<Begin Segment 17>

TI: So let's, let's talk about some of those other jobs. So you talked about going from the school in the, in the winter -- or, I'm sorry, yeah, winter -- to thinning, so you had sugar beet...

LH: Sugar beet thinning.

TI: And describe that. What did you do for sugar beet thinning?

LH: Well, the first year was torture, for me. It was torture. I'd never, it's really backbreaking because it's, you have a short handled hoe and you have to bend over and you hoe the ground. The sugar beet must be about three inches tall and the rows could be very long or, they're mostly long rows and you have to, the thing is to remove everything but one every maybe eight inches, 'cause that gives the sugar beet four inches to grow on both sides. Well anyway, so you, with one hand, the right hand you're using the hoe to remove and with the left hand you, you hold the one you want to save and you remove this, and then you take another step and move and then save this, and it's just a continuous step over step and removing and saving, removing and saving, saving the good one and the strongest looking one. And you do that all day. And we probably took breaks and it wasn't long; they, it was not compulsory or anything. It's not like now we have the law, but in those days there weren't such things and if we did have breaks it was water and I don't remember anything else. But I do remember the jug of water and they covered it up with wet burlap to keep it cool. And for lunch we always had obento in a container and it, everybody had rice and some kind of okazu like thing, and I don't think we took an hour off. We, because it was piece work, everything was piece work, so when you're thinning and you get started and you look back and everybody, the fast ones are way over there, the slow ones are here, and I was not a fast one, so I was, the first year especially. You could look and it's, it's a sight to see because there're all these people and some are there, some are here. It's just a picture. You could frame it.

TI: And how, how many would be out there at a time?

LH: Well, with all those people, I don't know, more than twenty-five.

TI: And so would your whole family, or who in your family would be there?

LH: My father, my mother, my brother and I, and all the Kanemotos and their, well they, none of 'em had children old enough, so yeah, my brother and I, probably, and then the Kaku sisters. Oh, and the others, the Taos had the boys, and Helen Yoshiyama... yeah, we were the youngest, fifteen, sixteen.

TI: How long would that thinning season go on?

LH: Until the cherries started, and that was, so would that be May, end of May? Probably. May, June.

TI: And you would start in...

LH: Then we would start the cherries --

TI: No, but before cherries, so when would you start the thinning? You would start in...

LH: Probably May some time.

TI: Okay, so about a whole month of thinning.

LH: I think it was maybe a little more than a month, and after all the fields were done, like I said, from southern Tremonton to Malad City in Idaho. And at the time it was work, so we did what we had to, but looking back I though, my gosh, we went from here to here and then I looked at the map the other day and I thought, oh my gosh, we must've gone fifty miles that way, fifty miles, but it isn't. It's not that far. Maybe we did go almost fifty miles, but not quite. Yeah.

TI: Okay. And then you said cherries, so what was that, cherry picking?

LH: Well, the first cherries are the Montmorency's. They're clear, bright orange cherries and you have to pick them as fast as you can into a bucket because they're made into pie cherries, so we didn't need the stems. But they're so pretty and they're so translucent, this dark orange, and they're sour, so they called 'em sour cherries. But those are the first ones we picked, and so in order to -- and I don't remember how many pounds it held -- it took a lot because there's no stems on 'em, but the ones that are fast in sugar beets are fast with their fingers picking cherries, too. And it's usually most, some of the men were really fast, and I know my mother was fast. The ladies, the mothers were fast, too. But I don't consider myself fast, but I tried. My brother was faster than I was, but anyway, it was, it was work. The other thing was that we had to carry a ladder, so we learned how to carry a ladder to hold it so it won't tip, so I know how to handle a ladder now. And I look back and I think, oh gosh, my mother used to carry a ladder, but you know, if I think back, they were in their thirties and forties yet, so they're in their prime yet. And I don't regret it because I did learn how to carry a ladder, so when I do my yard work I know how to handle a ladder. And picking, my parents had persimmon tree and they had orange trees and so I used to use, and walnuts, so I did use the ladder.

TI: So you learned all these practical skills.

LH: Exactly. Exactly.

TI: So after these cherries, what was next?

LH: Then the Tartarians. It's just like here, Tartarians, and then the Bings and last was the Royal Anne's, but we did all the cherries and, but in between, if they needed us to hoe the sugar beets we did go. And every ranch didn't require hoeing, so we did hoe when we had to, and then from there we went on to the apricots and those you picked in a canvas bag that we carried around and it was put right in front and the bottom came out when we put it in the box. It was different for the apricots and peaches. Apricots, I don't remember too much, but the peaches were so good that these huge Hales and the Albertas, you just can't find those anymore, but they were, and they were known for their fruit.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.