<Begin Segment 4>

DG: And do you have any memories of the picnics or the, I've heard they screened movies there?

SH: They screened movies, and at that time they used to call 'em benshi. [To GH] Remember? He used to have benshi. Yeah, well, that's the movies I remember when I was coming over here.

JS: Can you describe the benshi, what that is?

GH: Benshi's an orator.

SH: Yeah, he describes the scenery and what they're saying. In other words, he's... yeah. [Laughs]

GH: He changes the words.

SH: Yeah, yeah. He's the star. [Laughs]

DG: Did he wear a costume?

SH: Once in a while, yeah, he'd would wear kind of happi coat or whatever.

DG: Did the kids love that?

SH: I don't know.

GH: No, I think the parents'd go so they [inaudible].

SH: Yeah, because those were samurai and their, even their languages are different. It's hard for the young ones to understand, I think.

DG: So were there any sports you played at the school?

SH: Sports? It was a regular, like... what, what did...

DG: Girls didn't do sports?

JS: She's thinking.

SH: Was it jintori?

GH: Huh?

SH: Jintori?

GH: You mean just playing a game.

SH: Yeah, that was about it.

DG: Were there sewing classes at the school?

SH: No.

DG: Did you ever take sewing?

SH: Yes.

DG: Where would you do that?

SH: I went to, she was a professional teacher in Sacramento. I went one summer, after I graduated from eighth grade, I think it was. One summer I went. It was pattern making.

DG: And what church was your family affiliated with?

SH: Sacramento Buddhist Church.

Off camera: My question is, what would you rather have been doing other than going to the school? You said you didn't like it. What did you want to do?

SH: Well, there wasn't anything to do, really. [Laughs]

JS: Pick tomatoes.

SH: No, not those days. [Laughs]

GH: Working the farm.

SH: No, not working the farm. Too small.

Off camera: So you felt, you felt bored at times?

SH: No. It was nothing boring. It was more work. [Laughs]

Off camera: Just more work. So what did you want to do? You wanted to stay at home and read, or stay at home and meet with friends?

DG: Did you have a boyfriend?

Off camera: Yeah.

SH: Heck no. I don't know what I wanted to do. It wasn't that I hated school, but --

JS: Did you play, like, jacks and the... what's that game with the beanbag?

SH: Yeah, the beanbag. And that pick up sticks, marbles, those were the games in those days.

DG: Did you guys ride bikes around at all?

SH: No.

DG: So you either walked or your parents drove you.

SH: Yeah, my father always drove. He was the only one that had, drove us around. So wherever we went, he was the driver.

DG: Did your mother work on the farm with him?

SH: No. She had too many children, so she didn't have, she used to do a lot of sewing for the girls, make their clothes and cook for us, so that was more than enough for her to do, I think.

DG: And so you said your dad hired Nisei to help on the farm. Was that because it was a smaller farm and the Hiromoto's needed more people and so they went outside the community to hire? I'm wondering what the difference was. You know how he said they hired Arab and --

SH: Yeah, well, my father's crops didn't require that many people, so he didn't need to go out and gather men or crews.

DG: So he could hire teenage boys from...

SH: Yeah. Just as long as they drove a tractor or something that... other than that, there weren't too many he hired.

JS: Did he hire the Osaki brothers?

SH: No. [Laughs]

GH: They didn't work on the farm.

SH: They never farmed, no.

DG: So after Courtland school, did you go to Clarksburg High School? Or which high school did you go to?

SH: Clarksburg High.

DG: So you were there with Wayne.

SH: Yes.

GH: Did you go around the school, Clarksburg school? You should talk to Steve's wife, Donna.

JS: She teaches there?

GH: She's in the main office. She's a secretary there. She's well-known to all of 'em.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.