<Begin Segment 15>

SF: So looking back, what would you say was the most rewarding part of your job, of running George's Service Center?

GH: Well, I think that the guys that I worked with, the guys that I met, and mostly the customers that came in that I got to know, and they became friends, I think that was the rewarding part of the business, you know. Not so much the... well, the financial is fine, but I developed some real close friends while I was in the business.

SF: Did, did George's ever become kind of a hangout?

GH: Not so much of a hangout, you know. It was, the space is small and there's no place to park, and the office is real small. But yeah, we did have some people hanging around in...

SF: So looking back, what would you say would be the worst parts of running George's Service Station?

GH: Besides the hours and the hard work? Yeah, well, that's about it, I think. There's nothing that I would say that I didn't like about it.

SF: So looking back, you'd say that it was a pretty, pretty good thing, huh?

GH: I think so, yeah. I worked there for over forty years, and I never begrudged a day for going to work.

SF: That's saying a lot.

GH: Yeah, saying a lot.

SF: When did you retire?

GH: I retired in 19-, let's see, thirteen years ago, so...

SF: So you were sixty-seven when you --

GH: Sixty-seven.

SF: So why did you retire?

GH: Sixty-seven.

SF: [Laughs] It was time, huh?

GH: Yeah, it was time to retire.

SF: Looking back, would there be anything that you would change about the way you did things or developed the business?

GH: Well, the only change that I would have liked to have done is I'd like to spend more time with the family. 'Cause that's one thing I, I really missed, was I worked, initially I worked seven days a week, and we worked from, like, seven-thirty in the morning 'til maybe midnight, so I didn't see anybody. And if we worked seven days, you don't have any Sundays with 'em either, nothing. It got better as time went by, but I think I always worked a six-day week, except when we went on vacation or something like that. And vacations were only limited to, like, maybe once or twice a year, and maybe a long, long weekend and maybe a week in-between or something, or a week later on. That's about all, though. That's about all the time that we had, or that I had. So that would be one change that I would have made. But other than that, I'd have, I'd have run it the same way.

SF: Did the lack of time to spend with your family, did that ever become kind of an issue between your wife and you, or kids or something like that?

GH: No, I think they were pretty good about it. Yeah, they were really good about it. And my, my... 'course, my dad was gone, but my in-laws were a big help. They always helped us; they watched the kids, and... so that gave us time, just the wife and myself.

SF: So if you didn't have the kind of support of a good in-law family, that would have been, would have made things a lot rougher, I guess, huh, in terms of the...

GH: Oh, I'm sure it would have, yeah.

SF: So in a sense, the family and the community were really kind of important to all that happened at George's in a way, right?

GH: Yeah.

SF: All right, would you like to add anything to the questions that we've asked you? What else comes to your mind?

GH: Not really. Can't think of anything.

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