<Begin Segment 15>

TI: So I'm curious, what were your thoughts... because you understood the farming life. You did that with your family in Milwaukie, and now you had spent seven years working in an insurance company, doing business, bookkeeping, things like that. What were your thoughts of marrying a farming, a farmer from the Yakima Valley?

SI: Well, I knew that, I knew what farming was because I was a farmgirl before. But at least I had the business knowledge that I could find work anywhere.

TI: Oh, so you thought that even though Ken was a farmer, you could find a different type of work in Yakima.

SI: We had babies right away, so I couldn't dive in and work, I had to work at home. [Laughs]

TI: So when you... I'm curious, so I think you got married in Portland at the Buddhist temple there, and then you go... before then, had you visited Wapato? Did you visit Ken's family before you were married?

SI: No, I don't think I did.

TI: So when was the first time you met Ken's parents?

SI: I'm trying to remember. Did I ever go back and see him? I might have gone back. I'm not sure whether I took a bus and went to Wapato to meet the folks. I don't know whether I went to meet 'em. I must have. Or they came down to see my parents.

TI: In Portland?

SI: Yeah, you know how they used to always know what kind of family you have, and you have to know what kind of family they are. And the families get together and they decide, I guess it'll work out or something, and they agree that's okay to get married. I remember that's something...

TI: Either that, or they have a baishakunin?

SI: Yeah.

TI: But you and Ken had known each other.

SI: Yeah, so I think the parents came because Ken wanted them to meet them, to make things easier and arrange things.

TI: Okay, so you now go to Wapato after you get married. What are your impressions of the Inaba farm? Because you're coming here for the first time, what does that look like to you?

SI: Well, when I got married, I didn't know about the Inaba farm or anything. There was no Inaba...

TI: Well, so at this point, when you first got married to Ken, where was he living? Did he have his own place then, or was he living with the family?

SI: He was living with his parents.

TI: And so after you got married...

SI: We had to buy a house.

TI: Okay. But the first time, did you stay with the parents until you bought your new house?

SI: I think one day I stayed at the parents', and then we bought the farm, you know. And this is the farm that I'm still here, and we've developed it all this time.

TI: So up to this point, the Inaba family had leased land, they never bought...

SI: They never owned any farm.

TI: So how was it that you and Ken were able to buy property after all these years that the Inaba family had not bought land?

SI: I think we had to borrow money.

TI: Lon mentioned that you actually...

SI: I had ten thousand dollars in my bank account, so that was...

TI: Yeah, you made the down payment.

SI: No, it wasn't a down payment. I know that of that ten thousand, I bought all the one thousand dollars' worth of furniture that goes into a house, like an icebox and the beds and everything. I bought those things, but then I still had nine thousand dollars until slowly, every time I would... one time when we were farming, they needed money. They didn't do well, so I think I gave them three thousand dollars or something.

TI: So the ten thousand was really a valuable cash reserve.

SI: Yeah, it was my cash to make... I didn't give it to him, I kept it so that I could do the dishing out, you know. So that helped us, and I knew that I had some more money left, that I wasn't really that poor. [Laughs]

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.