Densho Digital Archive - George Oda Interview (denshovh-ogeorge-01-0003)

<Begin Segment 3>

RM: So let's talk about the farm that your family was on in North Hollywood. How old were you when you got to North Hollywood?

GO: Well, I was in the sixth grade.

RM: And this is when you had diphtheria.

GO: Diphtheria, so I don't know.

RM: So what do you remember about North Hollywood? What was it like?

GO: Well, it was someplace... there were not many houses built, so there was a lot of open land. So we used to walk to North Hollywood High School, and that wasn't close either. [Laughs] Otherwise it's the same farm story, work on the farm and go to school during the day. Farmers in those days, when you go to school, you come back from school, you got to work out on the farm. And then Saturday's the only day we have off, 'cause Sunday we got to work on the farm. So them days, when your parents tell you to do something, we do it or else. I still remember my mom used to give me this. You know what this is?

RM: No, you're going to have to tell me.

GO: She gets this knuckle and hits you on the head, it hurts. So when she does, say something, we do it. I think most of the Niseis, they mind the parents. They say, "Do this," they do it. But now, our kids, you know how they are. [Laughs]

RM: They do everything you tell them to do. [Laughs]

GO: They don't.

RM: So what, can you tell me a little bit about the kind of produce that you were growing in North Hollywood and then where you would sell it.

GO: Well, like I said, it's mostly bunch stuff like carrots and green onion and turnips. Then they'd take it to the downtown market. I think them days, they had someone to pick it up and then deliver it. So anyway, the farmers, they all bunched stuff. That's why we had to work out in the field.

RM: So did you ever go to the downtown market?

GO: During the early days? No. But I think it was, yeah, that was before the war. We used to go, because we were growing up, I think my brother was driving a truck to haul the vegetables downtown. That time I was sixteen, so when he has a date, I had to drive. [Laughs]

RM: So can you tell me a little bit about what that market was like and where it was if you remember the streets it was on.

GO: Oh, it was on a nice street, Ninth and San Pedro. That's where we delivered, we take it to one place and we drop it off, and they sell it, and then they give us the money later on. That's the way it went.

RM: So how many different farmers from around the region delivered to that market, and were most of them...

GO: Oh, that market, downtown market, Ninth Street, is big. They had the Ninth Street and Eighth Street market, so that market was big, from Southern California, each direction, they take the produce there.

RM: Were most of the farmers Japanese Americans?

GO: Yeah, most of them.

RM: So how many people, how many farms were around you in North Hollywood?

GO: Well, one time, we had, we were farming in one place, and the Yamanos, there was a big family, they were next to us, and Bo (Sakiguchi) was right below us, and then right across the street from them there were two other farmers. So the farmers were all sort of bunched together, because the field was all open, them days they were all open.

RM: What was the acreage of the farms, about?

GO: Well, it just depends on, I guess, what they can take care of. Because if you have it too big, then you can't plant things, so just what they can take care of. So it was usually about, maybe 20 acres. I was telling Bo, says, "Remember the time you were farming below us?" He says, "Yeah, I remember. My dad used to go over to your place and stay over there for a while." And then I was talking to my sister, and she says, "The only reason he came over there is because he drank too much." So just to get away from his wife, he comes over to our place and wait until I guess he sobers up and then go home. [Laughs]

RM: Was Bo Sakaguchi's dad friends with your dad?

GO: Oh, yeah, they're all friends there. See, they had a farmer's association, like a club members. So if they put some money in, if anybody wants to borrow money, they get together and lend money out. So that's the way the farmers are. Them days they were, they helped each other.

RM: So it was a support system that they created for themselves.

GO: Yeah, if they want money to buy, say, a car, they would help in his association. So them days it was much different.

RM: So what did your... first of all, I'm wondering, did all of the kids have to work on the farm after school?

GO: Oh, yes. My next door neighbor, he had to work before they go to school.

RM: Before they went to school in the mornings?

GO: Morning, oh, yes.

RM: Oh, wow. So how old were you when you started doing farmwork for your family?

GO: Well, when you were small, you're helping out.

RM: So even at like age five or four, you could still help?

GO: Well, I guess we'd do something, but we're always getting dirty. If they're irrigating, we were in the ditch with the water, things like that. But most of the time we were out on the farm.