<Begin Segment 22>

TI: Okay, so we're gonna start the third part, and you, you were talking about, well, you finished the, working with Mr. Steven Castle at the, the finishing company. And that was located, you mentioned Santa Clara?

LH: In Santa Clara on Lafayette.

TI: So when did that end? About what year did that end?

LH: Let's see, I got married in '48... probably '47, '47 or sometime in 1948, 'cause we got married in October, so it could've been, probably early '48.

TI: So after Mr. Castle decided to close the business down, what did you do next?

LH: I was working in the, with my mother, the strawberries off and on, and then I got that job with him. What did I do after?

TI: After. After.

LH: Oh, I got married while I was there.

TI: Okay. And so tell me who your husband was and, and what was your husband's name?

LH: My husband's name was Eige Hioki, but he, like myself, got the name Ernest for school purposes, so they called him Ernie. But his old friends, hakuijin and Japanese, still called him Eige.

TI: And so you got married to Ernie, and what was he doing at this time?

LH: It was after the war and they couldn't start the laundry because all those different circumstances, and he was working for a Chinese merchant, grocery store on First Street, and this Chinese grocery store had fruit and vegetables and, I think, a meat market in the back. I forgot, 'cause there was two on First Street, one on South First and one on North and he was on the one with, on the North First Street side. So he came to buy strawberries where I was working in Santa Clara with my mother, and I don't know, we got to talking and that's how we met. And the funny part was my mother knew his grandfather 'cause my mother was in Japan when his grandfather came back from here to die because he got cancer, so he went back to Japan to die and my mother was there, so she knew the name. And she remembered his wife, 'cause I think his wife was (...) in Japan and he came here to open up the laundry and, and the oldest son, my father-in-law, came with him. And he, they had, my father-in-law had a brother, too, but he was the oldest son, so he came with the father.

TI: So you met him when you (picked) strawberries (...).

LH: Right.

TI: And he found out your mother knew the family already, so that was...

LH: Right, and that makes a difference. I, because I remember going out with, I never had that many dates. I guess I was busy working. Well anyway, maybe I went out once or twice and they always ask you who and then my father's getting worried 'cause I'm twenty already and not married and he wanted me to marry a family friend's son. Well, I knew him, but I didn't know him enough and I said no. Well anyway, so I guess I met my husband when I was about twenty-one.

TI: And the fact that your mother knew the family made a difference?

LH: Made a difference. Right.

TI: Good.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.