<Begin Segment 28>

TL: Was George's family as accepting of you?

YB: Well, the strange part is, while I was working at Frederick's, the girl who had the Coty line -- that's a line of cosmetic -- she was a very gracious, beautiful woman. In appearance, in gesture, language, and figure -- tall, slender. She and I would always do the dirty works. They never cleaned up the counter where the cash registers are, or the bags that had to be put away, or the rows of ribbon (for gift wrap); and she would do it on her side, because the old Frederick & Nelson had... I don't know how to put it. I don't know what it's like now that Nordstrom has it, but it was one of the outstanding stores throughout the country, including Europe. Because people traveling would come through there at Christmas, "We have never seen such a gorgeous store, decorated as beautiful as it is, and the people who wait on us..." And we used to get more compliments. It was a beautiful store. At Christmas time, they'd lay out a red rug from the entrance all the way in, and they'd have a string musical going on, Christmas songs, with their old fashioned top hats and everything else to go with it; and people would come in to listen to just that. But, and every aisle had two big square blocks of cabinets. On top there were plants, planters put up. Easter, it was all lilies, Christmas, it was poinsettias; and it was just gorgeous. So people who would travel through Seattle said, "We have never seen a store as beautiful." And they had everything. They covered everything you needed in a home: furniture, tools for the garden. I don't know what Nordstrom's is gonna', how they going to cover every floor, but Frederick's did. They had everything in there: stoves, kitchen utensils, bathroom things, everything. But Nordstrom's is taking quite a while to cover all those stores, 'cause there will be more floors for them there.

TL: So this woman that you worked with, was she somehow related to George?

YB: Yes. It so happened that one day, Marge and George came in because they wanted to see George's sister. And we worked back to back. I don't know if you recall how Frederick's was -- there was a great big built-up cabinet case in the middle, and then there was a aisle. The counters would be on each side, so that there was an aisle that goes through and we'd see each other; and the telephone in between. But, then the counter would be open so that there's a register back-to-back, and then the counter top with the ribbons and the bags and everything, and we'd see each other occasionally.

And that day, when Marge and George came to see Harriet, and Marge looked over and says, "Oh, there's Yone!" So she comes dashing over and Harriet says, "Oh, you know Yone?" She says, "Sure, we used to be neighbors and real good friends." So she brought George over and introduced him to me -- because she had let us know that she was remarrying again, 'cause her first husband drank so much. He was a handsome, he looked like a movie star, and a real nice man, but he just could not stop drinking. And she said she couldn't take it any more, and after five years she decided to part with him. And she was a good telephone operator, switch, she was the head (switchboard) operator. And so she said, "I got a job at Boeing, and then got married to George."

So I met them and Harriet says, "Goodness Yone, I didn't know you knew my brother and his wife." I says, "No, this is the first time I'm meeting George." And, "I didn't know that you had a brother. And that Marge was married to your brother." So there again we became even better friends, very close, and she accepted me as one of her family. And I befriended her son, who is a wheelchair patient, and he had married two, three times to his caregiver. Everyone just took him for everything, and the third or fourth girl, young lady who was a caregiver or aide, came from Panama. And she had a typical Spanish accent, and I could speak a little Spanish so her mother would come, I'd talk to her. But she got to know me so well, and she turned out to be the best girl. To this day she's still taking good care of him. But they moved out of town where the air would be nicer, and rent wouldn't be as high. So I kind of miss them. And Harriet has passed on. But their family have been very good to me, his family

TL: So you got to know...

YB: Meet his mother, too. She was in the hospital over in Spokane, and we went over to see her and she says, "I've been waiting for you to bring Yone so I could meet her. Harriet's been talking about her." And so, I got to meet her before she passed on. And the rest of his (relatives) -- twin sister, there was a big family and I met them all, and the nieces and nephews. So it was kind of nice 'cause I got to know the mother before she passed on.

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