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JS: So can you describe the bicycle shop and what it was like and who the customers were?

KM: The customers were mostly Italian, because we lived close to an Italian district. And the bicycle, Dad used to tell me that some of the workers there was, farm laborers would ride their bicycles out to, towards Hanford, which was another 30 miles. They would ride out in the dark, go out there, and they would prune the vines. When it's dark, they'd drive, ride back, and they were paid dollar a day back then in 1915.

JS: And they're riding on, like, dirt roads?

KM: Dirt roads, they were on dirt roads, uh-huh. And they'd come in, a lot of 'em, they'd have a flat tire. And back then, they didn't have the tools to fix the flat tires. So my dad would stay open late and they'd come in, and the Italians would come in and they'd say, "Hey, Maruk," you know, Italian language. [Laughs] "Hey, Maruk," he'd say, "I got a flat tire. I got to go to work tomorrow, can I get it fixed?" [Laughs] He would charge them a dime or fifteen, no, fifteen cents for the brass plugs, and the rubber plugs were ten cents. But that was big money then. And the bicycles, the rims were made out of wood, and the tires, we had to glue it on, glue the tires onto the rims. And then if you didn't let the glue dry, the stem would bend, so you had to buy another tire.

TI: Now, so back then, was the bicycle a big advantage over, like, a horse? I mean, for what they were doing, it seemed like those dirt roads, a horse might be a little more reliable than a bicycle.

KM: Yeah, yeah, but a horse, you'd have to feed it, water it, clean it, all that. So they used the bicycle. A lot of places, they had asphalt already, so it wasn't the best asphalt back then, but they had asphalt. I remember in town they had asphalt, and guys would park their motorcycle, put their side stand down and they would get so hot in the summertime that the asphalt would melt, it'd get soft, and the motorcycle would lean over and fall down. It digs into the dirt, asphalt, that's why.

JS: So were there different types of bicycles for those that were riding long distances versus in the city?

KM: Yeah, back then it was a regular bicycle. They didn't have any racing bicycles, they didn't manufacture any back then, because the kids bring a racing. But if you wanted to race, you'd make your own racing bikes. But actually, there wasn't any racing. It was more basic transportation is what they were using bicycle for.

JS: So who worked at the bicycle shop?

KM: My dad and, I think it was it was in the picture, there's four or five, the big older photo had, I think he had five mechanics, that's how busy they were. I think there was another Japanese bicycle shop in town, too, the Kebo Cyclery on G Street.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.