<Begin Segment 14>

TI: So, and then you mentioned then your family was able to get their own place.

GS: Yeah, finally moved to a little, they rented a house on east, town of Glendale, which was about two miles, three miles away, but still was on the north side of the tracks.

TI: Right. And then what, what did your family do to make, to make a living?

GS: They worked on the farm.

TI: Okay, so all farm, huh?

GS: I weighed hundred and sixty-five when I graduated from high school, and I worked on that farm picking cantaloupes for one season, I lost thirty pounds.

TI: So you weren't used to this hard, this hard labor?

GS: Hundred and ten degree (heat), no, I wasn't no farmer. So that, I lost thirty-five pounds, thirty-some pounds on that one season, just picking cantaloupe.

TI: And how was this transition for your, your parents? When you think about from...

GS: Yeah, they worked on picking or weeding and stuff like that, so they worked on a farm just as we're working with Yamamotos or worked with Nishidas, and I was able to, Komatsu family offered me to drive a tractor doing a little plowing. So I learned how to drive a tractor, Caterpillar tractor, and plowing the fields, so I plowed the fields at night, back and forth. And then I was able, Mr. Kato offered me a job to work in his grocery store, so then I was able to work in the grocery store 'cause I could talk, knew a little Spanish, I knew what the fruits and different vegetables was, so I was able to help in the grocery store.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.