<Begin Segment 6>

KN: Can you tell me when you met your husband?

EK: Well, he was boarding when he came from Japan with this Japanese family, a friend of my father's. And he used to come back and forth. And so I knew him since we were real young. And finally when I finished high school, he came and said could we get married. [Laughs] So that's the only boyfriend I had, or what do you call it.

KN: And how old, how much older is he then?

EK: He was born here, he went back to Japan when he was five and finished school, finished high school, and he came back here. Let's see, I can't remember what year it was, but anyway, he came back and was boarding with the Japanese family. And he worked in the grocery store most of the time.

KN: And what year were you married?

EK: That was, let's see, 1938, year after I finished high school, and Joyce was born in '39.

KN: And what did you do to celebrate your marriage? Did you have a wedding?

EK: Uh-huh. I had a Japanese Shinto wedding.

KN: And where was that at?

EK: There's a church here that's called Konko church, and that's where -- this isn't the original one, but that's where we were married.

KN: And is that here in downtown Portland?

EK: Hmm?

KN: Was that in downtown Portland?

EK: Uh-huh.

KN: And did you go anywhere for your honeymoon?

EK: San Francisco. Borrowed our family car.

KN: So you drove all the way to San Francisco?

EK: Uh-huh.

KN: What date was it that you got married?

EK: January...

KN: And what do you remember about your trip to San Francisco?

EK: Well, it was the first time I'd really gone so far, and it was nice. We stopped at several places, spent the night.

KN: You mentioned that that's the first time that you'd really gone outside. Did you ever do any traveling when you were young?

EK: No, I never did have a chance, we just didn't have time. But then, of course, when we had our own farm, when the girls grew up, every summer, my husband we'd take the girls, we went to... I don't know, we'd take a couple of weeks off just before school started and we'd take off to the coast.

KN: Did growing up with your parents and your siblings, did you go to the coast or to the mountain?

EK: Uh-huh, uh-huh. My father used to like to go to Newport, crab. [Laughs] You can't get good crab anymore, they're so expensive. I haven't had a real crab in I don't know how long.

KN: So that must have been a nice treat, huh?

EK: Uh-huh.

KN: Would you bring it home and then would you cook it with Japanese food?

EK: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.