<Begin Segment 49>

DG: Okay. Now, that's what I want to get at, because now this was a service organization to the community.

GF: Yeah, right.

DG: And did you think that was important?

GF: That's important to the community.

DG: Why is that?

GF: Because as I said, the word hito -- unless you support each other, you cannot be. I think, how much I felt at that time when I joined, I don't think I had too much of that feeling. I didn't have that feeling. After you get into it and you see we're going to have a pancake breakfast and we're going to have this and that and all this, every penny we make, it doesn't come into our pocket. It's all given out so we cannot touch that money. The only thing to survive as a Lion member, among ourselves we contribute to the -- that's in our dues, is where our money comes from.

DG: Now, we've talked earlier about how the Niseis were not joiners of a lot of these organizations that are around.

GF: Uh-huh.

DG: So this was one place where you felt you could give back, and you felt the need to give back to the community.

GF: Yeah.

DG: Why?

GF: I think... this is how I felt at that time is that we owe ourselves to the community. Without the community, we cannot stand. You got a grocery store, you got a store. Unless the community comes and helps you out, so we should give back something to the community.

DG: Was that part of proving yourself at all?

GF: I don't know as proving myself.

DG: A good American?

GF: Oh, no. I don't think so. I never even, that never even entered my mind, I don't think, that I'm a good American that I want to give this service. I think that's a individual thought -- if you like to give. Some certain things I don't like to give unless it's going to help a lot of people. Well, like that's the reason why like in Lions they have what's called LCIF. That helps everybody in the world so I gave them a thousand dollars to that. I believe in that. I think we should not just think of ourselves, we should think of the whole world. And I can't give too much, but maybe a lot of guys give a thousand dollars apiece, that's a hundred thousand dollars. You can't tell, see, and that's where... that's how I feel. That's just my thought. Other people feel that way or not, I don't know. And there's a lot of -- oh, my God you get so --

<End Segment 49> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.