<Begin Segment 3>

DG: So the farm in West Sacramento, was that when your parents were doing seed crops?

HS: Yes.

DG: And did you kids help in the fields?

HS: We did. During summer vacation we, 'cause that's harvest time, so we helped. To me, it was fun, more fun than going to school. We would, my mother and father would wake up early in the morning, like one o'clock in the morning, because that's when there's dew, and then when you cut, for instance, when you cut the lettuce crops for the seeds, it wouldn't fall.

DG: The seeds wouldn't fall.

HS: And then our job, as kids, we were in the wagon and then they would throw the bags of the cut lettuce tops to us and we'd just dump the bags and tromp on it. And what I remember about doing that was, from where we were, we could see the Tower Bridge, the lights on the Tower Bridge. I thought that was beautiful.

DG: And it was still dark.

HS: Oh yeah, 'cause they would wake up in the middle of the night to do it. As I mentioned earlier, if they waited until it got hot -- in the morning it got pretty hot too -- all the seeds would fall. If you shake it, it would just fall to the ground.

DG: That' so interesting. Did they ever have to hire additional help?

HS: During harvest, they did. My father would drive every morning to Third Street, where there were a lot of, well, unemployed hobos, I guess. [Laughs]

DG: Issei?

HS: Pardon?

DG: Were they Japanese Americans?

HS: No, they were Caucasians. And he would promise them a cup of wine, and that's how he got those laborers. [Laughs]

DG: So Third Street and where? Do you know where?

HS: It was Third Street, probably about on, let me see... well, Japanese Town, around there. I'm not too sure of the, whether it was before M Street or...

DG: So that was kind of the skid row area?

HS: Probably.

DG: And it was next to Japantown. So he'd be able to get some people to come just for a glass of wine?

HS: Well, that was an incentive for them. But we had to pick them up every morning and bring them back, 'cause they had no transportation.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.