<Begin Segment 25>

KL: Did your parents make friends in that area? Do you have a sense?

HK: Yes, I remember that people were very kind and they'd even bring us used clothes. I remember getting boxes of clothes and some toys. They were very kind to us. And then we grew enough vegetables that they would buy the vegetables. We had a vegetable stand. They would buy vegetables from us.

KL: Did you work at the stand?

HK: Yes. We worked (and) helped to, I remember planting tomatoes and helping to weed the plants and take care of all the plants. So we grew everything, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, even popcorn, sweet potatoes, squash, and pumpkins. Because my father was very good at (farming), he knew how to grow everything.

KL: What do you think his thoughts on being a farmer were?

HK: Well, he was very proud when the vegetables produced. You'd get bushels of tomatoes and cucumbers, and when people would come and buy it, he was very proud of being able to do that.

KL: I wonder if it was, he worked in three different climate and soil types...

HK: But Nebraska's soil was very good. 'Cause it was not too far from the Platte River, so (...) you got (...) enough water and the soil was very rich, so everything grew. I remember the corn grew very tall.

KL: So it wasn't a struggle, really, for him to adjust to the different places. It was probably welcome, actually, since it was so tough where you started, in Loomis.

HK: Everything grew well there. It's like Fresno. It was hot in the summer but cold in the winter, but you don't grow vegetables in the winter, anyway.

KL: Who was the, the restaurant owner also owned your house and the acreage and stuff? Where you were living?

HK: Her name, I think the name was Sowalik.

KL: What do you remember about her, her personality or if she...

HK: I have a picture of her. Well, I remember she was just very demanding. (She'd say), "I need two hundred chickens by such and such a day." So we had to prepare so many chickens and so many, so much of this and that, but she was very demanding. And then I remember one time, I think then she was complaining or something that we weren't keeping up the house or something. We had gone through a hail storm, and the hail was the size of golf balls and made huge holes in the roof and broke windows and everything, and she was complaining 'cause we didn't repair it. It was her house. [Laughs] But anyway, she was very strict about things like that, so I think that was when my parents decided to come back to California.

KL: And when was that?

HK: That was in 1950.

KL: Okay.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.