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LT: So you spoke candidly of life in the Japanese home. You were a city kid living in rural Hood River on an orchard. What was that transition like and how did you feel when you first realized what this life was like?

DS: Well, I'd say it was different. I mean, of course, you know, as a new bride you're starry-eyed and all that, but it was different being from the city and living only in the city. And come to live in the country, you know, my friends all clucked their tongues when they heard where I was coming to. You know, they just all clucked their tongues, and I don't think they gave me too many years, but I stuck it out. And I just love living where I do now, I mean, I just love it. But it was a transition that my husband was a farmer. But you know, Linda, I never worked out in the orchard. I remember being out there one... I think the year I first got married there was a bad windstorm, and Ray had a lot of apples and apple trees, and blew off a lot of apples, so his mother and father were out there. I don't know what they did with the fruit, they picked it in buckets. And so I was told to go out there and do that, and my mother-in-law didn't like the way I did it. But anyway, that was the only time I went out. Then I went out one year during the harvest, I think that was before I had the kids. Oh, and that must have been the first year I was there. He asked me to go out to check the fruit and harvest for punctures, which he probably did, too. And so I worked one harvest, I think, I was out there. Never asked again to go back. I never worked another day in the orchard in my life, mostly because I can't even lift the ladder. I can't even move a ladder, you know, and I was never asked to go work in the orchard. So to this day, I've never been out in the orchard for a day's pay. [Laughs]

But I love living where I do, and I love the kids growing up on the farm. It was different, but I think it teaches us something, too. My kids never, they had to go out and spend... oh, they worked in the strawberry field. I don't know if you did or not, but they're old enough to go to pick strawberries for Akiyamas. They all worked, they had to get up at a certain time and be ready to go. I think I took 'em out to Akiyamas', and they worked in the strawberries. And then when they were finished working in the strawberry, I think when they were seventh grade, they went out to thin. And I told them, "You go out a certain time in the morning, you're not to come in ten times for water. You stay out there until lunchtime, and you come in and eat lunch and you go back out there again." I mean, it was just the business. But they never changed water or anything like that. They got a little taste of it driving the jeep in the orchard. They loved to do that. But where I was concerned, I never spent the day in the orchard. But I learned to love living in Parkdale. I mean, I didn't drive, I didn't know how to drive, so when I first got married, I was stuck. I mean, I couldn't go to, like I did in the city, couldn't go shopping when I wanted to, I couldn't do anything when I wanted to. My husband had to take me to Hood River. But after I got my license it was different; I could go anytime.

But also, you know, like Ray's mother, I always felt sorry for her because she didn't speak English, she didn't know how to drive, she was stuck. She had to ask her husband to go to the store for her. She used to walk up to McIsaac's. She never went to Hood River to shop, and if she went, she didn't know how to shop. I mean, she didn't even know how to give money and count the change. I mean, she just didn't know those things; she never learned. I always felt sorry for her about that. First of all, she didn't speak English, but then she could have gone to Hood River and shopped. But because she didn't drive, she had to ask her husband. It was just a different life for her. I felt she was just stuck, you know. Whatever she did was cooking and cleaning and nothing for herself. I always felt sorry for her.

I enjoyed my life in Parkdale after I got used to it, because I could go where I wanted to. We went to Portland often, we went to Seattle, my folks were, my mother and extended family are in Seattle, and today I just love living where I am.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.