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MR: So when you, the end of the war came and you knew when you were going to be going home, how did you feel about leaving camp, going back to Portland?

MB: Well, I never thought anything about it, just happy to be leaving. I was going to miss all my friends, but then I was happy to go home.

MR: And then you mentioned that the person you left in charge of your things haven't done such a good job.

MB: Uh-huh. When we got home, he finally let us in, but he had been a real good friend before, before the war. But after the war, we never associated with him anymore because he had turned his back on us. I mean, he was... well, the way he treated us.

MR: So how long after you returned to your home and your business, how long was it before you could actually make a living at your business again?

MB: Well, it was a while. Let's see, it was in the fall of the year we had to get everything ready. I imagine by the next spring we had plants to sell. And one good thing about our place, we raised our own plants. We steamed our soil. We made our own dirt. How do we make dirt? We used to get dump truck loads of dirt, and we'd get dump truck loads of manure, fresh manure, mix it together, and leave it to steam, put straw on top and let it to steam. And in one winter, the next year, the dirt would be, you know, well rotted together, and we steamed the dirt to, so there wouldn't be any weeds or seeds or bugs, you know, insects in them. And we planted our plants in this good steam soil, and so there were never any weeds in our flats of flowers. And since we raised our own plants and sold directly to the public, we could sell for a little less money. All the other markets that sold plants didn't have a greenhouse of their own, so they had to buy their plants. And when you buy and sell, you have to sell at a certain price. Like say the flats of flowers were $2.50. We could sell for $2.25, and we'd still be making money because we raised our own plants. In time... and then we didn't sell, we didn't raise plants, common everyday plants like all the rest of the nurseries did. My sister studied the seed books. And every year, we'd have two or three new plants, and so we had customers that, all they wanted was the new plants. And because our flats were weed free and because we could sell a little bit less money, we cornered the market, and all the people were complaining, and so we got picketed. The Oregon, Portland Nursery Association picketed us. Pickets came out, the picket came out at eight in the morning. He parked his car out front, put out sandwich, or put up boards on either end of the market, and then with a placard, you know, holding it up, he walked back and forth in front of the market. And of course, no one would cross the picket line, so we didn't have any customers, but that was all right. I mean that wasn't all right. I mean, there was nothing we could do, but we had to keep up our plants and everything. Oh, by the way, my brother always said, sell quality merchandise and put up a beautiful display and everything will sell itself. That was true. Our fruits and vegetables, we charged a little bit more than everybody else did because we sold quality merchandise, and we found out that customers would pass by all the, they'd come, you know, drive pass all the other places and come back to our place. And many of them told us, "The reason why we come here to buy is because we never get any surprises. Other places," they said, "one day it's good; next day, it's no good. And here, quality is always the same," so we had customers that way.

But go back to it, the picket walk back and forth in front of the place, and we had no customers. Twelve o'clock came, and he was supposed to get a relief. They were supposed to picket for four hours at a time, and his relief never came. One o'clock came and no relief. Two o'clock came and no relief. Mama came out of the house with a plate of sandwiches. She had made fried egg sandwich and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Her fried egg sandwich was like, it wasn't just fried eggs. It had onions and celery and different things in it and cooked together, and it was for the picket. And my brother and sister said, "No, you don't take him that. He's the enemy. He's the reason why we don't have any customers." Man says it doesn't matter. A man has to eat, and so she took him the sand, the plate of sandwiches. More than anything, he had to go to the bathroom, so my mother took him to the bathroom. Then he came back and ate his sandwiches, and later he told Mama that was the best sandwich, the egg sandwich was the best sandwich he had eaten. And then about 3 o'clock, his relief picket came. The reason the relief picket was so late, he had a flat tire, and not being familiar with Northeast Portland, he didn't know where to go to get his tire fixed. Well, so he rolled his tire, but he went the wrong way. He went toward where there was no service station. So then he got to a place and used the telephone, and he called up his brother-in-law. It wouldn't do any good to call home because his wife was going shopping that day and she wouldn't be home, but his brother-in-law, he knew where he worked, so he called his brother-in-law, and the brother-in-law says, "Well, I'll come after you at my break." He had called about noontime, but he had just finished his lunch, and he wouldn't get his off period until his break came. So he had to wait until the brother-in-law was on his break, and then the brother-in-law came and took his tire, and they got it fixed, and he got out there. First thing they did after the picket came was the two pickets stood there and talked for about fifteen minutes, then the relief picket got in his car and took off, and I don't know how long he was gone, but he was back pretty quick. Soon as he got up, they picked up the boards, the picket, and loaded everything, and they were gone. The picketing was over, and I think the picketing was over, oh, the picket after lunch picketed half-heartedly. He sat more than he picketed, and I have a reason that they picked up the picket signs and left was because Mama had been good to the picket.

MR: What year was this picketing?

MB: That was about 19, let's see, about 1936.

MR: Oh, before the war then?

MB: Before the war, uh-huh. It was before the war. We had moved, the place across the street from where the Sunderlands lived where Mama had the four acres, the man across the street had a market. It was a grocery store, but it was built like a service station with a roof over the apron of the market. And when we bought it, it had been up for sale for a certain price, and Mama couldn't afford that price. But a year later, it went, it went down in price, a thousand dollars, so Mama bought the place for us kids. And my brother had enlarged the market, put wings on each side, so we'd had one long market... and I forgot what I was going to say.

MR: Do you remember the address of that market?

MB: It was 2746 Northeast Columbia Boulevard.

MR: And what's there now, do you know?

MB: Right now, in 1997, 1999, I sold the place, and right now, it's container, container sales. Do you know what a container is? Like on a train, these boxcars, boxcars without wheels, that's the container, and this lady gets them and she sells them. And the only building standing on the place is my sister's house. It was built in 1952, but in 1997 when I sold it, it still had the original flooring, even the linoleum, original. All the rooms had number one oak flooring, the way Mama wanted it, and the linoleum was real, it was top grade. My sister wanted everything number one and everything number one. So even though the house was fifty years old, it was just like it was new, and I know that realtors came to look at it, and that was their comment. They couldn't believe that everything was the original because they said that many houses, in all that years, they would have had new put in, you know. And that house is the only thing standing, and the lady who bought it uses that house for her office. One room, she has one bedroom, she doesn't live there, but sometimes, she stays there, and she uses that room for herself, but the rest of it's an office for her business.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.