<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Now, from Sacramento your family moved to San Leandro. What sort of job did your father have in San Leandro?

SO: Well, I remember when we moved to San Leandro he had rented a little store, and I remember the front window was a bay window that we had to whitewash, so we had this one big space with a little kitchen and a bathroom. And at the time I think my father was gardening, then he later got a job with a nursery. They raised plants, nursery plants.

MN: So initially you were living in a storefront?

SO: Yeah.

MN: And then your father was gardening, and then you moved to, your father found a nursery job. Did you move to the nursery property?

SO: Yeah, we moved to the nursery property and we lived in the, a house where the workers shared the house, and I guess we were, occupied one room. Then my dad built a little room in the place where they used to store dirt, and that's where, we eventually moved into that one room. But we ate with the rest of the workers.

MN: How old were you when you moved to San Leandro?

SO: I was probably about eleven or twelve.

MN: Did you have to help your father out on the nursery?

SO: Well, the nursery, they employed me, and I used to make these nursery boxes. I got paid a penny a box, these little flatbeds. And I can remember also, apparently at the time they didn't have child labor laws, but we went to slice fruit. In the summertime we'd slice fruit. We'd cut 'em in half and then they'd dry 'em, like pears, peaches, plums. I don't remember what the pay scale was, but apparently it was, it was fairly cheap.

MN: And when your family was living in San Leandro your older brother left the house? What happened to him?

SO: Well, my older brother was, he was pretty self-sufficient and determined as to what he wanted to do, and he heard of this high school in Berkeley, Oakland, that specialized in math and science, so that's where he wanted to go. So the owner knew some wealthy people, Caucasian people, in Oakland, and he managed to get my brother a houseboy job. So I guess he was, well, he was in high school.

MN: What did your brother want to become?

SO: He wanted to become an aeronautical engineer.

MN: What inspired him to want to become an aeronautical engineer?

SO: I don't know, but I know he kept, he read a lot of these paperback novels about flying and airplanes and stuff. He used to like to build model airplanes.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.