<Begin Segment 14>

MR: We're nearing the end of this interview. Is there anything that I haven't asked you about that you would like to tell?

MB: Well, my sister, May, after Papa died, since Mama couldn't understand the English language, she couldn't take care of the family business, and so it fell on her. And our landlady, Mrs. Sunderland, told May what needed to be done, how to do it, what to say, whatever, and with Mrs. Sunderland's help, May took care of everything, and she became, you might say, she was our mother. She wasn't our mother, but she took care of, she was the head of the family, took care of everything. And to help the family since Mama was having a hard time though we were eating three meals a day and getting clothes, you know, we needed more money. So when she was sixteen years old, she got housework, lived in a home of a family, and she was to clean the house, wash the clothes, and help with preparing the meals in exchange for room and board. Well, she went and she was to get fifteen dollars a month, and the contract was for six months. In two weeks, she was home. Why did she come home? "I don't get anything to eat. They eat everything up, and there's nothing left for me to eat," and Mrs. Sunderland said she'll talk to them about that. And Mama told her, she said she didn't want my sister to be a mikkabozu. That's a person that would start a job, but he never finishes it. She taught us that never begin any work if you have no intention of finishing. And as a result, I've been stuck with a lot of work, you know, different organizations and clubs. They get me interested, then they leave, and I'd have to finish it. Anyway, and so she went back to work. Two months later, she came home again. This time, she was gone, skin and bones. She had whiplash marks on her back, and the reason she came home was she was so hungry, they never gave her much to eat. She had very little to eat. The husband, the father had bought a box of apples, and so she helped herself to an apple, and it was so good, she thought she'd eat another apple, and that's when the family came home, and that's when she got another whipping again, and she came home. And after Mrs. Sunderland saw what condition my sister was in, she decided that Orga, or May didn't have to work there anymore, and the people refused to pay the thirty dollars owed for the two months' work. But Mrs. Sunderland went to the police station and reported it because the man was a policeman. The father was a policeman. He lost his job on account of this. But, and he was made to pay my sister thirty dollars for the two months' work, but she stayed home after that.

May was quick learned. She learned a lot of things, and everything she learned was for the better, I mean. And I think that because the way she was treated when she was young made her the mean person she was in later life. She had a real good head for business, you know, to earn money, but she was mean. She never let anyone, you know, she won out on everything, but her life wasn't very happy. I took care of her the last, see from 1995 to 1997, she was in a care home here in Corvallis, in Corvallis, and it took me, I got to the point where I quit doing for her because she wanted this, she wanted that. I wasn't getting any rest. Some nights, I never got any rest because she'd call me up at night and want me to come down there. I rushed her to the hospital six times, nothing the matter with me, nothing the matter with her. The doctor told me all she wants is attention. By going to the hospital, all these people, you know, would do for her, and she'd be the star, and that's all she wanted, and she wasn't letting me any rest. So finally, I got tired, and I never went to see my sister for a year and a half. When she found out I wasn't going to see her, then she started making friends. So then, she didn't need a friend, she had me, and it took the people there in the care home a long time before she would trust people. But in time, she became the kind of person I wanted her to be. Then in January of 1997, I took sick. I was sick for a whole month. While I was sick, I thought I should go see my sister. So as soon as I got well, I went down there. We became friends again. Six weeks later, she was gone, but she was happy. After she was gone, her best friend said to me, she said, "May came to me and said, 'I have a sister again.'" But we went shopping, we went out to dinner, and we just visited, and she was really happy. So at least six, two months of her life, six weeks of her life, she was happy. Well, she was happy longer than that because at the nursing home.

MR: Your family sounds like a strong group of people.

MB: Well, my mother, my mother taught us a lot of things that many people don't follow. Like she said, "Don't be beholden to anyone." I found this out to be a good advice. Any time anybody does for me, I do for them right back, not, maybe not right away, but, you know, repay the kindness, and I found out that some people want me to be beholden to them, so, because Monty said, Mama told me, she says, "The day's going to come when they want you to do something that you don't want to do, but because you owe them, you're going to have to do it." Well, these people want me beholden to them, so they can make me do whatever they want to do, and I've never had to do it because I repay people right away. And she always said that nothing in this world is free. Everything cost somebody something. Always pay your way, and I've always done that. We used to, when we were kids, we used to fight. The people would give us things, and Mama says to don't break up the things, you know, make them last because it cost somebody something. And we said, "No, it was free, it was free," and she says, "Yes, but it cost somebody, buy it to give to us, so it cost somebody something," so we learned to take care of things. And what she taught us was good for my brother and me. We followed all the things that my mother taught us, and we prospered. Well, my sisters did too. My main sister prospered too because she had a good head. And Orga, my slow sister, her husband was like her. He was a child like she was, but he had a brother who was a millionaire, and he was always giving them money. My brother-in-law used to come to me and tell me that I owed him this, and I owed him that, and I said, "No, I don't owe you anything. Why do you think I owe you?" "Because I do so much for Orga," and I says, "I never asked you to do all those things for Orga. I don't owe you." He even wanted me to give him money for his income tax. But his brother always gave him money, the millionaire, and they had a lot of nice things like one time... I shouldn't tell this. I don't think they'll like for me to tell it. Anyway, they survived, you know, because the brother helped. I helped them in other ways. I gave them food. Since we have a farm, I gave them all the fruit they wanted, and we raised a large garden, so I gave them lots of produce. They'd come down and pick whatever. Oh, one time, they came down, and I told them when they came, I says, "Now, you could pick four, five tomatoes, but I don't want you to pick anymore than that because I'm going to can them on Sunday." Well, that was on a Thursday, and I never thought anything about it. Saturday night after work, I work six days a week. Saturday night after work, I washed up all the jars, you know, and everything and got them ready to put my canned tomatoes in on Sunday. Sunday morning, I went down to the garden to pick my tomatoes, and there weren't any. My brother-in-law had picked all of them, and, I mean all the nice ones, and only thing left were the small ones, and there wasn't anything much to can. And about two months later, my sister, Orga, her husband was the one that had took everything. She told me that Takios, her husband's sister-in-law, his brother's wife was having a party, and she was using tomatoes for a salad, you know, stuffing it with tuna fish salad, and she wanted perfect tomatoes, and he took the tomatoes for that after I told him not to pick any tomatoes.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.