<Begin Segment 4>
SY: So now, I think you mentioned to me that your grandfather started a ranch, an egg farm?
AM: He had an egg, egg farm.
SY: And that was in where?
AM: Near Fullerton area.
SY: So southern.
AM: That's my best guess.
SY: So way south, so was that someplace that you, one of the places you lived? Or did, it was just your...
AM: No, we never, to my knowledge, lived down there. 'Cause one of the brothers had a hog ranch, and my Uncle Shitsuke, I really don't know what he, he must have done egg ranch, egg farming too.
SY: I see. So they, they farmed on their own, then.
AM: Yeah.
SY: And your father farmed on separate, in separate places.
AM: Well, I believe he somehow knew that he wanted to be a nurseryman, so predominately he was employed under a nursery person, and he must have been learning the trade because in, around 1936 or seven, he established his own nursery in Santa Monica.
SY: Wow. And that nursery was called...
AM: The nursery was called Santa Monica Nursery.
SY: And your father ran it?
AM: He owned it.
SY: He owned it and ran it, then.
AM: He must've leased the land under my name, or if he could lease it under his name, he could have.
SY: Wow. And that, was that, what kind of people did that serve, that nursery?
AM: It served some Issei because he raised celery in bedding plant flats, and he also raised flowers.
SY: Not the cut flower type? Or what kind of flowers?
AM: Well, in flats. It was a retail and wholesale nursery, so he sold to the public as well as delivered to other nurseries, and then he sold his shoots to the, mostly his friends, farmers.
SY: I see. Was that unusual, or were there other nurserymen, Japanese nurserymen during that time?
AM: There were, I think, a lot.
SY: A lot. And, but your father really learned that trade from, on his own.
AM: Yeah. He must've put together all that he had learned when he was employed by other nurserymen. He had an idea what he wanted to do.
<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.