Densho Digital Archive - Ann Sugimoto Interview (denshovh-sann-01-0004)

<Begin Segment 4>

RP: You said that your father really helped to start this produce market. Where was it located?

AS: Ninth and, Tenth, Ninth and San Pedro. Ninth and San Pedro. You know right there, San Pedro Street and the Ninth Street, right there. I remember when he had that store.

RP: He started a small store there?

AS: No, no. He was one of the builders of that terminal, the wholesale terminal, Ninth and San Pedro. He was one of the builders of that. He was that old. It's really old, still standing there. So we lived right there on Tenth Street.

RP: And the name of his (...) market was Berry Produce?

AS: Uh-huh. It was in the, it was in the wholesale market. Right on the corner, Ninth, on the corner of San Pedro and Ninth Street. Yeah, we went --

RP: What do you remember about that (...) store?

AS: I remember, you remember... I went to Ninth Street School, so I think it's still standing there. And in those days, the cafeteria, they used to, like the soup... I guess they used to deal with my father's market. He has wholesale and produce and... so the fellow used to deliver the food there to the school. In those days they cooked it there. Isn't it something, though? I remember 'cause I went to Ninth Street School, and that's how it was. And then later in life my father, when he sold his produce, then on San Julian he built his, oh, about twenty-three stores there he had. That's when we kind of lived off... I guess in that time, I guess we were like middle-income people. We never lived that way 'cause my father is (...) a Christian family, and they helped the church. My father was that way, but when I think of it now, I guess we were kind of middle-class, but we never lived luxuriously. But my mother stressed education and books and all that kind of, and the church. That type of family.