<Begin Segment 14>

RP: Okay. Just a few more questions, Marian. Was your father involved in sort of establishing new breeds of different flowers like cross-breeding or hybridizing?

MN: Uh...

RP: Did he have...

MN: The only thing I can think of is that the camellias, if you don't make 'em from cuttings, if you just plant seeds, you get something different. And so he had some, he did have some camellias. And in fact there was one that he had named for me. Yeah, he had named one My Darling. [Laughs] Can you imagine that? But anyway, but then that was before Mr. Bodie came on the scene and I think it got renamed something, Mrs. Boddy or something. Yeah. But other plants I don't know.

RP: Is there any part of Descanso Gardens that still have your father's camellias?

MN: Yeah, I think so. A lot of them. And in the Boddy house, there's a picture of my father. Yeah. I was surprised. And they give him credit, I mean, that the plants came from him. Yeah.

RP: Anything else you'd like to share with us before we complete our interview?

MN: I don't know. One thing about my mother, I've been thinking about this 'cause a couple of years ago I was talkin' to one of the other, other, at the reunion, one of the other, a girl I'd just met at the reunion. But, she was talkin' about that she had come from a farming family and so her mother had worked so hard, you know, before the war in the farm. So that when she went to camp it was like vacation for her. And so she was able to enjoy, you know, sewing and embroidering and flower arranging, stuff like that. So I got to thinking, that was completely the opposite for my mother. 'Cause she was raised in, in fairly, you know, good financial conditions and she, you know, had to drive, she had some, you know, one of the nursery workers to drive her if she had to go someplace. And, but yet, when we go to camp, she had to do all the laundry, you know, and, and do all the menial chores that, that wives and mothers do. And, at the time, being a teenager, I wasn't very appreciative of that. But as I grow older and after talking to this girl, I thought, you know, what a struggle it must have been for her. But it's such a different life for her. But, you know, she never complained and she just accepted it. They both became citizens right after the war when they were able to. Right.

RP: And probably would have before if they could.

MN: Yeah. So all that property that he bought, if it was after the alien land law, it was all bought, it was bought in the children's names. But...

RP: I wonder if those cherry trees are still out there.

MN: I don't, I hope so somewhere. Yeah.

RP: It's kind of an interesting story of all these different cherry trees in different places.

MN: Yeah.

RP: Manzanar, Redondo Beach, and Griffith Park.

MN: Yeah. Well, he was, he was kind of... he liked the attention. And he kind of... we used to tell him if you're doing something great or good, you don't have to tell people. They know it. But he was the kind that, you know, kind of liked to, to brag about himself. But... I don't know. I guess I didn't appreciate him at the time.

RP: Marian, thank you so much for sharing some time telling great stories, remembrance of your family.

MN: I hope it helps.

RP: We appreciate it.

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