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PS: Anyway, came back on a nice ship that was a passenger ship rather than the victory ship or whatever it was that I went over on. But this one coming back, it was a converted passenger ship, so it was a nice trip back. I remember on Christmas Day, I was going through Portland on a train up to Fort Lewis. But I got home just before New Year's, I think it was. I flew from Seattle to Boise in one of those DC-3s. That was pretty good transportation back then. But anyway, that terminated my military life, and ready to start a new chapter. I wanted to get back to farming, I guess. Amongst other things, I thought I'd like to go to college.

So in the fall of 1937, I did go to Oregon State College on the GI Bill. Best thing I ever did, I think. I met my wife down there. Of course, I knew her from before the war, because they were an old family in the area. Back in those days, why, she was younger than I, so I didn't pay that much attention to the younger kids. And, but that's the way things were. But caught up with her at the college. She was a junior at that time, she was a home ec. major. Let's see now... there was a leap year in there somewhere. '58, I guess, it was. Well, anyway, I remember they would have these leap year dances, and the girls asked the guys. My wife, Sumi, she asked me to one of those dances and made me a corsage. I guess that was the thing we did. But anyway, it had three cigars in it, and I thought, "Now there's a gal that I could live with." [Laughs] But anyway, I was a smoker. I've never smoked a pack of cigarettes in my life, but I started out after high school before I went in the service. I bought some pipes and I started smoking pipes and still at it. But since I got exposed to cigars back then, that's been my main smoke ever since then. [Laughs] So I guess, looking back at it, I've been smoking for over sixty years. And like I say, I've never smoked a pack of cigarettes in my life. I don't know whether there's a... well, I guess the people that don't like cigarettes claim that what's bad is the cigarettes, but anyway... I've enjoyed my smoking, even though I can't smoke in the house or anything like that. But the good thing is my mother-in-law says she sure liked the smell of cigars. [Laughs] So that was kind of a different thing to have my mother-in-law tell me that. Of course, she'd tell me if I didn't look, my hair wasn't combed right, she'd tell me I need to go comb my hair, too. Fun things, good things in life.

Anyway, the first year through college, '47, '48, and then the second year, somewhere along the line... well, I think I was in freshman year, maybe in the spring. Brother Abe, since I didn't draw any wages or anything during all those wartime years of work, he bought me a car. It was a '47 Chev convertible. So one weekend I went home and got that, and so that was quite the thing, to have wheels like that. So we started going back and forth, had that car for a while. Some of the kids from over here offered him transportation, and they guy said six of us could crowd in that little convertible coming home on breaks. But my wife at that time, and a friend that, she was trying to arrange it so we could get acquainted. But anyway, it didn't turn out that way. It got so that I got to talking more with my wife. Anyway, it turned out that we traveled back and forth together, and it worked out beautifully.

So we got married in, two days after Christmas, 1948. Then driving back to school, I think it's still in December. We got up to Baker and the road where snowed in, so we had to stay overnight, there one night, and the next day we took a chance and drove through the bad weather, snow drifts. So I guess that's where I got my experience of driving through, that's my start of driving through nasty weather. But anyway, made it back in good shape. Then we get back to Corvallis, and, of course, there's flood waters there. The Willamette River was flooding. So what little house we had down there at college was across the river from the college. So when that river flooded, why, we got to drive back clear around through Albany and across the Willamette River at Albany. But those little inconveniences, we made it through.

Anyway, I stayed out one term, I can't remember which one it was now, but anyway, my wife graduated in 1948. And after that, why, being a married man, I guess I thought I'd better start making a living. And so that was the end of my college life. Let's see, I think about the middle of 1948, we moved up into the house where we're now living. So we've been in that house, after several remodelings, we've been in that house ever since. Then we had our first child, twins, in December, I guess it was the day after Christmas, '48. Anyway, that was, created quite a bit of excitement and the beginning of our family.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.