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RW: I'm gonna' bring you back a little bit to your relationship with your brother. How've you worked out a successful partnership for working together?

KO: Well, we both have a little bit of our dad in our system and so, there've been times when things got rather hectic but, we were always able to get over it and move on. Whether the situation was always resolved to anyone's satisfaction or not, I don't know. But we made it forty years, and I think that says something.

RW: Forty years.

KO: Yeah.

RW: What relationship do you have with different roles within the business? Do you still do sales?

KO: Yes, I do sales and my brother does the growing, primarily. And we have my niece, who's in the business now, who's, can do both. So perhaps someday, she'll take over the business.

RW: Talk about other family members that have been involved in the business as well.

KO: Well, we've got a nephew in the business, and another, Shig has another son in the business. My mother, when she was able, used to come over here on Saturdays, and pull weeds and do all kinds of things we didn't want her to do. [Laughs] But, after awhile she got to the point where it was tough for her to get over here. But those, that's the extent of the family. Although, I will say that over the years, we've asked different family members to help us at certain times, and they've always been willing to do so, and they still do it to this day if we need help. So that's something that we're fortunate we can fall back on.

RW: Sounds like you have a very tight family network.

KO: Well yeah, we're a small family, and we're very tight, yes. And I think it's, that's something that I'm really, really, really thankful for.

RW: Your brother Hod started his greenhouse business in Renton, correct?

KO: Well, it was in Bellevue, actually. When he first got started, he took over a place and ran it for awhile. It was right near Alice's parents place. I don't know if you remember that greenhouse. It was right across the street from the Overlake Golf Course; and I can't even remember the name of it now. But it was owned by M. L. Davies, I think. And he worked for him for awhile, and then this other place came up and Davies bought that place. And he just -- M. L., he was in the produce business, and decided that he didn't like the greenhouse business too much because, too much work for a little profit. So my brother had a chance to buy the greenhouse, and that's how he got started. And, the greenhouse still operating today.

<End Segment 45> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.