<Begin Segment 6>

DH: You were the eldest of six children?

KN: Yes. Uh huh.

DH: Tell us about strawberry farming life.

KN: Oh, it wasn't fun at all. It was hard. You go out to work about seven o'clock in the morning, maybe 8:00 at the latest after you help with the dishes and everything, and then you work until about six o'clock in the evening. You come home and cook and start the bath and everything. And on Sundays, we do the washing and the cleaning. And it was just over and over again, every week same old thing, monotonous.

DH: You said you had a younger sister, younger brother tied to your back, strapped to your back.

KN: Oh, yes. And when I was ten years old I was old enough to baby-sit, 'cause Mom had to go out to the field. And so I couldn't carry my youngest sister so she'll, Mom would strap her on my back, half a day until Mom came to cook at noon or evening or whatever. And, of course, she wet my back and everything, but I couldn't take her off 'cause she was just really strapped on. And so that's how I spent my baby-sitting day if I weren't working out in the field helping with the weeding or anything.

DH: And that was your main job in the fields was to weed?

KN: Weed because I was so young I couldn't do much else.

DH: So it was ten or fifteen acres of weeding after school every day.

KN: Well, help with, you know. So I wasn't the only one though, my younger sister and brother, they all had to help. Then we had to put the weevil bait in and that dad would always say well, you're all so short. You're close to the plant so you all do it, so we just put in the weevil bait. All kinds of excuses so we have to go out there help out, but that's okay. It was a good experience.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.