<Begin Segment 28>

TI: And over those years, how had Watsonville changed?

SK: Well, I started working, Carl Wada, he was recruiting for labor work. So we worked for, with him, thin lettuce or cutting beets or pick blackberries. Anywhere there was a job, he would send us. 'Til I got a job with Sheehy, I started working over there, irrigator. So then there was a Filipino guy that used to work for him, and he asked me, "Do you want to drive a tractor?" and I says, "I never drove tractor. I drove horses, but never tractor." Said, "I'll teach you." And I started driving tractor, irrigating, maybe fourteen, fifteen years, 'til I found the ranch and bought the ranch.

TI: And about what year was that when you bought your ranch?

SK: 1959.

TI: So 1959 you bought a ranch, and how large a ranch was this?

SK: It was 20 acres, but I bought the first 10 acres with the option to buy the other ten. So I bought, soon as the option came up, I bought the other ten.

TI: And where did you get the money to buy this? Was this something that you had saved?

SK: I had saved enough, but when I had children and everything already, the wife of the Sheehys, she said, "I'll lend you the money." So I borrowed ten thousand from them, and in a couple of years, I paid it back.

TI: And do you still have the farm and the ranch?

SK: Yeah.

TI: So all these years, you've kept it up. Is it still actively being farmed?

SK: I leased it out this year.

TI: So up until last year, you were still farming?

SK: Yeah.

TI: That's amazing, Sho.

SK: And my son-in-law was helping, but he wanted to retire. Young people, when they get about sixty, they want to retire.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.