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BH: Living on a farm, you and your brothers undoubtedly had chores to do. What were your responsibilities?

DH: Well, we all had chores, from the oldest, he had to clean the stable, horse stables and cows and so on. The next one had to either shuck the hay and feed the horses and all the animals, and the next one had to do the milking of the cow, which I got. And so on down, somebody had to feed the rabbits, somebody had to feed the pig, somebody had to feed the chicken and so on. The youngest one gets to light the fire, ofuro fire, bath, you know. And the older guys, they had to chop the wood, because Dad, when he was clearing the farm, he had all these big timber he dragged in to make firewood, and that's what our heating was during the winter, was firewood. Somebody had to chop the wood and so on.

BH: When you were a kid, what kinds of things did you look forward to?

DH: Well, during school, wintertime, we just moved, had a good time. And I thought, because it's a one-room school, well, teachers were teaching older guys, and we had our own thing to do, so scribbling and so on, I guess.

BH: Did you take any family vacations?

DH: Yes. Dad was always good about that. He even drove us to the beach. After harvest time, he'd take us out there for a whole week and go crabbing, swimming, boating, and so on.

BH: Was this the Oregon coast?

DH: Oregon coast. Usually he went to Netarts, because crabbing was good in Netarts. And he did things on his own like matsutake hunting during the, on the coast with friends, his friends. We never got to go, but he used to bring home a bunch of matsutake.

BH: By then... well, let me go back to the farming, I know you have the livestock, and that helped to feed your family. What about, what kinds of fruits and vegetables did your father grow?

DH: My father, in Oswego he had berries and he had a vineyard, grapes. He raised all the different kinds of vegetable and nice strawberries. And his main crop like in the winter was cauliflower and tomatoes and green peppers. That was mostly... he did have root crops, beets and potatoes and carrots, that type of stuff he stored. He sold most of it, but he kept it in the cellar for food.

BH: Do despite the Depression, you were able to eat well?

DH: Uh-huh. He's always, main plant is watermelons and cantaloupe, and so we always, can't store cantaloupe, but we could store these certain kind of watermelons, we called ice cream melons, which was round and white. And we put 'em in the hay in the wintertime --

BH: To insulate them?

DH: And they last for a long time.

BH: You started in Oswego, then moved out to Fairview, where did you and your brothers go to high school?

DH: My oldest brother went to West Linn, then when we moved in '36, he went to Gresham. But my next brother, Norman, he stayed out of school one year to help farm, because it was a hard time. But he went to Benson. The next brother, Shig, he went to Benson because of wrestling, mostly. Then I went to Benson because they're going, and I wanted to take up architect, but I didn't get very far until the war.

BH: It's quite a ways from Fairview to Benson High School.

DH: Well, Fairview didn't have high school, so they paid our tuition, I guess. We just got our bus ticket and we traveled from Fairview all the way in to Benson on the bus.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.