<Begin Segment 8>

LD: Let's go back to Mary a little bit. Can you tell what was her full name, where was her family from, what was she like?

HT: Well, she was a, her family was in Kirkland, Washington. And then she comes from a greenhouse people, that greenhouse, and they moved into Tule Lake also. I think they came by the way of some camp, assembly center down in California, then they came to Tule Lake. And her dad was one of the people, too, that believed in not being camp. They want to go out and get going, and then he believed in education. He sent two of his daughters to Nihon before that for a year. But they lived in this greenhouse. And they were evacuated, and they moved out to eastern, to work out there. And I think her dad and herself and her brother moved out to Weiser. And so instead of going back into camp, she worked at the laundry there during the winter, and then she worked on the farm, you know. But then after the war was completed, so they all moved out there and lived in Weiser and working farm labor. When I moved back to Portland, they took over the farm, whatever equipment they had and so forth. It was for them, you see. But Mary was, like I said, she worked at this laundry, and then that's where we met on the farm, and that's where we got married. She's been a great help, and, yeah, she's a nice mother.

LD: What was her maiden name?

HT: Her maiden name was Mary Natsuko Yabuki. Yabuki was her maiden name, yeah.

LD: You and Mary worked hard to build the business at the store. I think there was a big tragedy that happened in 1968. Can you tell us what happened?

HT: The store burned down. The way it started, the way it burned down was I had the, I had a meat section, and I'm no butcher, so I leased out the meat section and they were in charge of it. So anyway, he was in charge. After dinner, he went home for dinner and came back, and there was people lined up in the meat market, you know. So he, we had a makeshift, so-called office where we kept a little table and invoices, had it on the wall there. Anyway, he just came in, and he saw the people lined up at his counter there, so he just laid the cigarette down and then went out to wait on the customers, see. Well, the cigarette got caught on the invoices and fire and started burning. It burned so fast, you know. The first thing, like I said, I lived in the apartment above the store. As you come in the back door is the way they lined up, you see. So first thing Mary says, "Oh, there's fire coming out of the back." I looked out and then first thing was the carpet is start lifting on the floor, you see, so I ran down to call the fire department. Then when I was on the phone, there was a fire coming in the place, so I had to drop the phone and go to the front of the store, made the call. And they were there in five minutes, but it was such a huge fire that they just couldn't put it out.

LD: Can you tell us more about the store? What was its name? How big was it? What did you sell there?

HT: Okay. It was a grocery store, just a general food, groceries, vegetables, food. And the side store was fifty by a hundred, so it wasn't that large, and we were doing okay. Like I said, after what was it, probably couple three years that I made addition to the back of the store, fifteen feet deep, another fifty across the back, you see, and that is fifteen depth, and the width would be another fifty feet. So I built the basement to storage and then the level where you had your back room, and then I built the apartment on top, you see. So we had a little three bedroom apartment on top. That's where I lived until... what did I do after that? Yeah, that's where we lived until we lost the... no. We lived there until, I built a house where I am now in 1964, here, yeah, 1964, but then the fire was on 1968. So we were, we had a good business going, comfortable living, and that's all I cared for. Well, my goal was to have a comfortable living and be in the position to send my kids to school, college, and then that was one of my goal was. I didn't have to have the whole world, you know. But then like I said, I lost the store so we had to decide what to do, you know. We lost so much in the store that we weren't able to rebuild it because I did check right away what it would cost to rebuild it. It costs about one hundred thousand dollars to rebuild it. After nineteen -- we were there nineteen years, so I didn't want to go into debt again after nineteen years. You're free and clear of all your obligations. So we were, just didn't know what to do. And finally, we decided against going back into stores. So we thought we'd lease the place to have some kind of income, you know. So we contacted many different kind of business and a lot of business, you know. But the building was just four walls as it burned down, see, so we have to remodel it, you see. So all the different business come to me, so I go to the bank and ask them can I get forty, fifty thousand dollar loan to remodel this. This company is coming in, and they always turned me down, they always turned me down. But then the second branch, they said, "Well, here, I'll loan you money," he says. I said to myself, I'm not going to gamble on what they're saying. It's not worth it. Why should I personally gamble on it? So it lasted for a couple, not a couple, lasted about a year because I couldn't find anything, you know. One of them was a Mobile Station, Mobile Gas Station, and they came and looked at it, and they loved the place, but it wasn't quite big enough. It wasn't quite big enough, and they talked to us, all Shell Oil, Standard, any business you think of, they came. But then I could never get a loan, so, I could have probably gotten it on my own, but the professional guys are telling me, "You're taking a risk," so I'm not about to do that.

So finally after about six months, I went back to Mobile again, and then it just so happened when I went to them, they had a new manager that came in on the West Coast, a new manager to, he was looking for new locations, and he liked the area. He like the location, so he says, "Well, I'll apply for you again," Mobile headquarters is in New York. So he says, "I'm going to send this in, see if I can get this location." And then luckily enough he came back and says he will take it. So there again now, so I did lease it them on a five-year lease, and they were, that's the land lease. So here I have this building yet, and that building is all burned out, but then it's still worth sixty thousand dollars because they were assessing me taxes on that. Can you imagine? The four walls, it says it's worth sixty thousand dollars, so you know, what can I do? I got to pay tax on that. So what happened, I leased the property to Mobile. In other words, they took down sixty thousand dollar, tore it down, and it's a loss, but I leased it to Mobile. And the way it worked out, they put up the building and everything. So it worked out... the way it worked out was okay because they were to pay the taxes and insurance on the building, tax and insurance. Then that was a five-year lease with an option of five years after that so I was lucky to get that, you see. And then at four five-year terms, I was able to do whatever, twenty years I had Mobile there. And the next one fifth year, they just decided against it because, as you know, they'd gone into this big huge service station, as you know. It's all company owned now. And the time that I leased it, there was a service station on every corner, you might say. And after twenty years I had my own again. It's been quite an experience. In the meantime, I've been unemployed.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.