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TI: Okay, so you said you were there just for a few years and then went to Fruitdale (Avenue) after that?

LH: Right. Well, we went from, from First Street we moved to Alviso for a while because, I don't know why we had to move, but we did. But they had that cannery in town of Alviso. I think it was owned by Chinese, and for some reason it was not a cannery anymore, but they had the cold storage place yet, so I know that they stored pears there in cold storage, but they had these cabins where the workers used to stay. In those days most canneries had cabins for workers, 'cause even in San Jose the Del Monte had the cabins where some workers stayed, so they rented my father, they let my father rent that one cabin for us for not too long. We were there not very long, but, and I guess he still worked in the orchard and my mother probably still worked for Ikedas, but because we just went to school, but I remember walking around the canals and the water... but that's all I remember.

TI: Okay.

LH: And that cannery I don't think is there anymore. But the town hasn't changed that much. The school is, I don't think it's there anymore, but the Palm Tree is and some of the stores are old, but they're there, and some of the restaurants. And there used to be, I think I told you, there was a oyster bed place there and I remember that huge mountain of oyster shells, so they must've been harvesting oysters before there, because that was a port city then and they had the yacht club. And in that time it was starting to deteriorate. The yacht club was not popular, and then on that same street going around following the levy there was a dance hall and we remember the Filipino men used to go there to, they, to dance because they were all single people. And so the oyster bed was there, which has disappeared, and then I don't think the dance hall is there anymore. Val's is still there.

TI: You also mentioned like a race track?

LH: Oh, that's right. Past the Ikeda's ranch there was a race track and they raced those greyhound dogs, and that was at the end of that era because that disappeared, too. I think while we were there they tore it down, but it was, there was a greyhound racetrack.

SF: Did the Japanese like to go bet on the dogs? Or, or did they...

LH: I don't know, because that's the first time I knew what a greyhound racetrack, I mean a greyhound dog looked like. I never even heard of a greyhound dog before, but it, it disappeared while we were there. Just like the yacht club.

TI: I'm wondering, with all the, the laborers and things like that, were there, like, places like gambling places in Alviso, in that area?

LH: There probably was. Maybe that dance hall might've been a gambling place. I don't know. But I know people gambled because, maybe in Chinatown, because I remember the Filipinos used to have these little things with the green brush strokes on the numbers (about 5"x6" sheets of paper with numbers). Is that keno? I... 'cause I don't gamble, but I think there's a thing called keno that you could... but I do remember those little pieces of paper with the green brush strokes, so there was gambling somewhere. Chinatown, maybe, in San Jose. It might've been. I don't know.

TI: Okay, so after Alviso where did you go? After the...

LH: We went to -- the other thing I wanted to tell you about Alviso, we had ditches on both sides and I remember, because I was, what would you call it? Not bullied, but I was not liked. I didn't, I don't know, people just didn't like me for some reason, so I used to walk home the long way through the orchard and then sometimes I'd walk in the ditches. And you know what I found in the ditches? Asparagus growing. Wild asparagus. So I used to pick those and bring it home. And then when I'd come home the other way, well, there was these small ditches and they had asparagus growing there, so I did discover that asparagus, the water brings the seed along or whatever, but I do remember that. And then that was another part of my life, was just, you know... I was always a happy person, but for some reason the girls didn't really get along with me and I was just a passive person, I thought. So my friend was, there was one lady that had polio, one girl, and I used to play jacks with her, and she was my friend. And do you know what? After -- they moved to Stockton -- and after all these years she comes to our church now, and when she came I remembered her, but she didn't remember me and she, since then there were improvements made for people with polio. In those days she had those leather things here with the metal to hold her legs so she could walk. Well now she walks with a mobile wheelchair, but before she got that she was walking with the, a walker, but she did well. She married and had a good life. She has a daughter and they both come to our church. But it was so amazing to see her after all these years 'cause I never forgot her for being my friend.

TI: Good. Anything else about Alviso before we move on?

LH: No, but I got to know all the people.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.