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MP: So tell me about what happened at University of Oregon. How did you --

TH: Well, you know, I had a little store in my dormitory. I had, I got all the people that were in charge of the candy machine, they didn't have a Coke machine then, but the candy machine, the laundry, and the dry cleaning, I guess, they gave out percentage of the stuff they would send out in all the dorms in Oregon. I bought all those kids out and got the house, I forgot her name, but the lady that took care of the dormitories, I convinced her that I have kids that are appointed to pick up the soda pop bottles. That's one of the reasons they wouldn't let them have the Coke machine in there. You know, they throw or spill it on the floors and lay the bottles around. But I gave her all these kids, each dormitory, the laundry, the dry cleaning, the candy machine, and the Coke. We made a lot of money, you know.

MP: How did you get, how did you get the money to even buy these franchises or whatever?

TH: I had money. Either I was selling typewriters and fountain pens, and there was a Parker pen and a shaker dot, white dot pen. A lot of people don't remember those, you do. Well, I was selling it for twenty-five percent off for cash. That's how I made money there. I had another enterprise; I never told you this. There's an Italian boy that made these big long sandwiches, you know. He was from New Jersey, and I used to eat them all the time, didn't pay him anything. But he used to, people used to, I used to, you know, watch it, sell it for him, you know. People come up to the dormitory, and he'd have sandwiches in this big pile. He was cooking all this stuff. But I learned how to do business with all the Jewish, well, I was born, raised in a Jewish community, you know. South Portland was known as a, a lot of Jewish people were businesspeople there. And I worked, I used to take care inventory for Gilbert Brothers all the time. I knew how much it cost and how much they had in a bin. And the inventory time, they used to call me in, and I used to take inventory for them, took me three, four days, but they had millions worth of stuff in hardware, you know. They had, anything in the hardware business, they handled. They were the biggest in town. But it's funny about siblings, they have a fight, after they get, their wives get involved in, and they're all separated, you know. The oldest father, he lived longer, and Leslie was the youngest son, he died early. But Abe, he married a sister. He wasn't a Gilbert.

MP: So you learned that you could buy cheap and sell high?

TH: That's right. I bought, I used to, for pay, I used to take merchandise out of the store. For instance, I took, the year I was going to Oregon, I got a case of steam irons. Steam irons were relatively new, and I rented them out for two bits a day. And the girls, men didn't iron, but the women in the women's dormitory, you know, twenty-five cents was cheap for them, paid to iron their clothes, and they kept it all day. Some didn't return for two, three days. I didn't care.

MP: So, did you get the steam irons, did you buy the steam irons?

TH: Well, no. They gave it to me in lieu of pay.

MP: Okay. So --

TH: That's where I got my fishing tackle. I got wads of fishing tackle. What else do you want?

MP: So, okay. Let's, let's go to this period. You were at University of Oregon for a little while, and then the war was --

TH: Yeah. Actually, I was sleeping in the dorm when the war broke out, you know. All the kids were running around, "Hey, war's been declared on our country by Japan," and I woke up with a start. I said, "You got to be kidding. That little country can't do anything." But I guess it was true. I listened to the radio broadcast, and I got kind of worried, and I went back home, and I found my dad was stricken with ulcers, bleeding ulcers. He was worried about it too, apparently, and I didn't know that he was that ill, and he sent me to school. He gave me $100 a month to pay my room and board, and heck, I was making more than that. My dad, he wanted to know why I was doing that. I said, "Well, I want to be self-sufficient." I says, "You need the money, I'll give it to you," and I gave him all the money I had. He paid it on the hotel payment.

MP: So you gave your dad money?

TH: Yeah. He was not very pleased even though he took it.

MP: Was that, so ill-gotten goods or --

TH: Well, he thought it was. He thought he was paying for an education, and I was paying him back for that.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.