<Begin Segment 4>

RP: Kinge, can you share with us some of your memories about growing up in Sacramento? Tell us a little bit about your childhood.

KO: Well, about all of my childhood was I was in pre-kindergarten age, so I hardly know much of other, much. But my father did take me down to what was then not Old Town, but Sacramento, in the waterfront area. And I think one thing I remember once, which I never, I can't visualize it 'cause I don't remember what I saw. But he once took me down to the levee somewhere, either the American River or the Sacramento River, in a flood period, and the whole countryside was flooded. Went out in our old Model T, I guess it was, and he showed me the flooded areas. And another time, when he took me over on a tour to where the mine, the gold mining boats, the kind that dredge, mining dredges were, and showed me that dredging. And I still remember that as a trip, I don't remember the picture of it. A few years ago, I took a tour down that, drove through that area and looked at the dredge that they had sitting there. And sort of interesting, having remembered as a child that I saw something like that when they were actually working. [Laughs]

One of the other interesting thing, we had the little store. I think I got into trouble with the cops once. As a little kid, I think I sprayed a cop with a garden hose. [Laughs] 'Cause I do remember running into the store after dropping the hose. That was, actually, what I was essentially doing was essentially washing down the sidewalk in front of the store, and the cop came along, and I inadvertently sprayed him. But at that age, I could get away with anything. But anyway, it wound up sort of interesting.

RP: Did you have any other chores around the store as a young kid?

KO: Yeah, I essentially, my mother and father worked in the store, and I would kill my time just fiddling around the store. I remember as a little kid that they would keep me occupied by spreading a sheet of wrapping paper or whatever it was on the counter, and I would sit there drawing pictures or whatever, scrawling on the counter. In the pre-kindergarten age, obviously, I couldn't draw anything or write anything, but I could make marks on it with a crayon and stuff like that on the counter. So that went on for a year or two when I was old enough to do things like that. And then about twenty-nine, thirty, I guess it was, store went broke and we moved to Sacramento -- not Sacramento, Santa Rosa. And my father and mother got a job as, in a laundry. And he ran, I guess, the washing machine, and my mother did the ironing and stuff. But anyway, we had a, essentially, an income, you might say.

RP: Enough to get by during the Depression.

KO: Yeah, rent a house, so we had, I guess, an apartment or a house. I think it was, we had a house somewhere near the old railroad yard or something like that. I know it was somewhere near a railroad yard, 'cause I had another one of my adventurous experiences. I was in a kindergarten, I think, across town from where we were. Across the main part of town, probably it might be, maybe about a half a mile to the opposite side of town from the main street of Santa Rosa at that time. I think Santa Rosa essentially had one big main street, and we were on the railroad side of the main street. But anyway, my favorite tale of that period is that one, my father used to come and pick me up after kindergarten was over, and eat a late, at noontime or early afternoon or something like that. One day, he was late for some reason. He was late and late, and I waited and waited and waited, and he never showed up, so I walked home, across town. And my father was really having kittens, you might call it, 'cause I had disappeared. And he drove the route back that he usually drives back, but fortunately, he knew enough to follow the, trace the route because he figured, okay, I ought to be somewhere in town, 'cause I couldn't go very far. I was a little kindergarten kid, I couldn't walk that fast. But anyway, he found me walking down the sidewalk or side of the street about a block from home. I had essentially crossed town through downtown Santa Rosa, and almost got home and he was able to pick me up. And the thing I remembered about that trip was not only the fact that I walked home and through a residential area, but I crossed the main street in Santa Rosa with all the traffic and everything. And like I always do, I tend to do a little scheming on my own, even at that age. And I was taught in the early age never to cross the street without an adult. So I stood at the corner on the Main Street trying to figure out how do I get across Main Street towards home. And the traffic lights and everything, I didn't know how to work traffic light or anything like that. But I figured, I reasoned that, after a while, that I wasn't gonna get any adult to help me across. But since I was told that, taught that I should never cross the street without an adult, I tagged along with an adult when they crossed the street. [Laughs] I observed that adults were crossing the street, so I tagged along with one of 'em. And I crossed the street and I was able to get on home again.

RP: You stayed within the letter of the law.

KO: Yeah, yeah, right. Essentially, like I say, I tend to scheme a fair amount, things like that.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.