Dear Editor:

Hats off to the John Deere drivers who paraded to honor Tak Ogawa. Great story and photo. I worked for Tak many times when I was in high school. He and Emmy were so generous and kind. Tak wrote a delightful letter to me not long ago, expressing appreciation for my parents, Oscar and Elna House, for their help to the veteran homesteaders. 

Our Ralston farm was small and school was easy, so I worked for other farmers. Jack and Koe Ando called on me often. Shuko Ando’s lunches were a revelation: Yes, vegetables really can be tasty!

Japanese Americans were an important part of growing up in the Powell Valley. When I was a child, Heart Mountain brought citizens from the west coast to our area. They were welcome in my parents’ store in Ralston, and a couple of girls lived with our family for short periods. They went back to the coast asap. Anyone who has read “Snow Falling on Cedars” understands how they came and why they left. 

In high school, I had many good friends, mostly in the vo-ag classes, two of whom were Japanese Americans: Jim Kawano and Shig Nakagawa. Jim was a good basketball player and his older sister was an announcer on KPOW. Shig and I made beer.

There were many good people in the Powell Valley. Reading about Tak reminded me that some of them were Japanese American. Americans of Japanese ancestry. They enriched my life.

Verne W. House

PHS Class of ‘55

Bozeman, Montana