<Begin Segment 14>

SF: To go back a bit to the garage situation, did your wife and kids work on the garage?

GH: In what?

SF: Did your wife and kids work in your garage, or in the service center at all?

GH: No, no. She did all the, the accounting and the bookkeeping and sending the bills out and stuff. And that was a big help.

SF: So...

GH: But, well, I did require all the kids -- all of 'em, even the girls... well, not so much the girls, but all the guys had to help at least one, one summer or something like that. At least they know what the old man did for a living, you know, and so they all came in at some time in their, in their young period, and they worked at the shop.

SF: And they saw what hard work was really like, then, I suppose, huh?

GH: Well, and they knew how to maintain their own vehicles and stuff.

SF: Did any of them ever express any interest in taking over the garage or the service center?

GH: Well, the condition was that I would want them to work at least one, one time, and then I told them I didn't want to see them at the shop anymore.

SF: Huh.

GH: Yeah, I wanted them to do something else.

SF: Ah. Why did you want them to do something else if you had this good business going? Why not pass it on to one of the kids or something like that?

GH: It's a tough business; I mean, you're always greasy, and it's tough. Lot of hours and hard work and, I don't think, I think there's better, even financially, health-wise or anything else, I think it, there's something better. And I think that they're doing pretty well.

SF: So in your family, there was always the expectation that your kids would go on to college and get, quotes, "better jobs" and all of that sort of thing, huh?

GH: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.