<Begin Segment 29>
RP: So when did you, what year you left, the family left Seabrook?
SK: I think we left in 1953.
RP: And did you leave as a whole unit, or did somebody leave first and kind of set things up?
SK: You know, two of my sisters, I think, flew back. And the only reason we moved back, really, my parents didn't want to leave Seabrook. They were just happy being, staying there. But my grandfather and grandmother and my Uncle Bill and Auntie Eleanor had already moved back to Sacramento, and they wanted them to come back. So anyway, when the decision came to move back, I think two of the kids flew back, and then there was, well, there was five... seven of us in the car, and we drove back. Well, we kind of took a roundabout way to get back to California. We went up to Buffalo, New York, first, and took in Niagara Falls. And then we went across to, we went across the border to Canada, dropped back at Michigan or whatever it was, the Great Lakes area, then went to Mt. Rushmore and took in Mt. Rushmore. And then we stopped at Yellowstone, and then we came down through Utah and came across.
RP: How long did that take?
SK: I don't remember, but it was a long time. But at that time I could drive.
RP: Oh, you did?
SK: Yeah, I was eighteen.
RP: Had you graduated from Bishop High School?
SK: No, I had one year left because I got behind of that school thing.
RP: And how did you feel about leaving Seabrook? It sounded like you got very well-adjusted.
SK: Yeah, I didn't really look forward to coming back either. I think all of us kids were happy over there. We were adjusted, we had our friends, we had everything we needed, so we didn't know what we were coming back to over here.
RP: What did you come back to over here?
SK: Well, at the beginning we didn't have anything. My father and mother didn't have a job. We did move into a two-story home, I think it was Eleventh and F Street. Anyway, and then my parents or my uncle... not my uncle, my grandmother and grandfather said, "Buy a store," so they bought a grocery store which happened to be for sale. And they got into the grocery business. But that's when Mom's experience of making submarines came in handy, because I think they were one of the first grocery stores in Sacramento -- I'm just about willing to bet -- that started selling sandwiches in grocery stores, and she used to make those submarines. She used to make about nine dozen a day.
RP: You were sharing with me about some of the people that kind of got addicted to those sandwiches.
SK: Yeah, well, the people where my sisters used to work was the Department of Motor Vehicles, and Suburban Ford, which was down the street from their store, the Almond Association, Almond Growers Association right there, and then all the city garbage workers used to stop there every afternoon. Their trucks would line up during their lunch period. And Mom would have everything ready for them, they have the meat cut, they have all their mayonnaise and mustard and relish or whatever they wanted, all put away for them. They were, they were pretty busy just selling sandwiches. I think their grocery business was a side business. Because it was a Pop and Mom store, and the only people that would shop there, it would be something that they just needed on the spur of the moment. But the area that they had the store at was all Italian. And Mom and Dad made real good friends; I mean, they were lifelong friends after they got to know each other. They were really great.
RP: That really helped the, them settle...
SK: The transition back, yes.
RP: The transition back to the West Coast.
SK: It really helped them, yes.
<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.