<Begin Segment 46>

DG: So at what point then did Coast Oyster buy it?

RM: You mean what year?

DG: What year, yeah, because I forgot what year that was.

RM: I forgot myself. It doesn't show there?

DG: It probably does. But Coast Oyster bought your plant and tell me, now Coast Oyster is here in South Bend and always was here.

RM: Uh-huh.

DG: And they were one of the largest...

RM: Yeah.

DG: ...companies, had several branches and you were attempting at one time to start having branches like they have, right?

RM: Yeah.

DG: Okay. So before we get into, about their buying it, how do you think that it affected your family in terms of camp and things. What did it do to you?

RM: Well, I don't know just how to answer that one.

DG: Okay. Like your father, he developed health problems because of it.

RM: Yeah.

DG: And we were talking earlier how you sort of lost a lot of your drive and your fire.

RM: Uh-huh.

DG: 'Cause I was wondering why you were willing to sell and not just rebuild and start going again.

RM: Oh, I see what you mean now. Well, they gave us a pretty good offer because the down payment was real small, but they gave us a big price on it. And so something we couldn't resist.

DG: Now, was this after a year or two that you had tried to bring it back? Was it right away?

RM: No, I think it wasn't -- I don't know whether it was right away or not, but it wasn't too much time elapsed there.

<End Segment 46> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.