Densho Digital Archive - Fred Oda Interview (denshovh-ofred

<Begin Segment 26>

TI: So you finished barber school in San Francisco, and then you come back to Watsonville. And did you start your own shop or did you work with your father?

FO: No, you got to apprentice, yeah. Apprenticed with him, then I worked with my dad, yeah.

TI: And how was it working with your dad?

FO: Huh?

TI: How was it working with side by side with your father? What was that like?

FO: Well, I guess, I don't know because I never did work some other place. I wouldn't know how the difference in the feeling.

TI: But you had other jobs, you worked at tire, the tire place, and so you had different types of jobs. And now you're, all of a sudden, back in Watsonville working next to your father. Was that a positive experience for you?

FO: I don't think so, because everything's there, so you got no initiative to, you know, rent your own place and stuff like that. So it's an easy setup for me.

TI: Oh, so you're, what I'm hearing is almost, so it was too easy for you, in some ways.

FO: Oh, yeah. Because if I was an average guy, I'd get out and they'd have to find me a job so I could apprentice. And you know how it works, they won't hire you because you haven't got any experience. And how you going to get experience unless you work? And they won't give you a job because you don't have experience. [Laughs] It's a tough go, yeah.

TI: Yeah, so for most guys coming out of barber school, it was pretty rough. But for you, you had a place to...

FO: Yeah, that's what I said, yeah. That's what I said.

TI: And so in some ways, you made it sound like, but that was a bad thing for you, because it was too easy for you?

FO: That's right.

TI: Because you thought if it were harder, you would have learned more?

FO: Yeah, yeah.

TI: That's interesting. And how many years were you able to work with your father? Because eventually he, I think he retired.

FO: Yeah, yeah, he retired.

TI: So how long did you work together?

FO: I guess I worked with him about, I don't know how many years. I never did keep track.

TI: But was it more than, what, five years?

FO: Oh, yeah, yeah, more than that. Because he used to have all this Issei guy come, they play go and shogi and all that stuff.

TI: Oh, so the barber shop was almost like a social place, too. So people would come, and some of the Isseis would hang out there.

FO: Well, the ones that played those things, yeah.

TI: And would they play in the front area or would they be in the back?

FO: Back, yeah.

TI: And so your dad would go back there and play with them, too, if there were no customers?

FO: Yeah. And had a good chance for me to observe the Issei, you know, how they act and stuff, yeah. Some guys, they talk like heck, and soon as he gets through what he has to say, he wouldn't listen to the other guy. [Laughs] And there's other guys that quiet and just listen, you study all kind of characters, yeah.

TI: And did you enjoy that? Did you enjoy kind of watching the Isseis together?

FO: Well, I enjoyed observing people, like barbershop, you get all kind of different customers. Some guys crying all the time, some guys positive, never have a negative attitude, you know. Observe all kind of people, yeah.

TI: Yeah, I'm sure you do. And so after your dad retired, did the same customers just keep coming to you and you just did that?

FO: Yeah. Then I'd lose some, yeah, naturally. [Laughs] Because I told you my dad was a master, huh?

TI: And then during this time, what was your mother doing?

FO: Huh?

TI: Your mother. What was your mother doing during this time? So you're back in Watsonville...

FO: Yeah, she was running the bathhouse, yeah.

TI: Oh, so you were working with both parents, your mom and dad are both there?

FO: Yeah.

TI: And how was that working with --

FO: My mom, she worked out in the ranch, too, yeah.

TI: And so that was, it sounds like, a pretty hard life for your mother, if she worked the ranch?

FO: Oh, for all the Isseis, yeah. Especially in Hawaii, yeah. The Isseis in Hawaii, they both, husband and wife worked in the plantations.