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VY: Okay. So your parents return, they take the boat ride, and how long was the boat ride?

MM: It was one month. And then they came to stay with her sister, her sister Mary. Her sister Mary had one child, and she worked and her husband worked. And so my father could stay home with the baby while Mother went out and worked. Because then after the baby was born, he would take care of his son and his in-laws, whose name was Walter, he was like a year and a half. And so now there was a new baby, so now he was the babysitter. That's when you see this samurai become kind of a ooey-gooey loving kind of a parent that was very, very kind. And that's why, because he was so kind, his brother-in-law felt he was stealing his son's affection, so they had to move out. And during that time, my mother found a book, she was always reading books. She found a book, a family of four can live on two acres. So now they had a dream. They had no money, but they had a dream. So my father was able to get a job with the American Bridge Company, and then a permanent job with at the American Bridge Company in Trenton. So then near Trenton they looked for a place that had two acres so they could fill this promise of a family of four can live on two acres. Because one time they had, only thing they had for dinner was green beans somebody gave them. And they said they had to have more stability, maybe if they had their own piece of land, they could do better, and so that's why it became their dream. And that's what they did.

VY: So when was this? At this point in time, your brother had been born, the first child had been born?

MM: Yes. My brother was born in 1933 and I was born in 1934. And I was a big baby. So growing up, people thought we were twins because girls grow faster, and I was a big baby and I was, we were going around, they treated us like twins, but we weren't. And our upbringing was a learning lesson of my parents learning how to live the American life together. Now, they were sure that they were becoming American parents, but our food, I thought our food was American, they thought our food was American, but when I went to college, I didn't know any of the foods they were giving out because we didn't have that kind of food. My mother was European type of food and Japanese food that she'd learned to cook in Japan.

VY: So what would be like a typical meal you guys would have?

MM: We'd have these hearty vegetable soups with meat, or we would have mackerel, rice and pickle, I mean, kind of thing. My mother was a good, we had an apple tree so she made apple pies. And she has the kind of attitude, you can't let these go to waste. So she'd take every pie dish out and she'd make apple pies, maybe ten, but they were in big dishes and small dishes, every kind of thing she could bake in. Then she'd go to the neighbors and say, "You know, I have just so many apples, could you help me? I made these pies, maybe you would be able to have it." Of course they looked forward to the pies because she was an excellent pie baker. And so we had... she developed good relationships with the neighbors by barter and giving them things. And at Christmastime she used to make Stollen, which is a very German Christmas dish, and give those to the neighbors. So that's how they would talk to my mother more because she was, interacted with them.

VY: So your neighbors interacted with your mom, did they interact with your dad as well?

MM: No. Well, these were German neighbors, so she spoke German to them.

VY: They spoke German?

MM: And they were treated very badly during the First World War. Mother was treated very badly during the First World War, and so she could talk to them and commiserate how this war is different, and their children don't listen to them, and I'm sorry my kids, children beat up your kids, but they don't pay any attention to me because they hear all the propaganda. So it's all very interesting. And my mother is, in a town of five hundred people, she was like the best medical resource they had in town. They wouldn't talk to her, but if there was an emergency, they'd come and get her. [Laughs]

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.