<Begin Segment 4>

JS: So when you... when you were in Seattle, what was Mr. Fujimura, was he working there?

RN: Yeah.

JS: What type of business was he, what was he doing?

RN: Yeah. He used to do all the, my clothes. He used to go to... there was a produce man that goes every week to Seattle, so my father, I call him Father, he used to take a ride on this bus, on his bus, and he'd come back with all kinds of clothes. He'd bring a suit, I remember a red suit, and different kind of clothes. He liked to dress me up. [Laughs]

JS: So they were pretty well-to-do when they came. They had money to spend on you.

RN: Yeah.

KN: Do you remember what he did for a living, Mom?

RN: Huh?

KN: Do you remember what...

RN: What he did for a living? I don't know.

KN: How about Grandma Fujimura?

RN: Grandma Fujimura, she was haikara, you know... very... so she used to dress me up. [Indicating photograph] That dress that I have on has a little fur on the bottom, little fur all around.

JS: Oh, right. It's beautiful.

RN: She had two or three dresses made for my friends, my girlfriend, so we all had the same kind.

JS: So you were like a little princess. [Laughs] So then you came to Fresno, and this is Mr. Fujimura's business.

RN: Yeah, he had a little grocery store, grocery store and a soft drink company.

JS: Soft drink.

RN: Yeah.

JS: And in this picture, there's a parrot on his shoulder.

RN: Yeah, that was my father's parrot.

JS: His parrot. What color, can you describe the parrot? What color was it, do you remember?

RN: She was, she'd say, "Haro, haro, haro." [Laughs]

JS: [Laughs] She'd say, "Haro." So she would sit on his shoulder while he tended the store?

RN: Yeah.

JS: Wow. That's interesting.

KN: You know, Mom, going back to the dresses you were wearing, can you tell Jill that story about how you wanted to send your old dresses to your sisters?

RN: Yeah. Then my sister-in-law wouldn't, she'd make the dresses smaller and give it to her own kids. So they never got the dress that I sent.

JS: And so what happened? She wrote to you and told you that?

RN: Yeah, and so my sister, older sister was there, and she says that, "Don't send any, any clothes, because it'd be nothing but tears." Because it was meant for her sister, but she would make it smaller and give it to her kids. So she says, "Don't send no more dress." And they were all nice dresses, you know.

JS: So they were never able to enjoy the dresses, your sisters weren't.

RN: No, uh-huh.

JS: Wow.

KN: And didn't you feel sometimes funny, Mom, wearing the new clothes at school? Some of kids would maybe be jealous or envious?

RN: Uh-huh. There was one girl, Alice Stiglets, her folks had a store. She, I used to compete with her. She'd buy another shoe, I'd be interested in new shoe, you know, dress. She was the only daughter, I was the only daughter.

JS: And did she live in Chinatown, too?

RN: No.

JS: Where was her...

RN: I just knew her in school.

JS: At school.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.