Category: Missing

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Dr. Ji-Yeon Yuh Interview

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00:02 I’m Ji-Yeon Yah, associate professor of history and director of Asian American studies at Northwestern University and during World War Two, American soldiers were stationed overseas in Europe and in Asia and particularly in Europe, and they began to get engaged with and marry local women and the War Brides Act of 1945 was specifically designed to allow these soldiers to bring back their fiances and their wives. And in fact the war brides. It also allowed for boatloads of women two come to the United states, uh, to meet their husbands and their new in- laws and or to meet just their in-laws if their new husbands were still stationed overseas. And these boats came in primarily from Great Britain in 1945, Asians were prohibited from immigrating to the United States. And the only country that was allowed to send immigrants to the United States was China. And that was provisionally. It was a very small quota per year. And that was allowed only beginning in 1941 because China was an ally of the US in World War Two.

01:15 But Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese were not allowed into the United States at all. And the War Brides Act did not cover them in this became a point of contention, um, after 1945 in particular for American soldiers stationed in Japan because they began to socialize with and fall in love with the local women in Japan and they want to marry and bring them over and they felt that they were being discriminated against. They said, why is it that our comrades in Europe can bring over their fiances and their wives? But those of us stationed in Japan cannot. And so congress passed a series of exceptions to the war brides act amendments, which gave basically a grace period saying from x month to x month, soldiers in Japan can bring over their wives of Asian ancestry to United States despite the prohibition against doing so. This happened in 1947. (When did it end?) Officially never. In 1952, the US Immigration and naturalization laws were changed.

02:35 And uh, that law for the first time since 1924 eliminated the prohibition against migration from the United States, I’m sorry, against migration from Asia. And also overturned the US naturalization law that prohibited Asian immigrants from naturalize as us, and it was only after the 1952 Act that woman from Asia could enter the United States as wise of American citizens. But that was because women from Asia, men from Asia could enter simply as immigrants under other categories. Um, I really haven’t seen any research done on that, but I do know that there were a number just anecdotal sort of cases where they couldn’t come over. And one of the brides that I had interviewed, um, she was Korean and her fiance was transferred to Japan during the Korean War and she followed him to Japan and somehow managed to get a visa to enter the United States. But that was during one of the, uh, amended sort of grace periods, the amendments allowed.03:59 And she talked about how she really had to think carefully because she was thinking, what’s the point of dating this guy if I can’t marry him and be with him in his own country. So that was a real issue for her. Um, and it was an issue that the Korean war overose, because that point she felt that she didn’t want to be in, uh, Korea, she didn’t want to have to deal with the war and so she was going to do everything she could to make her way to the United States with her fiance. And she said that she was very lucky that this grace period, you know, popped up, popped up in 1951. (How many?) Um, yes, there’s been about a 70,000 Japanese war brides who came in. Um, there’s been about 100,000 Korean War brides that have come in there then. Then there are also Filipino war brides and Vietnamese war brides. Read more...

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Eudosia Juanitas (interview #2) (TRANSCRIPT ONLY)

Eudosia B. Juanitas (interview #2)
Recorded by Ruby de Luna
2005

Track 2: AMBI sound with doorbell and Eudosia saying “coming”
Track 3: Eudosia B. Juanitas

[and what year did you come here again?]
1936

[I want to know when you became a citizen of the US]

Now, let me see, after uh, after the war. After the war, you know the last war.

[How did it feel when you finally became a citizen?]

Oh, it was alright..hahaha

[How did you feel…did you feel happy did you feel sad?]

No, just as usual because I didn’t care where I was going any. See, after I graduated high school, no after I graduated nursing.

[And um, when you first came to the US you weren’t a citizen…so you and your Filipnio friends did you feel sad, how did you feel not being a citizen?]

No, we didn’t feel nothing. I don’t know for him but for me, I didn’t care. That’s why I came here um, we uh, I didn’t really. I didn’t know what to do after I graduated see. Right away, after uh from um, from the place where I graduated in Manila. I came home first and then he took vacation and we meet in our place because he’s also in a townmate see. And uh, it so happened that he was also uh, he went to the Philippines and I went also to my native town for a vacation and then we meet there. We got married right away and then we rode the boat coming here.

[Do you remember um, there was uh, Filipino community here in Stockton and um do you remember if anybody was fighting for their citizenship here?]

No there was no.

[What were people saying because there was a lot of laws at the time when you were here in the 30s and 40s. There was the Tydings McDuffie Act..do you remember that? There were a couple of laws that excluded Filipinos from a lot of things, from some of them were excluding Filipinos from gaining citizenship….]

Oh, I was later, maybe that was before me when there were troubles. Because uh, they could not even get along with the Filipinos. Some Filipinos you know, they came from Hawaii and they are disobedient, so the police they tell them something, sometimes they kick them. Yeah, before. See.

Well, you know, those Filipinos they drink too, they drink. And then when they drink they talk too much and they’re disobedient too, that’s why. Oh they talk and talk to the police or whatever see. So and I.

[What did the police do?]

Oh, just a little bit uh because they were already sitting down there on the ground you know, near the store.

[Who is this]

You know those men, those Filipino men were sitting like, as in the Philippines we down there in the floor there. And some of them were doing that too you know and uh, they were discussing with the police and some they that’s why. But, I didn’t see any harsh thing that they did. They just uh say them, get up get up and go.

[Was there any discrimination against the Filipinos?]

At that time, um, there was no thing, at least they were discriminated by the Filipnos because there were also other nationality that came later. The Filipinos were ahead of any other becase they came from Hawaii in the plantation, the sugar plantation. So many of them uh, went to the States and they had already their job over here before I came you know. I don’t know because it was 1936, Filipinos were here already. From the plantation in Hawaii they move over here see.

[Your husband…did he ever talk about wanting to become a US citizen?]

yeah, he became a US citizen.

[How did he feel when he became a US citizen?]

He was alright because he was first here you know and uh, it so happened that the wife died already and he went home and accidentally we met each other and it didn’t take long because I want to really go any place. Among the brothers and sisters were ten and I was left alone you know. I graduated in nursing and then I felt so sad you know when I uh oh mostly all your elders are all grown you know. Most of them died at that time.

[So you lived in a Filipino community here…can you describe what it was like?]

Yeah, there were few women. Those women came from Hawaii. See they plant in the they work in the sugar plantation together with men see. I had only known, so, little bit of them, little bit. So uh, sometimes we meet only in town because we have our place there over in the ranch..a few miles from here. My husband has a farm already when we came here and uh everytime we had (?) we come to town and we meet those ladies you know, there are very few of the men had wives because there’s very few Filipino women, not until after they uh, they let they’re called Okloy fro Oklahoma did they let them come in and that’s the time they intermarry with them.

[So did the Filipino men…did they date white women?]

Yeah, they call that Okloy from Oklahoma.

[Wasn’t that against the law?]

Oh, well, maybe little by little, later on when I was here. Maybe before you know. But when I was here, they could date them.

[Did you notice any,…because there were riots too at that time…when the Filipno men would get beaten up for dating white women]

No, not at that time, no more. See, before that I don’t know but when I came in 1936 there was not any more riot. No, see.

Track

[Do you remember hearing about Carlos Bulosan?]
No.

[there were a lot of Filipnos who were joining unions…what were they saying about farm labor? Do you remember?

No.

[Why were they joining unions?]

4:09 When I came here you know, they were starting to organize themselves very well. There was no fight about that during at that time. See.

[Can you tell me about that?]

Well, they have first the Filipino community see and those Filipnos uh, with few women, sometimes uh, well it’s hard you know to get a woman because there was no, even white women don’t get acquainted with them except later on when they imported they send some American women, that’s the only time.

[So what about the farm labor unions? Do you remember the farm labor unions? Can you tell me about that?]

Farm labor union. Yeah, there was union and uh, oh, the Filipnos were uh, sort of united that time. See. They, uh I didn’t uh, there was a little bit of something you know but I didn’t notice them very much at that time.

[Were any of your friends involved?]

No.

Yeah, but it wasn’t much now, it was disappearing. There uh the acquaintance with the Americans see. The only thing was the, that they were not treated good because there was uh yeah, dancing place there you know where the women was. And they drink too that’s why. Sometimes they are driven there in the street, because they stay there and talk and then talk loud and have some loud conversation and the police didn’t like that.

[What about the dancehalls can you tell me about that?]

The only thing that I have heard uh, but I was not there before that. But uh, those uh police were kicking the Filipinos, but at my time they were not doing it anymore because the Filipinos were obedient too the only thing when they drink too much, they resist and talking but they usually obey. There was nothing, they weren’t hurt at that time, no more, very cruel to them anymore.

[You think the police were right in kicking them?]

I don’t know, I didn’t see them. They were just talking to me. But they were treated like that before because there was a dancing hall and there was this Filipino also. They drink and uh, they go to the dancing hall and by and by they come out you know and …

They are very noisy, they drink…it was hard to manage them But I was not with them because we lived four miles from here see.

[Were there some place in Stockton where Filipinos weren’t allowed to enter?]

No, there was not at that time.

[How did you get citizenship? Do you remember?]

yeah, we uh, we have a test you know. I dunno if I have a test, I forgot. Because uh, after that yeah, after the war there was uh, they had that um, the nurses have uh, there things you know to take examination before you come in but uh, myself I didn’t have to take examination because I graduated in the Philippines and I didn’t have to take a board examination, see. And they allowed me to go in training right away and then there was a question with the uh superintendent of nurses there see. First they tried me for about, I think uh, one or two years. And they still did not give me my registration thing. And then uh, I was ready to go to Sacramento to complain about it so later on they give me the write, they give me the thing to practice.

[Was this the nursing test?]

See, first you have to, what you call that uh, to work there you know, without any wages or anything, just work. Training first see, but they have certain years already. I think I, I worked there only for three years in the San Joaquin County…..

(about working in nursing) (Group 3: 4)

[Do you remember what year you got your citizenship?]

Oh, (laughs) I forgo. I think uh, it was several years, right away after the war. I applied and then I got it right away, see. That’s why I was able to work, otherwise they won’t allow you, if you have no career see, in the hospital.

[When you first got here, you weren’t allowed to get citizenship…no..did you want to get citizenship when you first got here?]

I was not thinking of it first, I said, I’ll just wait and it so happens that with the war see. Not until after the war, that I tried and then because what they did was they had a favorite with the Filipinos because they were good soldiers, very good soldiers, fighter. So they allowed the Filipinos to be citizens. That was after the war, but before that no. They were so uh, they were so helpful with the Americans see. So the Filipnos were getting better too because they were treated nice and that social hole was there of course you know because there was no Filipina for the Filipnos too. Only few, only few girls from Hawaii see and they are sad too. Then later on the government approved the uh, of those from uh, certain place, certain kind of state that they allowed California and then some of them married them.

[Do you remember how your friends felt when they found out that you could get citizenship]

Oh see there were only about fiver or six Filipinas, sometimes we just met you know. Later on we got away from the ranch you know where we were doing because my husband was working in the field. In that ranch there in Libby and Sitner and then we got the house so that time I was not uh, not mingling with them so much see, because of that. But they are still the same you know.

[So did you like living I the US at that time?] (Group 3: 5)

Well, for me I said in any place, I didn’t care. So long as I get away from my place ther too see. Because uh, just imagine, I was the last you know, that was taking education and uh, they didn’t even care for me, for my studies. And uh, lucky at that time the hospital provide us….(about working in the Philippines…going to school there )

[So you were happy just being here and it didn’t matter if you were a citizen or not?]

I worked hard to be a citizen. It’s better to be a citizen. You see, uh, if you study here it would be nice to be a citizen because whatever they are doing for their own students they will do for you see.

[You didn’t get to vote either, and you’re not able to work, you’re not able to go to school..how did you feel about that?]

I just waited and waited see. And uh, you know the first time you work in the hospital you don’t know anybody and sometimes you know you ask them to help you and some will help but some they have sort of discrimination (laughs)

[Can you talk about that a little bit? How was that?]

Well, like uh, that uh superintendent of the nurses because uh, I had only I think I had not completed my uh, one subject and uh, I have to take that for a year there in the hospital, so she thinks that I don’t know anything about it…(about hospital…not much here to use)

Group 3: 6

[You said that you felt some discrimination from this woman?]

No, the workers only.

[Can you describe a situation that happened?]
Oh well, you know because uh, most of the women are fat so I can’t even move them. Some are nice and some are not, but those are differences in people. So I just keep quiet, but it was hard for me, I could not even uh, let the patient roll, because he’s too fat, I could not carry.

[So what did you do?]

I ask other workers to, and sometimes they pity me you know because I’m new there and the only Filipina there that’s working.

[Was it hard working with white people?]

No, some. I think it’s really individual what kind of woman you are. You help or they will help you see.

[So you didn’t feel discrimination outside of that, not working on the farm?]

Well, you see my husband was a labor contractor. He supplied labor. There was a company called Libby and Sitner….(again, about them working in the farm…not much different from what I got before)

Group 4: 7
I stayed here in Stockton most of my life, since 1936. Mostly, lots of Filipinos here in Stockton. The one that uh, you see, in Hawaii, they got all those places in Hawaii before they were working and as soon as they transferred here, all of them mostly came. (my voice) you see they were not married because the Filipinos in Hawaii, most were men and uh, they came here and they intermarry here, they could not, sometimes they get their women you know but uh, it’s hard when there are a few women and not so many men. And uh, maybe later so that government was trying to place them too to bring some women here from the white…

[What did they do again?]

They get some Filipnos to come here to work here in the packing house like that or in the field.

(more about more Filipino men, not women)

[Overall were you happy to be living in the United States and why?]

Yes, well uh, I was the last to graduate uh I was telling you…(about how her family didn’t pay for her education in the Philippines, etc….so she was just so happy to go anywhere, US or not)

I was the last to graduate, I did not know what to do with my life and I didn’t care about the place I was living in, mostly, all away and I have nobody you know, so I felt so sad about myself.
(about meeting her husband) he was looking for a wife and I didn’t love him, he should know that, I just wanted to leave that place

Group 3: 8

(about her mother and father fighting, father drunk, etc.)

Group 3: 9

[Again, I asked you this before but I’ll ask it again…how did you feel about becoming a citizen of the United States?]

I loved to because uh, there are so many things that they allow you to do when you’re a citizen see. So I, it you will be left away if you are not a citizen and uh of course there are so many of the Filipinos that I know, they didn’t study they just go on and work in the field and they go in the Philippines and they take vacation and they come back. They were allowed to do that but I took the advantage of getting a vacation here see.

[How would you have felt if they didn’t give you citizenship?]

Well, uh, I will not feel anything because it is not the law. Everybody is affected by the law, but once you know, uh, there is discrimination then you get made at it see.

[What would you do if there was discrimination?]

Well, I would just go to Sacramento and discuss it there. I am not afraid yeah,

[And um, did your husband experience discrimination?]

No, uh because his work was only supply labor, he wasn’t affected by those kind see.

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Farmer Harold Tamano

Harold Tamano transcipt
Rainjita Geesler
Ag contributions

My name’s Harold Tamano, I’m 59 years old. I have been farming since 1974… I’ve lived in sacramento all of my life. The farm is a veggie farm, my father was farming before me, grandfather before him. We used to be in rancho cardova, moved from an 18 acre farm, to here, 42 acres which I expanded to 100 acred in 1982. I’ve now quit farming, too many debts, and the farm is up for sale.

1:08 What are your early memories of farming, what do you remember from your grandpa or father?

Mostly that I had to work, my school memories are when we went back to school, everyone talked about what they did for vacation. And since we always had to work during the summer I never had those type of vacations. Play was basically, because we had other farm neighbors. And we used to have ballgames. It was like you come home from school, parents emphasize school. If you have a paper, you were excused from work, otherwise you were expected to come home and go to the field and work. I never intended to become a farmer, it seemed like all work to me. I changed my mind when I was going to graduate college, mainly because I saw that my father didn’t work during the winter, which I never saw because I was always in school. And so there is time off. Winter is the slow time, so as long as there is some time off and the fact that by farming you got to be your own boss I decided to give it a try. We did fine, farming was good up until the late 80’s early 90’s, then there was an economic struggle.

How old were you when you decided to take your fathers farm?

24

Why do you think that you chose farming?

3:40 I didn’t like trying different kinds of jobs, I liked working outside and the independence. Having your own business you can make your own hours even if they are long. Financial rewards also. When you are first out of college it didn’t take too much to accomplish financial rewards. In other words it didn’t take much to make me happy. But since then we’ve had some really good years and really bad years. More so lately bad years, good years were early.

4:24 What do you mean by good years?

Good years, economically. We’re making money. There’s been years when we made almost a fortune, 100,000 80,00 a year, that was in the early 80’s. And then there’s been years when I’ve lost 50-60,000 a year, and there has been too many of those years like that recently. It’s been a financial burden trying to stay farming

5:14 Why has there been a downturn in the last years?

I imagine that the economics of farming has changed. Gone to corporate farming, in that if you want to keep your costs down, you have to do volume, you have to buy box by the volume, have to do by fuel volume. You can get discounts or buy items for less money by buying volume verses a few thousand boxes at a time. Then they work off of a smaller profit margin, a smaller percentage. A large company can work off of breaking even most of the year, or making 5cents off of a box of lettuce. I need 50 cents if I want to come out ahead at the end of the year, and the market just isn’t there.

How did your father get into farming? Introduce us to him.

My father was Kiyoshi Tamano, he was a kiibe, born here educated in japan, and came back here when he was 16. Worked as a laborer, and then started his own farm. I don’t know when, back in the early 30’s that he started farming. I’m sure that they must have had just the subsistence level initially, but in the 60’s and 70’s he did fairly well, and of course by the time he was doing fairly well, is when I came along and got into the business. And initially I did fairly well, but like I said times have changed.

8:03- father internment, WWII, how did that impact farm?

Impact on farming was not very large because my father was just starting. He did not have a lot of equipment, and didn’t have a lot to loose. He only started making money after the war.

What did he farm?

Mainly cucumbers and leaf lettuce. He introduced lemon cucumbers in sac in early 50’s. with the advent of the English cucs, lemon cucs have gone to wayside.

What do you see has been a jap ag contribution to farming as a whole?

9:41- potato king, in Stockton, who reclaimed land and used cheap land to grow crops. In 50-60’s because it was labor intensive, all the farmers didn’t have much help, and farmed small pieces. As much as they could handle. Like my father had only 18 acres, for a family with no hired help that is as much as physically handle. Like I said he intro lemon cucs, not too many people grew leaf lettuce here. Too warm an area. All most all small scale farming. Corporate farming is just mass production, you just have to have a mind set.

11:36- what was the day to day like on the farm?

Early on only wholesale. Raleys, Safeway. I grew mostly leaf lettuce, we sold 3-400 cases a day. I still grew specialty crops, lemon cucs, Crenshaw melons. Always trying side crops, mustard greens, whatever. After safeway moved their warehouse to tracy, and raleys went into their nutriclean certified produce I found that I was losing money. I couldn’t sell enough to make money. So in 92 I switched my whole operation to doing farmers markets. Started with the same crops I did wholesale/ As the years went by I grew more specialty items. Japanese cucs, gobo, no one else grows gobo here, wholesale you can’t sell it and make monbey. I could sell it retail and make monty. Regular melons, honey dew. Prided myself in growing better and sweeter product because I was selling directly to the consumer. We’d leave the melons on the vines longer, sweeter. Cucs make sure they were the right size and color. I was into tomatoes for some time, but at the farmers market every third stall were tomatoes. Too much competition. I didn’t sell enough to make it worth while. I didn’t like doing it. Off and on tried specialty things, artichokes, cactus, kobocha, Japanese mustard, real specialty Japanese items, but it didn’t work out. I was always trying something new. I have a special section in my field that I grow all my experimental stuff, just to try.

And now that you stopped farming do you miss it?

15:43- Yes and no, when you worked for yourself all your life it’s hard to work for someone else. Because you see that maybe I would do things differently, but that is not my choice when it is someone else’s business. I was at the farmers market this morning visiting, and they said you seem happier. And I said well it could be just that I am not under that financial stress. I don’t have to worry about is my truck going to run today, or if my tractor is going to break tomorrow and where the money is going to come to pay for that stuff. And maybe I won’t make as much money at the end of the year, but at least I know how much I am going to be making, and that I don’t have to worry about the equipment or the crops. I guess its been getting to me, the stress, the stress of whether we’re going to make any money this year or not. You get so used to doing it that you don’t realize that the stress is getting to you, until you get out from under it.

17:18- What was the process like deciding to quit?

It wasn’t too hard. It’s something that had been coming for the last ten years anyway, because I haven’t been making too much money. After I paid my payroll taxes, and everything when I realized that I didn’t have any money left to start up. And in order to get money to buy seeds and start up money that we need, I would actually have to borrow money, and I would have to put up my house or the land as collateral, and if we had a couple more bad years like that then I would lose that also. And I have seen too many of my friends and neighbors get in the same predicament and end up losing everything including their house. And I said I just don’t want to get in that situation if I can afford it. And so I was offered a job, and at my age getting offered a job is rare, and I said I better take it. Because I don’t see that farming is going to get economically any better anyway. So at the end of January I said that’s it, no more money I quit.

18:58 And did you make the right decision?

Yes, so far, especially with how the weather has been so far this year. With the way that it has been raining, and how wet it’s been I would have been fretting a bit about clearing the ground to start planting for this next season, it’s kind of nice to not have to worry about that.

20:00 What are other obstacles that you faced during farming? In the early years there was a lot of racism. What do you think of those hard times now?

No I have not experienced too much of that. In my experience, times have changed. Either I am not efficient enough, and it’s hard to admit that your at fault, but it’s just the way of the farming industry right now. Unless you can find a specialty crop that will pay you more profit percentage wise, you have to be too large, and too many acres to make a profit.

How many people worked for you?

Three and a half. 2 ladies and one guy. He drove tractor and irrigated, the ladies did picking and weeding. One sister would come for half a year for the harvest. Three people were retired helped me sell at the farmers makets. We did up to ten farmers markets a week.

Did you make money at the farmers markets?

No, never like the early 80’s. I survived, and on a good year I would make 30,000 dollars, and that is not a lot especially these days. And so I have just been biding my time actually, saying that development has to come this way some time, and then I can sell the property and retire. Then I see all my friends who work for the state who retire at 55, and I say I must have done something wrong. Ha ha, but I haven’t really regretted in the sense that my life has been good, and I have been able to do things pretty much that way that I want to. Take my own type of vacation, even though they weren’t the doing typical vacation times. Like summer, we always took our vacations in the winter. My wife said that now we can take our vacations during the regular peoples time. And I said who wants to go to florida in the middle of summer, la in summer, Hawaii in summer. The best times are during the winter.

23:37- What’s in the future ?

I’m looking to sell the land, we’ve had a few offers recently, they’re not the type of offers that I want. So we’ll just wait and see what happens, sac is developing, but mostly in the south. I figure the next big move will be this way, the offers we have had are speculators. All they want to give us is the option money, so in five years they can decide if they want to buy it or not. And of course they will only buy it if they will make money, if they know someone will buy it. I’m saying I’ll take a little less if you pay me right now, and so far they are saying no.

25:00 what do you want to see the land become?

I didn’t grow up here, Ranch Corora, and that’s all houses now. But I suppose ideally it would become a golf course, then it would be open. I’m not a golfer, but I have no ties as such. I sometimes wonder where we’re going to live. It would be nice to stay in the house and have a big yard. But it would be so out of place with the development. And I have heard horror stories of people trying to farm with development around it. And so I would never want to do that. Basically the land has always been an investment anyway.

26:00 Small scale farming? Garden food for family?

I intend to, yeah, maybe once I sell it I won’t be able to. But now I have half an acre of melons and cucs, cause I know I can make it taste better than what you can buy. I’m spoiled, I want something that tastes good.

26:43- Your father got into farming, and so did you. Talk about the intergenerational relationship with your dad, and others. It doesn’t go on to the fourth generation.

How have things changed?

My father started from scratch, even though his father farmed before him. But he went back to japan, and my father came back by himself. He just started from scratch. How he initially decided what to grow, I don’t know. Basically after I took over, my father already had the markets, and I already knew everyone in the area that grew or all the markets where you could sell things. I had already had those contacts as such. Equipment, I changed things, because everyone does their own way. He was into small scale, not much equipment. When I doubled the size of the farm we had to change the way we did things. I guess when your young and willing to put in more time and more money, because when you expand it costs you a lot more, and you think your going to make more. And initially you do, you do, it should work out that way, it’s just the whole industry has changed. Unless you again had to be a specialty item, and hit on it at the right time, and get big enough volume from it then you’re doing ok. Otherwise you just have to expand with the times, and that was too much risk. My fathers way of thinking of things was different than mine. I’m not sure he could have survived with the way he was doing things. And if you want to say I got much bigger, more than twice as large as he was doing, and it was a different way from him. I guess if my son got into farming he would have to go twice my size, and I probably would have thought like my dad, that’s not the way I do things. But if they made a go of it, then that’s fine. Now adays ya have to get way too large. Have to take really big risks to reap the rewards.

31:16- How did your dad feel about it? What was your relationship like when you wanted to farm bigger.

Well, I think he felt that it’s not like he would have done it, but if he saw that I was doing okay then he was fine with it. I guess he understood things kind of had to change anyway. Maybe because I went with more tractors and mechanical that was lazier than he was. He never objected, he never said I was doing things wrong. I don’t think he thought I was doing things wrong. Like I said we were doing okay. At the end, before he died, he saw that I was having trouble economically, and I started doing the farmers markets, and he said maybe that is the way to go. So he saw things were changing too. And within a couple of years after that I have had to change all the way around, I was going to the farmers market. I would have been like the 80 percent of the other farmers here, I would have been out of business ten years ago. Ishimotos, Masaheras, six farmers that tried to continue wholesale, and they either quit like I did before they got into big trouble, or a couple of them were in big debt and the only way they thought they could get out of it was to get out of farming. So out of the small veggie type farmers here, theres out of twelve there are three of us left. One is part time, so is the other guy. And myself, and after I leave there are only two. Neither of them are full time. And you have to be too large to survive.