<Begin Segment 10>

MA: So going back a little bit to San Francisco, what type of work did your father do when you were living there?

AH: He went back to laundry cleaning business.

MA: Did he work in a laundry, or did he sort of open up his own laundry?

AH: He, he went back to, you know, I think a couple of the businesses that were already established, but he tried to do it on his own and didn't do it very well and had a nervous breakdown, I remember that. It was a very sad, sad time. I remember that very vividly. And my mom and dad would have arguments, and there was a lot of stress there. And you know, things happen for a reason. My uncle had a very successful miso business in Salt Lake City, and his mother passed away, who did, she helped a lot with the business, packaging things and all that. So he called my father to say, "If you want to, I would just love to have you and your family move back to Salt Lake and help continue with the business," so we moved back to Utah.

MA: Oh, okay.

AH: That's how we came back.

MA: And how old were you at that time?

AH: I was twelve, I think I started sixth grade at Jackson elementary school here, and then went to junior high school, Jackson junior, and then West High School and graduated.

MA: How did you feel about leaving San Francisco at that age?

AH: I was happy.

MA: You were happy.

AH: Oh, yeah. 'Cause I just, because I used to come to Salt Lake during summertime, my aunt and uncle, the one, Rae and her husband who had the miso factory would come and pick my brother and I up to come to Salt Lake on vacation, and we kept, we just had a ball.

MA: So you have happy memories of that time from Salt Lake City.

AH: Right, uh-huh.

MA: So where, where did you move to when you came back to Salt Lake, what neighborhood?

AH: Let's see. We lived right next door to my aunt and uncle. It wasn't too far from the duplex that we lived right after Topaz. And they had a nice home, and we lived in a little tiny house until another house was sold, we bought another home. We stayed really quite close to my aunt and uncle. It was really an interesting relationship, it was kind of a dependent kind of relationship.

MA: And this was the aunt and uncle who operated the miso factory, Grace's parents.

AH: Right, uh-huh.

MA: And did your father at that time work at the miso factory?

AH: Uh-huh. When he came back, that's all he did.

MA: What type of work did he do there?

AH: He learned, there's a secret formula in making the miso from soybean, and so he carried that with him. And so he was a laborer, he was blue collar, and yet he was real important in the business to keep it going and everything. He and my aunt and uncle, well, obviously they got along really well. And we never had a car in the family but it was my aunt and uncle that drove us all over, or we learned how to ride the bus, buses in Salt Lake City.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.