<Begin Segment 8>

DG: So after the cannery in Roy, Utah, where did your family move next?

HS: My family moved, my mother and father and brother moved to Idaho to work in the potato shed, which I hear is backbreaking work. And my sister and I went to Utah, did housework, and then from Utah we went to Los Angeles to do childcare work.

DG: So when you say your sister and you were in Utah, you went to Salt Lake City?

HS: Salt Lake City?

DG: And how did you find those jobs?

HS: Must've been through a friend.

DG: Did you each, were you each live-in...

HS: Yes, live-in. It was good because my sister lived in the house right next door.

DG: And how were those families? Did they treat you okay?

HS: Yeah.

DG: How long did you do that?

HS: Think it was about a year. I remember when I, when my mother and father dropped me off, to where I was supposed to work, to do domestic, I just sat on the stairs and just cried and cried, hoping they would take me back home.

DG: I bet. So you were about nineteen, eighteen?

HS: No, I was probably seventeen. Sixteen, seventeen. I graduated high school earlier.

DG: So they drove you and dropped you off.

HS: Uh-huh.

DG: And then they went on to Colorado, you say?

HS: No, Idaho.

DG: Idaho. With your brother.

HS: Uh-huh.

DG: And so when you did the live-in domestic work, what were your tasks?

HS: Cook, clean house, vacuum every morning, every day.

DG: Did you know how to cook?

HS: No. [Laughs] Sure learned fast. I remember one morning I was supposed to, she had guests for breakfast and she gave me a lot of bacon to cook, so I put it underneath the broiler and it came out black. [Laughs] Never forget that.

DG: So you had to teach yourself on the job. Were there children in the house?

HS: Daughter and a son. They were young kids. They were very nice to me.

DG: Were you also taking care of them?

HS: Yes.

DG: And what was your sister's situation? Similar?

HS: Yeah, my sister was doing similar work, right next door.

DG: Do you have any other memories of Salt Lake City? Did you have time off?

HS: I think we had every other Thursday off.

DG: And what would you do then?

HS: We'd just take a bus, which was, I think it was ten cents fare, and go downtown and maybe go to a movie.

DG: Were there other Nisei in Salt Lake City that you met? Or was it just you and your sister?

HS: Just myself and my sister.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.