<Begin Segment 6>

RP: What do you recall about the farm that you grew up on in Florin?

CH: Oh, I thought it was... well, it was huge. Forty acres sounds pretty huge for a youngster, I think. And whenever we didn't feel right, we'd go into the vineyard and just stay there for a while.

RP: You have both grapes and strawberries or primarily...

CH: Yes. Yeah, we had approximately ten acres of strawberries, and then we had grapes. Then we had a vegetable garden, and my mother loved flowers and plants and things. So she did that after spending the whole day out in the field. I don't see how she did it.

RP: So how early would the family get going in the morning? Would she be the first one up, or your father?

CH: Yeah, she would be the first one, 'cause she would have to make breakfast. And breakfast isn't just... they had rice gruel they loved, but it was made with tea, you know. They called it... what do they call it? They roast the tea, the green tea, they roast it and then they brew it, they put it in a pot with the rice in it, and they cooked it to really soft...

RP: Like oatmeal. Like the consistency of oatmeal?

CH: Yeah. They had that every morning. It came from Japan, I'm sure.

RP: And were your forced to eat it every morning, too?

CH: Yeah. But they always had coffee, I remember. We didn't drink coffee at the time. We ate all the things that supposedly is not very good for you, like butter...

RP: Bacon?

CH: Bacon and eggs, every day practically.

RP: So would you have chores to do before you left for school in the morning?

CH: Well, yeah, we had to sweep the house. We had a two-story house, so we had to do that. And then when I was about eleven years old, we had to go out in the field and do things.

RP: Like what?

CH: Like it's strawberry picking time when we had to go out and pick strawberries.

RP: When would strawberries be picked? Early in the morning?

CH: It was an all day thing.

RP: Anytime.

CH: Yeah. And they have strawberry association trucks that would come and picked up strawberries, crates of strawberries, yeah.

RP: I'm just curious, did any of the farmers in the Florin area also have the little small roadside fruit stands, or was that something that came along later on?

CH: I don't know. We didn't have... well, not too many people came, came by.

RP: It was like "U pick 'em," people come in and pick strawberries and buy a certain amount.

CH: Not at that time, no.

RP: So your father was part of this association, strawberry association?

CH: Yes.

RP: And they shipped, they shipped it out for him?

CH: Yeah, mainly to the East Coast, not in California.

RP: That's a lot of strawberries, ten acres.

CH: Yeah, we left all that strawberry on the vine. I hope somebody got there and picked them for their use.

RP: You're talking about before you had to leave for the camp?

CH: Yeah.

RP: So you had to leave the crop right there?

CH: Yeah. It was pretty sad.

RP: Was there an effort on your father's part to get an extension to pick his crop, or you don't recall that?

CH: No, that wasn't... I don't think that was available for us. You gotta go, you gotta go.

RP: Did your father hire additional labor during the year?

CH: Yes. He hired Filipino workers to do the hoeing, they called it, hoeing around the strawberry plants. They used a long hoe instead of getting down there. So it was, I think it was okay.

RP: How about during harvest, during the harvest season?

CH: No, we didn't have anyone to help during the harvesting time.

RP: Did you pick grapes, too?

CH: Oh, yes. I loved the way... I loved to pick the grapes and pack 'em right on the field. That is a great art, you know. You don't want to rub it because you don't want to get the bloom off of the grapes. So we had to be very careful we don't make a mess of it. You don't want to see grapes out in the store just shiny. I don't know, people may not understand that, but that bloom makes it very desirable for people to buy them.

RP: Can you describe how you would pack 'em?

CH: Well, you put some on the, sideways instead of standing it up, and then you put them kind of standing up, line 'em up. In other words, you put the crummy ones on the bottom, and put the nice ones on top. [Laughs] Like in most fruits, they plan that way, I guess.

RP: Did you have to make your own lug boxes?

CH: Oh, yes, we did that. We had two slats a side, and then you had to put the bottom like that, and the sides. Yeah, that was... and we had to label it, too. Where you put the glue on there and label it before you'd put it through the little slot that they had.

RP: And what was the label that you put on there?

CH: Well, it would have been, I could remember the grapes, Tokay grapes. We had a grape association.

RP: So it'd be that, the name of the grape association.

CH: Yeah. I don't know what name they had.

RP: Kind of a like a co-op of the farmers.

CH: Yeah.

RP: You could leave the labels on.

CH: Yeah. Those are kind of... what do you call that... not an antique, but you know, collector's item, yes.

RP: People spend a little money for those.

CH: Oh.

RP: They're beautiful art.

CH: Yeah.

RP: Could you describe the label for us, what it looked like?

CH: No, I can't remember. Must have had grapes on it. [Laughs]

[Interruption]

RP: Did you have any farm animals on the farm?

CH: Oh, we had a couple of horses, we sold. And we had chickens, that's about it. No other. If you call dogs animals, farm animals, I don't think so, but we had dogs. And each dog that we had was named Rover. I don't know why. I don't know where my parents got the name.

RP: Wilbur.

CH: Just Rover.

RP: How many dogs were, how many Wilburs did you have?

CH: At least three. Once they get loose, they go out in the street and they get killed.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.