Densho Digital Archive - George Iseri Interview (denshovh-igeorge

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AC: So what kinds of things would the Caucasian boys do that you couldn't do?

GI: Well, I don't know whether my brothers were involved in it or not just to give you an idea that one morning after Halloween, why we were shocked to see a buggy on top of our grade school. Okay. Dating hakujin girls, that was taboo. We just, we could have a shotgun in our, pointed in our backs if we did something like that perhaps. Drink and smoke, my older brother by the way never drank or smoke. But then they worked, any Japanese boy hardly, my brother, older three brothers their age because now my oldest brother would be ninety-seven today if he were living. So there's a lot about what they did perhaps that I couldn't tell you. But they were, their best friends were the Caucasian boys and girls.

AC: So there's twelve kids in this house in Thomasville. Describe your house and how it was living in there with all these people.

GI: Well, our house that I was born at, let's see, we had one, two, three, four, five bedrooms, so it wasn't too bad. I'm not sure right at the moment, we all lived there at one time. Maybe there was only about eight or ten there at the most at any time because the older ones grew up and went away on a job and things like that. Younger ones weren't born. We were unfortunate that we lost two brothers and a sister about 1930, so that made a difference. And by the way, my mother outlived five of her children, five of us siblings, so that seemed to regulate the, even out the occupants, you know. But we had a big home. It's an old home, but it was quite modern for the times. And as we grew up, we were coming and going, so there wasn't much condition, but the thing was that my mother welcomed guests any time. So I remember my brothers were older, well, they had their friends. Like I say, mostly just Caucasian friends come by the dozens, and my mother used to love hosting them and entertaining them. So we had a, had a good home. But Dad, looking at the history here the other day, Dad worked as a clerk in a feed store at Thomas where we were born and raised. Then in 1924 or '5, he went on his own and established his own store in a garage in home. And then very shortly thereafter, he built a new store and then headed, expanded it before the war and sold general merchandise, and he covered the area from, oh, as far away as Renton, South Park. People from the Northwest would remember those places, places like O'Brien, Orillia, Tacoma, not as far Tacoma but Puyallup, Sumner, Algona Pacific city, that whole area. And for a few years, I went with Dad as he went out to take orders and then deliver the groceries, and I remember so well. It was in the Depression years, and it was pretty tough going, but Dad was in that business until probably about 1939 or so. He slacked off because of the tough times and inability to collect from some customers and went back on the farm. About that time, then my older brother started a service station, wholesale gasoline business delivery to farmers, and I think by then we had radios, appliances, and things like that that we sold from the store. And I started working in there from about age sixteen, and I guess probably that's the reason I'm still in business today because of the business background that we all had.

AC: So growing up in this large household in Thomas, Washington, what did you do for fun?

GI: I didn't have much time for fun because like I said at sixteen, I was in the business already and greasing cars and filling up gas tanks and things like that which I loved to do. I like people. And for fun, I suppose there was, in our off-work time I should say, our Buddhist temple, I've been active in the Buddhist church ever since I can remember, school activities. I never was much at sports. I remember hitting a 105 for eighteen, I mean for nine holes, first I went out to golf. I hit about a 65 in a bowling league game one time, and needless to say, that was about time I decided I wasn't for any of that. I was asked by some guys to pinch hit baseball, my older brothers. I couldn't hit a ball. I just wasn't a good sport. I took judo and things like that. I was kept busy all right with all the other things I had to do, but I just wasn't no good at sports except elbow bending. We did that for a few years.