<Begin Segment 4>

TR: And what was life like for you on the farm?

AN: Oh, we just had a good time. I remember going, my brother Ray and I riding on the donkey, no, it wasn't a donkey. Yeah, it was a donkey, a little one, and I think my dad got it so that when he irrigated, he could ride the donkey and save a little work that way. And he would, I remember Raymond and I would ride the donkey, and then he'd go up on the ditch bank and go whoof, and then we'd slide off. Then another time when he, we were riding on the farm there and he'd roll over, decide to roll over, get rid of us.

TR: Did the donkey have a name?

AN: I don't know. I'm sure he did have, but I can't remember.

TR: And did your father ever mention why he would buy a donkey and not a horse? I think donkeys are pretty hard to domesticate and pretty hard to control, aren't they?

AN: Oh, I don't know. Probably... he never did say why, probably didn't eat as much.

TR: Maybe so. Did you help in the fields?

AN: Well, this is when I was little tiny.

TR: Okay.

AN: Uh-huh. Yeah. I worked out in the fields some, not a lot.

TR: But the boys must have worked in the fields?

AN: Oh, yes. Yeah, they did. In fact, my dad loved animals. He had a dairy herd, too, besides the farm. He had, and so then they had to milk the cows. It wasn't very agreeable with the boys, but they had, he had Holstein cows and the bull, the whole works. I can, in fact, I still have a book in the shop that has all, tells all about registered Holstein cows.

TR: Well, cows have to be milked twice a day.

AN: Uh-huh.

TR: Who milked the cows?

AN: Oh, my dad and the boys.

TR: Did your mother ever help milk the cows?

AN: No, no, she didn't. She had plenty to do otherwise. Yes, she did help out in the fields some, not a great deal.

TR: That's makes for an awfully long day; milking cows in the morning, working in fields during the day, and then milking cows again at night.

AN: Uh-huh, yeah.

TR: How long was the average workday especially in the summertime?

AN: Oh well, you can imagine. My dad had to get up really early to do the irrigating, and I know that along about, I remember we always swept the floor twice a day and I know now why.

[Interruption]

AN: Now I never sweep the floors except maybe once a week, maybe more than that, but, because my dad took a nap, and he would just stretch out on the floor after lunch and take a little nap there on the floor. Then besides that, they would wrestle. My dad would wrestle with the boys on the kitchen floor.

TR: And this would be coming in from the fields and then taking a nap on the floor, right?

AN: Well, yes, uh-huh, eating, eat our lunch, and then he'd take a nap, and then he was good for just a little while, not long, and then he'd back to work again.

TR: So what was lunch?

AN: What was lunch? Generally, it was rice, rice and whatever that goes with it with chopsticks. And then at night, generally, it was potatoes and meat and vegetables, typical American meal.

TR: So it sounds like Japanese lunch and American dinner?

AN: Uh-huh. Generally, that's the way it was.

TR: So how old are you at the time we're talking about right now?

AN: Oh, grade school.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.