<Begin Segment 9>

MA: So can you tell me a little bit about Harry and his family, what work they did?

CY: Well, Harry used to be a bookkeeper for M.L. Kalich packing shed, and that's what, that's when I got married to him, he was bookkeeper there. And they're the people that helped us when we went to internment camp, for storing their property and things like that. And their son-in-law took care of the, our property while we were away.

MA: And what was their name?

CY: The man that took care of the property? L.A. Beckis, Louis Beckis.

MA: And they ran a...

CY: He was a real estate man, and so he took care of our property.

MA: So Harry was bookkeeping, what did his folks do, what type of work?

CY: Father and mother both were barbers, and they used to have a, they had, he started barbering in Pajaro, that's where (he started the shop in) 1910, and he had a pool hall and a barber shop. And my mother-in-law used to run the pool hall, and the father was a barber. But later on, she was barbering, too, because those days, you know, you didn't have to go through what they have to go now, they have to go school and have to have, work under a licensed barber for six months to get the license and all that. But those days, you just barber. [Laughs]

MA: And you mentioned you, that was on the Pajaro side.

CY: Yes, uh-huh, (it's Monterey County).

MA: What were the, was there a big Japanese American community on that side?

CY: There used to be quite a few Japanese in Pajaro, uh-huh. But later on, they bought the property where I am now, and they built their own shop. They built it in 1940, so when the war broke out, they had to make payments on the (building) yet. But the property was theirs, but the new building that they built for the barber shop and the tackle shop, they didn't have the pool hall anymore.

MA: So did they have the property in Harry's name?

CY: It's at Harry's name.

MA: Oh, okay, so they actually owned the property.

CY: Oh, yes, uh-huh. 'Cause the father can't have, couldn't have it under his name.

MA: Right, right.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.