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RP: And your dad, you said your dad had a nursery in Los Angeles?

TI: Right.

RP: Was it a special nursery, or they just, he sold all kinds of plants?

TI: Yeah, that's what he sold, plants. Different kind of plants. And he did that for, oh, a few years. And he used to make his deliveries with a horse.

RP: With a horse.

TI: Pulling a cart. And one, one night, the horse passed away. And it broke my dad's heart so much that he sold the business there and we went to Claremont, where he went to work taking care of an orange orchard. That's where my brothers were born.

RP: And your, your father had an early love of aviation, didn't he?

TI: Oh, yeah. That's back before he got married.

RP: And do you remember what he used to do? He used to, did he build experimental planes?

TI: No, no, he wanted to become a pilot, apparently. But this was just in his mind. He'd never actually flown.

RP: I saw a few photographs in this...

TI: Oh, yeah.

RP: ...this book on Sawtelle about a flight training class in the south bay, and your father's name is in here.

TI: Yes, that was in Long Beach.

RP: In Long Beach, uh-huh. So he never actually flew, though.

TI: No.

RP: Is that kind of where your interest came, in aviation?

TI: Sort of.

RP: Kind of passed that on to you a little bit?

TI: But I fooled around with model airplanes a lot, and that's where my aviation came.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.