<Begin Segment 7>

TL: One time --

YB: 'Cause I was already, I had already attended night school at Broadway. And I had no problem getting work, because I had learned from another friend I said, to do heavier oils on... and even on the canvas that they'd put photographs on, portraits on. And I had some real nice studios from Alaska, Idaho, and all around through Seattle, and Bellevue. I had one of my biggest ones in Bellevue 'cause there were really a lot of well-to-do people living there. And then I'd ferry over once a week, over to Bremerton, and do some of their heavier work and then bring a lot back.

So it was during that time when I got some things going that this job came up, and I said to Clarence, I said, "You know Daddy, after all, you are a lawyer. And among Japanese, what would they think that if a lawyer's wife went out waiting on a table?" Well, in those days this is the way they thought, and I didn't want to get out there and make a scene so he said, "What's wrong? I don't care if a person scrubs floors, sweeps the street, or is a chamber maid. You can go out and do the menial job, but if you're out there to earn a decent dollar," he says, "never be ashamed of it. Go out there and show 'em, help the girls." I says, "How can I do two jobs?" That's the first thought I had, but I had two girls I had trained, that could open and close (shop) for me. And they were very good about that. So this is how I happened to go over there and work for twelve years. And I don't know how I held up for twelve years, but I did. 'Cause I was the oldest, I was into, well into my fifties. And the girls were younger than I, ten years younger than I.

TL: Clarence sounds like he was a very understanding husband.

YB: Not only that, he could talk to someone sweeping the streets like an old pal, and go up to the mayors, and the elevator boys, he treated everyone alike. He never looked down on anyone. That was one, that's the trait that I liked about him when I first met him.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.