<Begin Segment 15>

AM: Now, getting back to your own barber shop, what was a typical day like in your shop?

JS: Well, barbering is, at that time, was, you have mostly farmers, and it was, the hours are long at that time, but then we got down to where, little more educated and started cutting our hours down. And in between I had, my back room, I had my friends come in, we used to play cards in-between customers. And that was a lot of fun.

AM: Some of the card games you played, you told me were...

JS: Yeah, we played rummy, poker, whatever. Hana.

AM: So, yeah, and then you talk about your Saturday night poker games, so it wasn't just during the week you played poker, huh?

JS: No. Every Saturday, we played poker every Saturday.

AM: How many guys?

JS: We still do. [Laughs]

AM: Oh, you still do? In the same place?

JS: Yeah. Yeah, it's all empty now, but the old place there, we still play cards on Saturdays.

AM: So you have your table and your chairs and your chips, and...

JS: Yeah, yeah, and a kitchen.

AM: And a kitchen. So you eat as well? Wow. Okay, and who are the friends that still play with you? Are they the same friends?

JS: Well, there's not too many left. We have new ones coming in, but the old-timers all kind of passed up now, passed away.

AM: And how do the new recruits get into your game?

JS: Well, they come in and they --

AM: Are they friends of friends?

JS: -- somebody brings somebody in and that's how it goes.

AM: Okay. Just to get back to how many hours you worked, when you worked with Clark, you worked, like, longer --

JS: Oh yeah, we worked long hours, because we had a, we didn't have a closing hour. And we worked 'til they, they quit coming. And in fact, lot of the people used to go to movies and come back and get a haircut after. That was about eleven o'clock at night. So we worked late.

AM: And then when you started your own shop, you had more reasonable hours, you said.

JS: Yeah, reasonable hours, uh-huh.

AM: Okay, did you have any other workers working for you?

JS: No, I had a one-man shop.

AM: And was there ever a time you thought about expanding or getting more chairs?

JS: No.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.