Densho Digital Archive - Kay Shimada Interview (denshovh-skay

<Begin Segment 13>

DG: Did you have children?

KS: Huh?

DG: Did you and your wife have children?

KS: Yeah, we had two.

DG: So how old were your kids when you quit farming? Were they out of, were they in college or out of college?

KS: No, they were, I think my son was, just graduated.

DG: From high school?

KS: High school. And my daughter was still in high school yet.

DG: So that's probably in the '70s? When did you, do you remember what years your children were born?

KS: My son was born '58 and my daughter was late '59. Yeah, we had two quick ones. That was enough. [Laughs]

DG: So the mid-1970s.

Off camera: Late '70s, yeah.

DG: So you quit farming by the mid '70s, maybe.

KS: Yeah, I guess. We were, we've been out of farming for quite a while now.

DG: And was it that you had bought property and were able to sell it for a high price --

KS: Yeah, we were able to.

DG: And then you were able to just retire.

KS: Yeah, so that's what we did.

DG: And your brothers too.

KS: We sold all of our equipment at a big auction, two day auction, and about two million dollars. Yeah, sold all the equipment, then whatever land we had, we sold that, and then we decided to be on our own. Then, by then I had, I suggested to my brother that we should have a retirement, take care of our retirement too, so we put some money in there. So I'm living on that retirement, social security, no money worry now. Yeah.

DG: Did your wife work?

KS: She used to work at a doctor's office. Yeah, she was not, but not a money maker. About five hours a day, six hours a day, and doctors, they don't pay much. [Laughs] But we got good health benefits out of them. It took care of us and the kids.

DG: So were you and your wife involved with the Holland Doshi Kai?

KS: No, my wife wasn't involved at all.

DG: Were you?

KS: I was, yeah. In fact, I'm still the president. I've been president for how long? They won't let me out.

DG: Well, and you retired early, so you had time.

KS: Yeah. [Laughs] I guess so. Usually, maybe three years, four years, that's the most, but they won't let me out. And I'm not that good of a speaker or anything. And annual picnics and dinner, that's all we have. I even, this fall, last fall we're supposed to have a little dinner together, but I even cancelled that because I had, I wasn't feeling good, anyway, at the time, so I told, doctor's order, I couldn't have any excitement. [Laughs] So that's what I told the people. I told the people, "So we'll skip this year," so that's what we did.