Densho Digital Archive - Sumiko Sakai Kozawa Interview (denshovh-ksumiko-01-0016)

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RP: So you eventually established, reestablished the floral shop here.

SK: Yeah, we came back to floral... in Los Feliz.

RP: Right. And then you moved over here.

SK: Then we moved here 'cause they were building a big apartments, two high rise apartments, so we had to move. They only gave us a couple, yeah, only, not even two months, I think, we had to get out of there. That was something. So we did the best we could. In the meantime, we went and looked for a place to, so we went looking around here and this, Hyperion was, very few cars were going here. It's just like still, like a country around here. And I said, well, we had to find a place to live, and then I said, so I came in and asked Mrs. Brigham, 'cause she lost her husband, and everything was just, it was just empty in here. She had two, no, she had three Japanese businessmen living here, and they were living upstairs while they were here in Los Angeles, and then this room was empty, then there was a table here and then some chairs. And she says they used to play Japanese game, whatever that card game was, here. That, she used to tell me that. So I think they used to work daytime, and nighttime they stayed here, and they were here for not too long, I know. It's a whole house. It was empty by then. She wasn't a very good housekeeper, I know that. [Laughs] But she was the nicest person. And later on she went to the Running Springs. It's, Running Springs is in Big Bear. Yeah, she moved up there.

RP: So how long did you operate the florist shop here?

SK: My mother started in 1929 on Los Feliz, and those are Depression years. I know one time there's only one or two customers that came, and that kept on for some, I don't know how many weeks. And the first big sales was Thanksgiving Day, and that's when people start coming, after that. Yeah, that was the first time I, Grandma said, "Okay, now we're gonna be okay," she says. From there on we just, we'll get, I was still going to junior high school, see, but yeah, we helped change the water. I mean, it was a job. We did it. And then later on my mother had to have a designer to design flowers, make things, 'cause my mother was not a good designer. So she found somebody, a nice man. He was a good designer.