Densho Digital Archive - George Oda Interview (denshovh-ogeorge-01-0022)

<Begin Segment 22>

RM: So then when did you start your own farm?

GO: I think after I got married or before? Gee, that part I forgot, too. But after we got married we stayed there for a while and we moved, then I started farming. This is so many years ago.

RM: Well, maybe I could ask instead, this is maybe a little easier, but what made you decide to start your own farm?

GO: Well, them days, since I was a farmer just like the rest of the people, so we said, "Well, let's start farming," so I started farming. Because them days, it was hard to get a job. People there went to college, they were doing gardening jobs. So it was hard to get a job there.

RM: For Japanese Americans or for everybody.

GO: Well, yeah, we were, it was hard to get a job. So I started farming, we're like the rest of them. If they weren't farming, they were doing gardening work.

RM: So where was your farm? Was it also in the San Fernando Valley?

GO: Yeah, this, we see from our community center, it was in Pacoima, you know where the community center is, it's close by. At the end, we were farming right across from the community center.

RM: And it was encroaching.

GO: Yeah. I find different farms, one, two, three... actually, I even had three different places. Last place is right across from the community center, that's where I was from and delivering things to the market. And as I was going to market I was buying, like I say, tomatoes or lettuce. And I had a stand right in front of my farm. What made me start the farm was customers, I don't know, somebody asked me, they want to buy some vegetables, and one week or one day we just decided, well, let's put one crate out there, and put a few vegetables out. And the customers stated stopping, so next time we said, "Let's put two out." Then more people started stopping. This is right in front of that community center, near where the community center is. Then the dairy, milk is right there. So anyway, we put out three crates, and they still started coming, so we said, okay. So my brother started building the stand, regular vegetable stand, so we started that. Then I got my kids to pick strawberries and pick tomatoes and whatever. That's why, you asked Dorothy about the tomato, how much I paid to pick one tomato. I used to pay 'em a penny a worm. She's going to get a laugh at that, you can tell her about that.

RM: That's a lot if you're a kid. So tell me a little bit about your kids. When were they born? Uh-oh. [Laughs] All right, how about you just tell me their names and the oldest to the youngest?

GO: Janet is the oldest, Grace is the second, Dorothy's the baby.

RM: The baby. And there's... you don't want to say yes or no to whether she's the last child because she was so perfect?

GO: No, that's her joke. [Laughs] That's her joke, she tells that to everybody.

RM: Yeah. So they worked on the farm with you then? They picked the strawberries and the tomato worms. Was it, did you see any similarities between when you were a kid and you were helping out your parents on a farm in San Fernando? And then you raised your own kids on a farm in the San Fernando Valley.

GO: Well, I was paying my kids.

RM: Oh.

GO: I wasn't getting paid on my own.

RM: I see.

GO: She liked that tomato worm, penny apiece, but I think like strawberry, I don't know how much I paid 'em a basket. Well, anyway, they were helping out on the stand, picking vegetables. You talk to Dorothy about that stand and she'll tell you everything.

RM: I'll ask her about it. Did you have other helpers on the farm, or was it just your family?

GO: No, I had, like, my brother's wife, she worked on a farm, and then I had another lady working. So we had, you talk to Dorothy about that farm and she'll tell you a lot of good stories about it.

RM: I will ask her.

GO: It's her that talks about the farm.

RM: So how long did you have that farm for?

GO: Oh, that I wouldn't know.

RM: I'm curious because the San Fernando Valley obviously, when you go into it today, it's housing and mostly a residential area.

GO: Where I was farming, they had a big dairy there. So I got part of the dairy, they leased it to me. It was about maybe 20 acres or so. One thing good about that one was they had to clean out their barn, so when I finished my crop, they volunteered to dump their fertilizer in my yard, so I didn't have to buy no fertilizer. That's one thing that was good about that. No, that's where the kids grew up. That's why Dorothy will tell you, like I said, good stories.

RM: What was it like to see the farmland just sort of disappear from the San Fernando Valley?

GO: Well, as farmland goes, more houses go up. That's the way we felt. See, like before, from North Hollywood to San Fernando, that was a long ways ago, and it was a two-way street. Then some places you had orange orchards. So if you want oranges in there for the season, you parked at the curb and picked some oranges. [Laughs]

RM: This is a theme throughout the world history.

GO: Yeah, 'cause this is the early days, the farmers don't know who's taking the oranges. So we had oranges. And they had a lot of oranges on the street.

RM: So did you have any other jobs, or did you farm right through...

GO: Well, like I was farming this farm across from the dairy, I mean, from the community center. My friend was working in the store up the block, and then he comes up to me and says, "You know, we're busy. Can you help us out on Sundays?" I says, "Okay." So I started working in the store on Sundays, time went on, says, "Hey, how about two days?" "Okay, I'll help you out two days." Finally, in the meantime, my brother was having an argument with his boss at his one store, so he quit his job. And then he was coming to the farm, and he didn't have a job. So then this other friend was telling me to work more, so I told my brother, "You want to take over my farm? I'm going to go work at the store." So I started working at the store full-time and my brother took over the farm. So I work at the store for twenty-six years.

RM: You went from one day on Sundays for a week to twenty-six years. And this is what store?

GO: Dale's Market. They only had stores in the valley, and then they had... at the end they sold out, so I started, I knew there was another friend working in another store, Hughes Market, so he says, "Well, I got a job over here. It's not full time, but it's part time right now." I said, "Okay." So we started going, I started working there I don't know how many years. And then in the meantime we were taking trips to Europe and Asia and all that. So we had a plan to go to China for a second time, and I got sick. And I was laying in bed and says, "Why am I working?" So I told the manager, said, "I'm going to retire," so I retired, and then we started taking more trips.

RM: Did Fujiko work?

GO: She worked for the county. She worked for twenty-six years, too, at the library. And then from the library she went to, maybe you heard of this Olive View Hospital, she worked at the office. She worked there a combined twenty-six years. So she's... she left me a good pension, too.