think of a fishing town, were there things like, much gambling and drinking and things like that?

MO: Well, you know, I don't know too... my dad never drank, so I don't...

TI: Okay.

BY: So did you go to, like, Japanese community picnics or go to a church?

MO: Yeah, our family belonged to a United Church.

BY: So a Christian church?

MO: Yeah.

BY: And was that mostly Japanese or a mix?

MO: Yeah, Japanese, Japanese United Church.

BY: Oh, okay. So would there be church picnics and church things like...

MO: Yeah. And then there's a Buddhist church, there were quite a few Buddhist people there.

BY: Do you remember anything like Obon, Bon Odori or undokai or anything like that?

MO: Oh, yeah.

TI: So tell us about that. What can you remember about those things? Just try to paint those pictures because we're just really curious, what you could remember?

MO: Oh, yeah. I was playing a lot of sports.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.