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BN: And then at some point, your mom starts, well, she goes to continue her own education.

LH: Not 'til later.

BN: So this is later.

LH: Yeah, my father had an insurance company that he started up, his job on the side was an insurance company. And that's actually, that's interesting you brought that up, because I was sort of this prop on his insurance route. So he would take me along and people would feed me stuff, and I would go to the chop suey, chow mein place, and they would feed me and we'd go to the... what do you call it? Where they sold the sweets, and I would get sweets there like omanju and sometimes some ice or something like that. And that was really totally cool. They were, of course, all Japanese people, that was when there was a really robust Japanese American community in Denver. They have a big Bon Odori, too.

BN: So this was his own business?

LH: Yeah.

BN: Was he affiliated with a particular agent or company?

LH: Right, right, yeah. I think Prudential.

BN: And then he's selling to other Japanese?

LH: Exactly, yeah. So he had this niche in the Japanese American community selling insurance.

BN: Right, right. But he had a pretty significant day job, too, right?

LH: I don't know. He started working in the civil service because he realized that was one of the places he could really, he could make money. He could have a steady job and have all the benefits and whatever. But unfortunately, they really discriminated a lot against him, I think. Because he scored at the top of his exams, civil service exam, but they wouldn't promote him for the longest time.

BN: How long did he stay, though? He stayed for quite a while, right?

LH: Quite a while, until the '60s, yeah, until the '60s. So he was in the State Revenue Department. And during that time, we were connected to the Japanese American community, but mainly through the JACL. And there were certain spots. I mean, if you go to Denver, you can ask them about that. So the Japanese American veterans had their own veterans organization memorial site. And in that hall, we used to have these big banquets, right? And that was one place that the Japanese American community would come together. So there were these things that would happen in the community where you'd have all these, just like it is now, right, those long tables? The folding tables come out, but the throwaway tablecloths go on and there's all the... that's just the organization of Nisei women, right? I mean, they could organize these things flawlessly. And they still do that over at J-Sei, it's just amazing to watch.

BN: And then I know he remained active in JACL, too, right after the war?

LH: The JACL conventions were a part of that, too. So oh yeah, you reminded me. So when we were really young, we would go with them to the JACL convention. I remember going to San Francisco, and my brother and I, we were really young and they just sort of left us on our own. And I remember going in to... we went in to order breakfast at the hotel, it was like the Palace Sheraton Hotel or something like that. And I recognized the space, you know, it's that open garden atrium space. And we sat down, Makoto and I realized we didn't have enough money to cover it. [Laughs] So we somehow slunk away. And I remember we were walking down the street and we were, like, making fun of these sailors because they reminded us of Popeye. I remember that. But we were kind of, I don't know, parents then, they didn't really care. You were okay if you... it wasn't just my parents, but a lot of parents were just like, you were free to roam. They didn't care that much.

BN: It was a different era from our "helicopter parent" era.

LH: Very different, yeah.

BN: And then there was, from Race Street, there was another, one more?

LH: Oh, sorry, yeah. 1480 Cherry Street, which was at Florida and Cherry, which was, it's still in southeast Denver. And that was the time they got their first new home. So for my mom, I think, that was great, it was modern, but it was basically a box, a rectangular box. I think they were really thrilled to have their own modern home and fill it with modern furniture. She really did have some amazing pieces, yeah. And she had all the other stuff that went with it. She had the Russell Wright dining set, she had a Dansk set. But this Russell Wright dining set for everyday use, I don't know if you know Russell Wright, but he's also a very well-known midcentury designer, he was, he's very famous. And that dining set that he made is also extremely famous, so those were the plates we ate off every day, that was my mom. She was a collector, she loved material things.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.