<Begin Segment 18>

MA: Well, is there anything else you'd like to talk about?

IO: Well, about the only thing I could say is nowadays, we have family gatherings, either my side or my wife's side, and usually about twenty to thirty people get together. 'Cause we have no children, so this is all, just nephews and nieces, only all the nephews and nieces on my side of the family are all growing up. In fact, one nephew's son was a professional hockey player for about six years. He just had to retire 'cause of injuries. Now he's going back to college. [Laughs]

MA: This is on your side?

IO: Yeah, my side, and he's about six-feet-two. Well, he's half Japanese and half Caucasian. In fact, there's, I got three brothers and myself, so there's four boys, three of us have Caucasian wives. Only one brother has a Nisei wife, and she's passed away. He's in his eighties now, he went back to work after his wife died. [Laughs]

MA: And do your brothers still live in the area?

IO: Well, no, one brother lives here, and one sister, the youngest sister lives here, and I got a brother in Lynwood, Washington, and a brother in Morristown, New Jersey, and a sister in Newton, Massachusetts. And as far as our family, the only one that's passed away is my sister Yuri, she used to live in the suburb here, Burnsville. She's been gone at least, it was in the late '90s, I can't remember exactly. And her husband also is passed away, so they're both gone. But on my side of the family, two brothers are now, yeah, one is, Ron is eighty, and John is about eighty-two, eighty-three, and I'm eighty-eight. Then my sister May is eighty-five, I guess. So then my sister here in town, she's about seventy-six, seventy-five or seventy-six. And then the youngest brother's about, not quite seventy, maybe sixty-nine or seventy, I can't remember. [Laughs]

MA: Well, it sounds like you have quite a large family still.

IO: Yeah. So I guess we look forward to the holiday gatherings, and we've enjoyed it. And since I sold my house and we moved into a condo, and it's now 1997 when I moved into a condo. And so I sit and watch people mow the lawn and shovel snow, I don't have to do that anymore. And I go, five days a week I go to the YMCA and work out and have a good time. [Laughs] [Interruption] When I went, after I got married, after I married Carmel, we went mostly for modern ballroom dancing, didn't do the old-time that much. She was more into that than I was. I used to dance up to five days a week, old-time dancing. I used to go alone or else go with some Caucasian fellows that I knew. Then, of course, you make the rounds and you know a lot of the same people are making all the rounds anyway, so you see 'em all. So that's about all I can say, I guess.

MA: Great. Well, is there anything else before we finish up?

IO: I just... don't think there is.

MA: Okay. Well, thank you so much.

IO: Oh, well, this was a lot easier than I thought. [Laughs]

MA: [Laughs] Well, good, it was very enjoyable.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.