Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nishi Interview I (denshovh-nhenry

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RP: Now you said that you, on Saturdays you would go down with your father to the flower market?

HN: Yeah, yeah.

RP: Can you describe how the market was set up and how you actually, you know, acquired the flowers?

HN: Well, there was a big rush to get there as early as possible because... the primary reason was to get a parking spot. You wanted to be able to park, park your delivery, your truck as close to the, the entrance as possible so you didn't have to haul 'em a long ways. And the earlier you went the better, better spot you got. And then at the same time after you parked your truck, you waited to get into the, into the flower market which opened at five o'clock and it opened at, promptly at five o'clock and everybody waited until the gates opened. Then everybody made a big rush to get, get to their growers that they want to buy flowers from. And you made a wild dash to, to do that. It was a, it was a...

RP: Were growers in stalls or...

HN: Yeah, yeah. They had, the growers had, they had permanent spots. They rented permanent spots for... and that was allocated to one particular grower. You could be at a certain designated spot every time so you went directly to, to this, growers that you wanted to buy different flowers from.

RP: It must have been very colorful, fragrant scene.

HN: It was a fragrant, wild scene. [Laughs]

RP: So would your father say, "Hey, Henry, go over there and get us a couple dozen of these, or..."

HN: No, I was too young to do any. I just pushed the cart around. You loaded, you loaded the flowers onto a, onto a I guess you could call it a little flatbed hand truck, and you piled the flowers on top of that and you wheeled it out to the, to the car, to the truck.

RP: Did you have any refrigeration or any... well, it was kind of early in the morning so you probably didn't need that?

HN: Yeah, the things like orchids and roses and couple of precious flowers were refrigerated. Well they were not, they were kept cook with ice. They were called ice boxes. There were...

RP: Tell us about the...

HN: They were walk-in boxes that were visible from the outside, they were glass, front and side. And the, the ice storage was on the very top. I think the ice, the ice man came every, couple times a week, to load the ice box up. And these would be full cakes of, or half cakes of, half blocks of ice that the ice man had to kind of walk up a small ladder to, to get into the, the ice compartment. 'Cause we had no, no refrigeration, electrical refrigeration at the time. They were all, like the household ice boxes were ice also at that time. This is in the 1920s and the '30s. I guess in the '30s, they started getting refrigeration, electrical refrigeration.

RP: Some of that ice would, you said some of the shavings would come off and...

HN: [Laughs] Summertime, pick up the ice chips.

RP: You also had the responsibility of cleaning the flowers when they, they arrived from...

HN: Yeah, when they were brought back from the, from the flower market. They all had to be cleaned and sorted into bunches for sale. That was a big chore just to do the... it took all morning just to get the flowers ready for, for sale.

RP: Did your mother employ people to design arrangements?

HN: Yeah. She always had at least one or two designers all the time. And she had salespeople in the flower shop. And she did, she did designing, too. 'Cause when you had, had big funeral orders, it was a lot of work getting the funeral, the stuff ready. Then when there was a, when you had a wedding, too, then you had to get the wedding things ready.

RP: And how many deliveries --

HN: The flower business at that time was... 'cause people used a lot of flowers in those days for weddings and funerals, for graduation, for parties, dances, and whatever. I guess especially in the, in the neighborhood which was more of the upscale neighborhoods.