<Begin Segment 13>

LD: What about the grade school you attended when you were in Parkrose? What was the name and how far did you live from school?

HT: Yeah. I started, in fact, I mentioned earlier that we came, moved down to Parkrose to, our parents sent to Japanese school. Well, we started, you started the regular school here too, also, and that was, we lived in Parkrose, but then the school was called Wilkes, Wilkes Grade School. It was about two miles. There again, I walked those, I walked those first, second, and third grade, walked to that school. So yeah, it was quite a walk, but then again, you just did those things. I can't visualize me walking two miles. I think it's roughly two miles to Wilkes School. And that school is still there, still here. It's a small school but still here, yeah. It was a one, it was a two-room schoolhouse. So we went there for, until we moved back to Troutdale again, that was 1926, you see.

LD: What about a car? What year did your family first get a car?

HT: As far as I can remember, the first car we purchased was when we were in Parkrose and it was a Model T Ford. And I still remember when we bought that, there was just a chassis and our neighbor came over. And then we had an old wagon so we cut the wagon, back wagon off and put it on the chassis, and that's what it was. That was our first, first car, yeah.

LD: How did you get it started?

HT: Well, the only way, they had the regular cranks in the front, you see, so you had to be careful too because you crank it, you hold the crank and then you put your hand, okay, I'll show you. It's like this. There's a crank like that. You hold your thumb, the back part, so you break your thumb, you see, so used to hold the thumbs, so it won't give it a chance to slip off, you see. You know, you can't, it will reverse on you, and that's the way to do it and break your thumb off and sprain it anyway. A lot of times it's hard to start those things too. But then again, like I said, and then when we moved to, that was Parkrose, we moved back home on the farm in Troutdale, we had this car, same Ford. But then one sailor came along one time a was going to sell us a Ford Touring, you know. There again, very, most of them didn't have a Touring, but then here, we had five kids riding around in back of this truck, you know. So we told, "Dad did you buy this car?" We'll never ask for another car. It was only forty dollars, and we purchased that. We had that for some time. And then of course, we bought cars later on, Grand Prix, you know. I still remember the Grand. That was one of the early models that was so-called streamline model, you see, and it was real nice. I still remember we took that trip to California to see my aunt and so we went there. And then from Fresno, we want to go to L.A. and this cousin of mine said, "I'll drive," and so we said, "Okay, you go ahead and drive." It was raining that morning, and what does he do? He turns the car over. I'll never forget that. It was a brand new car. Grand was really going a pretty good speed so but we're lucky he didn't get hurt. "Now you take over," he says. [Laughs]

LD: Well, growing up on a farm and with the car, how old were you when you first drove?

HT: As far as I can remember, I was still here in Parkrose. I must have been ten or eleven years old, you know. I don't know if I should be saying these things, but there was days of Prohibition, you know. There used to be, I don't have to mention their name, bootlegging sake, so we used to go purchase that. And actually they, they feed him the drinking. And the time he left there, Dad used to get drunk, so I used to have to drive home. That's why I know that I was driving at that age, you know. But I must have start driving at nine or ten on a farm, you know. A lot of guys do start driving in those days.

LD: During the days of Prohibition, it was interesting for everyone. Do you have any other special stories?

HT: [Laughs] Yeah, I've got some stories about that too. Like on the farm in the Parkrose, Dad used to go to Multnomah Hotel. They used to have these the garbage stuff that they get to get rid of so we used to, Dad used to pick up those about once a week, you know. It was food that they were getting rid of. And so to get rid of it, so we'd start, we raised some hogs for just for raising them, you see. So anyway, that's for food and then they would bring 'em back and put it in the containers, you know. But anyway, during that time, one time, we were making some booze too which we shouldn't, but we were doing it. And they heard that they were going to be coming out here checking out so we got scared. So Dad, they took that sake which we're making in a crock. He'd dump it into that food and fed it to the hogs. I'll never forget those hogs. They were rolled all over the pen. [Laughs] Can you imagine? They had a good party, but those were the Prohibition days.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.