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RB: So on that note, Philadelphia doesn't have a very large Japanese or Japanese American community per capita, but obviously this was a very significant place in terms of the Japanese American community, especially in the time that you were working there. In your time, and I guess in your own understanding of the space, did it feel like a Japanese American community space to you?

LR: You know, in a very informal kind of way, because it was... obviously folks like my grandma and the other folks within the Japanese American community of that age, sort of like really gravitated towards it. There weren't a whole hell of a lot of options outside of the JACL, a few functions that they would have here and there, there wasn't a whole lot going on. And this was sort of like the one place that people could really be involved with, and that's why you saw people like my grandmother and the other folks who would come there and be involved, and the board would be involved in the cleanups and the gatherings, the Obon festivals and all that. And I was always amazed that, sort of like my grandma who, you know, I just know as my grandma, she's just my grandma. But when my grandma would come, suddenly everybody would snap to attention. They  were like, "Louise is coming." I was like, "Yeah, so what? So Louise is coming, what's the big deal?" They said, "Lucas, get out the duster now, now. There's cobwebs up there above the [inaudible]. Get that." And, "I want you to wipe down the veranda." And the tatami needs to be wiped, and I remember there was something about using milk or something like that, and I remember having to have this milky substance, and I had to wipe down the tatami mats, I think. And I just sort of remembered, it was such a big deal when my grandma came. And it until sometime afterwards I sort of realized that she had such an important role to play, and that all the Japanese women especially who worked there had a great deal of admiration and respect for what she did. And even to her later years, I remember that she would be in the garden weeding. [Laughs] Stooped down and weeding, she was respected greatly at that place. And I even remember a couple of times when I was being lazy or not doing what I was supposed to do, Michiko might say, "I'm going to tell your grandma." [Laughs] "I'm going to you tell your grandma that you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing," I was like, "Okay." So yes, I do think that, I don't remember ever having any official place, but it definitely held a very unofficial place in the lives of so many folks. I mean, these weren't people that I saw any other time. Even when my grandma passed away, and to sort of see all these faces again, just was so wonderful to have that experience to see all these people who valued my grandmother's good time and energy that she put into everything.

RB: There's a couple things that I want to cover here. One, I'm wondering if you might be able to recount your memories of the roofers coming to visit. You were around at that time?

LR: I don't know.

RB: No, you were probably living in New York already?

LR: I don't know that I was around during that time. Mostly I just heard from other people. I just heard the stories from, Grandma would tell stories about, you know, coming and bringing food to them. I forget where, there was some special place where they put them up, I can't even remember where it was, and people going over to make sure that they were being cared for. And I remember them describing some of the work that was done. They would have handfuls of bark, and these wooden mallet kind of things, and they put these little pegs in and people were sort of describing this work and how they would be up on the roof putting this in. And I remember talking about that in the tours as well, based on what people had told me. But I did not get a chance to actually witness that, but it was considered a very important event in the time that I was working there.

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