<Begin Segment 6>

KL: Tell me more about Alvina. You guys were growing grapes. What did other, what did your neighbors...

MU: They all, we were in a vineyard area, so most of them had grapes. Let's see, maybe one or two had dairy, small dairy, but most were farmers.

KL: Where was the market for the grapes?

MU: We made raisins. We dried them, and about eight, seven, eight miles away they had a packing house where we delivered it. And some of the people delivered it on a wagon, horse-drawn wagon.

KL: What kind of equipment did you use in your operations?

MU: We had, of course, to begin with we had to prune the vines. We had shears, and then they had plows, they had [inaudible], kind of break up the soil.

KL: What was a typical year in grape growing? I assume maybe in the spring you just --

MU: Yeah, in the spring we would prune, and then we would, if you have seedless grapes, we would tie the vines, tie the branches, and then we'd wait for the grapes to ripen. We would pick it and lay it out on the tray, paper tray, and then when it, top dries, we would flip it over and dry the bottom, and then we would harvest it, or take a truck with boxes and gather them up.

KL: How long does it take to dry?

MU: I would say probably a couple weeks, depending on the weather. And toward the end, they usually start picking about August, early August, and by the end of the month it should be pretty dry, and then we would roll it, and then have the wagon come around and pick it up.

KL: You would roll the grapes?

MU: Roll the tray.

KL: I see.

MU: We would, we would fold it like this and then roll it. Yeah.

KL: What did that do? What was the purpose?

MU: So we could pick it up and put it on the truck.

KL: Okay.

MU: Instead of having an open tray. And then when you do that and leave it out in the sun, it kind of, the hard ones would, real dry one would soften, and the ones that were not completely dry would dry.

KL: Who planted those vines?

MU: I think our first farm that we were on, I think the people that lived there before planted them. On that farm we had a nice backyard with all kinds of fruit. We had lemon, we had oranges, we had apricot, cherry, pear, persimmon, peaches. We had a wonderful backyard.

KL: Who, do you know who your family rented that farm from?

MU: I think there were Japanese that were now living, at that time living in Parlier. I don't know too much about it.

KL: What age were you when you lived there?

MU: I was born there, and I was, we lived there until, let's see, '41, so I lived there about twenty, nineteen, twenty years.

KL: Okay.

MU: I went to elementary school, grammar school and high school from there.

KL: Okay, so that's almost all of your, all of your memories, early.

MU: Yeah, growing up years.

KL: What street was it on?

MU: Rose Avenue. 375 Rose Avenue, West Rose Avenue.

KL: You said when you were picking grapes your mother would tell you stories?

MU: Yeah.

KL: What do you remember about your conversations?

MU: Not during picking grapes, but when we were pruning. Picking grapes you don't have too much contact where you can talk to one another, but when you're pruning, especially the Muscats, they just grow in separate little vines, so we would be around one and she would talk.

KL: What did she tell you?

MU: She told me about her growing up years and the hardship she has to endure, working on the farm.

KL: Would you share some examples of her growing up years and some of those hardships?

MU: Well, in Japan she, I think she was educated to be a teacher, and her aunt was here in the States. She was kind of lonesome, so she called my mother over to marry her husband's brother.

KL: Are there other stories that you remember?

MU: Yeah. She mentioned about her childhood, growing up years.

KL: What did she say about them?

MU: She was happy. She lived in Tokyo for a little while, and then came back. I think they had a young fellow that the family hoped that she would marry, but she wasn't interested in him, and besides, I think he died from something, so it never turned out.

KL: What was she doing in Tokyo?

MU: Her father was in the, I think government work, some kind of government office. And after that he moved back to Kagawa-ken, and I think he was in the office, city office there, too.

KL: Did she --

MU: Other than that, I don't know too much.

KL: Did she like living in Tokyo? What did she say about it?

MU: She was just a young girl, so she didn't say, other than that one experience where her father took her to church, other than that, I don't know too much.

KL: That one stuck out, huh? What about Kagawa-ken? What did she, did she like living there?

MU: Oh yeah, that was her hometown.

KL: What did she like about it?

MU: I don't remember what she, what she liked about it. It was home, so...

KL: Your aunt, Kiyo, was she a big part of your childhood?

MU: Yeah, they lived close by. They had one, one daughter, three sons, and so we were -- and they had apricots, so we used to go over there and cut apricots.

KL: What was, what were Kiyo and Teisuke like? What was their personality?

MU: They were kind. Teisuke, I don't know how, but he had TB, he contracted TB, so he, the family, they made a little place for him to live on the same yard but in another building. And so we didn't have that much contact with him. But my aunt, of course, there's a language barrier.

KL: So did she have to really take on responsibility for the whole family and for him, when he had TB?

MU: Well, he was there, he was able to do work, some work. And so, and the kids were growing up, so they were able to manage the farm.

KL: Was he still able to have friendships and be part of the community?

MU: Not really.

KL: Was it because of his health, or were people afraid of him, or why?

MU: Well, having TB, you don't want too much contact.

KL: Okay.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.