Densho Digital Archive - Nori Masuda Interview (denshovh-mnori-01-0005)

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JS: So where was the apartment? Where did you live?

NM: Apartment was on Tulare Street, go to the alley, it's an apartment. It's a two-bedroom apartment, then the kitchen is just a three-gas heating burner, three of 'em, that's how we got the main breakfast in the morning. My mom used to make -- I don't know how she got it, but she made waffles, hotcakes and all that. Of course, they find out from the neighbors, they have exchanged all the recipe like that. Then when we had the waffle like that, boy, that was something. And then we used to have hotcakes, too, in the morning. Then my mother used to come in the store and stay there all day until midnight, then we used to go home again.

JS: So all of you would go with your --

NM: The store was wide open, too. Japanese have a system of putting in a flat piece of board, they lock it up on the floor, then they put the door in, put each, one door each, then we used to lock it up, then we used to go home. So we had two places, so we used to walk home all the time. There was, alley was not paved yet, you know. China Alley was paved. All the, Fagan Alley, they were dirt. Rainy day, it's so muddy. [Laughs]

TI: So it sounds like your, your mother worked really hard. So she was --

NM: That apartment was two-bedroom and a small kitchen. No running water. No running water there. Then there was an outside, there was about five apartment, all the same, two bedroom and one kitchen. All, everybody used one toilet, men and women, that's it. So we never had a bathroom. We used to go in to the washtub, you know, big washtub?

JS: Ofuro?

NM: Ofuro, yeah. Well, I didn't know ofuro when I was a kid, we were all jumping in there, wash. They used to wash. Yeah, as we grew up, there's a bathhouse. There's four bathhouse in Fresno that time. One right there by Kern Street, F Street, Tulare Street, and one in China Alley. But that one closed early, but there was those bathhouse. And then we'd pay a nickel to go into the, and then we got two towel. Kids were five cents, otona was ten cents like that. So we used to... when we go to the bathroom, we have to pay five cents, then the adult was ten or fifteen cents, I forgot. We got one wash towel, one dry towel, and then we go into the bath. Then right in the middle, there's a partition. This is a special babasan no... there's a barbershop in the front, and there's a little bathtub, special, somebody wants to use that bathroom... that bowl. Tub. Yeah, that long tub, that cost about twenty-five cents to... some people use that, too. They want to be private, they got that room there, they wash up. Then the people that use, all going together, want a little partition, women this side, men that side. You could hear them talking. [Laughs] They could hear us. But the tub was partitioned off, yeah. The water wasn't different, so the ladies and men. Then they'll have one shower. Then we got that, when we go in, we pay five cents, adult ten cents, and then we get two towel, one to wash and one to dry off. So every time I go there...

JS: So you would go to the bathhouse with your brother?

NM: Huh?

JS: You and your brother would go to the bathhouse?

NM: At home, we usually use a tub, too.

JS: Oh, there's a tub at the house?

NM: Yeah. We didn't go to bathhouse every night, yeah. It was a treat when we went to the... yeah. [Laughs]

JS: So a special treat to go to the bathhouse.

NM: Yeah.

JS: But you had to, you had to walk a distance?

NM: Well, it was close by.

JS: Close by, Fagan Alley?

NM: It was only about two block walk. We used to get home close by as much as possible. Then when we moved one time, we came to the Buddhist church. Right in the middle, there were three resident homes there. There was rental, then we got that couple of years. So they had a bath, it was Nihonburo, they burn the wood, then heat it up. Then when we go there, that bath was ready for us already. Of course, we used that later. Three family was, they used it. We moved in there, it was so good. The bath was right there. And then, but the bathroom was outside. Yeah, they were outside.