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TI: So I want to talk a little bit about the house, because you said 1938, and so both of you were kind of young, but about twelve or so when you moved into the house. Do you remember moving into the house, and what was that like? So Eiko, I'll ask you first. So when you first, when your dad bought the Redman House and you first went there, what did you think?
EN: Well, they had a lot of room to -- we all had to decide which room we were gonna sleep in.
TI: So was it pretty exciting? I mean, what were you living in before the Redman House? What was that like?
EN: There was a house before that Redman House. Going down the Beach, there's a house there that we were living in before we moved in there.
TI: And how big was that house?
EN: Half of the size, huh?
YN: Yeah.
TI: And so at that time, there were two, four, six, eight, about eight or nine kids when you moved into the Redman House. And so your parents bought the house, and when you moved in, how did you decide who got which room? I mean, you said all of a sudden there was more room. How was that decided?
EN: [Laughs] Well, my mother, I guess, told us where to sleep, I guess. We had to all crowd in together, you know, in double beds and single beds. The boys got their room and the girls got their room.
TI: Even at the Redman House? Because it looks like there were quite a few rooms there. You still had to, to share quite a few people to each room?
EN: Uh-huh. And then one room was, upstairs, was kept for, we had to go to learn Japanese. A teacher came to teach us, my mother, that was her dream, was for us to learn how to speak good Japanese. Because when we get married, we had to know how to speak Japanese. [Laughs]
TI: So your parents had a special room for that upstairs?
EN: Uh-huh.
TI: And the Japanese teacher would come to your house to teach all the kids?
EN: Yes, uh-huh.
TI: Would they also teach other kids or just your family?
EN: No, just ours, there was five of us that was able to learn Japanese then. My mother got in contact with this Japanese school teacher on Riverside Road here in Watsonville. And Saturdays, it was Saturdays, wasn't it? We used to have to learn, but I'm sorry I didn't learn more than I did because had a terrible time when you get married to, inside an Issei family, it's hard. 'Cause I had to live together with them all my life.
TI: So going back to the living arrangements, so like your bedroom, who did you share? I'll ask Yoshiko, so in your bedroom, who else was living in your room?
YN: All the girls, most of the girls.
EN: Because that was the biggest room, huh?
YN: Yeah.
TI: And so how many girls were there in that room?
YN: Must have been at least four.
EN: Four or five. Because there's one real small room that I had, and my oldest brother got one small room by himself.
TI: Oh, so you had your own separate room?
EN: Uh-huh.
TI: Boy, that was kind of nice, wasn't it, to have your own room? [Laughs] And then your older brother had a room, too. And then the younger siblings shared. So there were four or five in your room.
EN: And then there's another room for the boys.
TI: And then your parents had a, their bedroom also.
EN: Yes, downstairs, they had.
TI: So how many bedrooms are in that house? Five or six?
EN: Well, we... my mother's room was downstairs, but the rest of the rooms were living rooms and extra rooms, and kitchen and dining room.
TI: And so at night, after the work is done, which room did the family spend most time?
YN: The TV -- we didn't have TVs then, but it was called that afterwards.
EN: We had two rooms that we had to eat because there's so many of us. One in the kitchen, we used to have a big round table. And in the dining room was a square, long table. So we had to share. [Laughs] We get our food and we have to go into those two rooms.
TI: Yeah, so with all the kids and the parents, who sat at the round table and who sat at the long...
EN: Well, the younger ones stayed with my mother, and the older ones at that square table, long table.
TI: And tell me about when you ate dinner with your father? Was it a little more formal, or was it pretty noisy, or what was it like?
YN: It was quiet. He worked so hard, he comes home late, and so actually, we weren't that formal.
TI: And so Eiko, did you eat on the long table or did you help your mom with the round table?
EN: We'll help her and then we'd take our dinner into the long table. [Laughs]
<End Segment 10> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.