<Begin Segment 3>

KL: What are some of your very earliest memories?

GM: The only things I could remember are little incidents, what might have happened. I had a little cart that I used to ride in a lot when I was three or four. We lived sort of on a hill, and I used to ride down the hill with it. But other than that, I don't remember too much.

KL: This was in Chatsworth?

GM: Yes.

KL: Would you give us a description of Chatsworth? What characterized it? Who lived there, what did they do for work? What was the community like?

GM: My father was a farmer all his life. He lived in this flatland, I'll say the bottom of it, of the hills. The nearest hill, there lived a movie actor named Paul Kelly, he was sort of famous in those days. But as a hobby he used to milk his cows in the morning and deliver milk to all the people down in the valley. And so my father got to know him pretty well. But I remember Paul Kelly in a lot of movies. But other than that it was just an open area.

KL: Was it kind of mixed farming? You mentioned dairy and melons.

GM: Well, he didn't farm in a huge scale in those days. I don't even remember where he farmed. It was only after we moved from there to Reseda, and then from Reseda to Northridge. And when we lived in Northridge was when he grew the 150, 70 acres of cantaloupes in Saugus, California.

KL: How old were you when you moved to Reseda?

GM: My guess... fourth grade. Probably first or second grade.

KL: And back in Chatsworth, were there, was it a mix of ethnicities and citizenship, or was it mostly Japanese American people?

GM: No. We lived sort of on the outskirts of this vacant area. We knew one other Japanese family, but no, there was not an influx of Japanese in Chatsworth. But all the families knew each other because on Saturdays in San Fernando they had a Japanese language reading and writing school that we all went to. So the families, Chatsworth, Canoga Park, Reseda, Northridge, Burbank... not Burbank, but Van Nuys, all went to this Japanese school on Saturdays, so all the families knew each other.

KL: What was the school's name?

GM: I don't recall.

KL: What community was it located in?

GM: It was... I don't even remember where it was, but it was in San Fernando.

KL: That sounds like it was the only one.

GM: It was the only one, yes.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.