Densho Digital Archive - David Matsuoka Interview (denshovh-mdavid-01-0025)

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JS: So after the service, you were working, where were you working, in town?

DM: After the service? First I worked at... I used to work at McClellan Field before I left the service, to the service. But I was supposed to get my same job back because, you know, I got drafted, and they promised me the same job. But when I came, I used to be in electronic, McClelland Field. But when I came back, there's no opening in electronics, so they put me in electro-plating, and that was the worst job. You're working with acid, so your clothes got full of holes. So I worked there about a year and a half, and this (post office) mistress, I was talking about Walnut Grove, she asked me if I want to work for the post office in Walnut Grove. So I said, "Anything's better than what I'm doing now," so I said, "Okay." And I worked there for... '54 to '57. And then I says, "I'm going to have to leave here, 'cause I'm going to go to Sacramento." She said, "Why?" I said, "Well, I'm getting married, and I got no place to stay in Walnut Grove." So she started looking all over for me in Walnut Grove, and she couldn't find one. But she found one place where the upstairs in that area that I don't care for, and I said, "Not there." So she finally let me go. But she wouldn't give me no transfer to the Sacramento post office, 'cause she was kind of teed off, naturally, because working there for three years, and after that, I happened to leave her. But she was nice afterwards. So that's why I left Walnut Grove and I went to Sacramento.

JS: So if she was able to find a place, were you thinking about living in Walnut Grove, or you weren't interested?

DM: Not really, but...

JS: Uh-huh. And why weren't you interested?

DM: There's nothing there in Walnut Grove.

JS: So the town had changed, and there wasn't...

DM: There's nothing there, actually. Sacramento's... at least Sacramento there's some activity going on all the time.

JS: So a lot of your peers or your friends had moved out of Walnut Grove and they weren't living there anymore?

DM: No, nobody. Only the real older people stayed there, you know. But when I was working in Walnut Grove post office, they built a new post office. But when I started, it was all old building. And about, not one year's time, they went into the new post. I used to work as a custodian there, after the evening, I worked, clean up the place. And then the guy at that Walnut Grove theater asked me to run the projector for him. Said, "Sure, I need the money," so I said, "Yeah." Then when we went to the new post office, they took me off of custodian because (of the new) building... I still run the theater, so I had two jobs. And the reason I had to do that was I needed money so we could get married in '57. And postmistress came up to me one Saturday and come to see what I was... "Ah-ha, you got another job, huh?" She didn't say that, but... so she came to check up on me. She didn't say anything.

JS: So your fiance, or your future wife, was she working in Walnut Grove?

DM: She was in Walnut Grove bank.

JS: The bank.

DM: The Bank of Alex Brown.

JS: Okay, and your sister worked there as well.

DM: Her sister?

JS: Your sister.

DM: No, no. My sister...

JS: Oh, your wife did?

DM: Yeah. I don't think she worked there, my sister.

JS: Okay.

DM: I think her sister worked there.

JS: Oh, okay.

DM: Maybe my sister did, but I don't know if she did or not. I don't remember that.

JS: You don't remember that? Okay. And so was she ready to leave Walnut Grove, too, or did she want to stay?

DM: Where, my wife?

JS: Uh-huh.

DM: No, she was willing to go to... you know. We got to have place to stay. Nice.

JS: So, but your brother stayed. Your brother continued the business.

DM: Shoe store? (Yes).

JS: Shoe store, and his wife.

DM: Well, they more or less took over the house.

JS: They took over the house.

DM: My dad's. You know how the oldest one gets everything? [Laughs] But good thing I did move to Sacramento. There's a lot of things that opened up for us.