On one afternoon in 1956 Richard says to me, “We’ll have to divvy up our marbles.”
Richard and I were both good marble players. We would often return from school with bulging pockets and empty them into an ever growing shared stash. My parents had decided to return to the West Coast to be closer to their families, and with our impending return to California, Richard and I sat down on the ground that afternoon and divided our stash of marbles.
After arriving in San Jose in the summer of 1956, my half of the marbles went into the corner of my closet and was ignored until my mother passed away in 2002. From there, they were placed into storage as the house was cleared for rental purposes. At the time, those marbles were a marginal sentimental footnote to my childhood.
Courtesy of Jonathan Hirabayashi.
In 2020, in the suspended space of the pandemic, I decided to locate my childhood friend Richard, who I had last seen in 1968. I began by calling Christensen Auto Sales in Pleasant Grove, a business started by Richard’s dad, Earle. Luckily, the business was still in the family, operated by Richard’s younger brother, Jay. I then called Richard, who had retired in Pima, Arizona.
After a few pleasantries, he asked, “Jon, it’s a question that’s been on my mind for so many years. Was your family in Pleasant Grove because of Topaz?”
He had learned about Topaz during his delayed college years and had visited the site with his dad. As we talked, I was touched by how personal the issue was to Richard. As we continued our chat, he asked,” What happened to your half of the marbles?” He reminded me of our marble prowess and how we had pooled our marbles together. I asked him about his half of the marbles and he said ruefully that Jay was not a very good player and added, “Jay lost them all.” Upon hearing Richard’s lament, I resolved that in due time, I would retrieve those marbles in storage and find my way to Pima, to divide those marbles once again.
In early October of 2023, my wife and I drove through the Gila River valley towards Pima. I was struck by the similarities of the rural quality of the area surrounding Pima to that of Pleasant Grove in the 1950s. Richard said that he and his spouse, Pat, preferred this rural setting rather than returning to the burgeoning suburbia of Pleasant Grove.
In reuniting with Richard, I was reminded of his kindness and grace. As we pulled out of their driveway the following day, I felt a wash of redemption—not a feeling of being saved, but of retrieving memories of a happy childhood and the renewal of an old friendship.
About the contributor: Jonathan Hirabayashi was born in 1946 in American Fork, UT. His parents, Toby and Sugar, farmed and later opened a produce store near Pleasant Grove before returning to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1956. Jon graduated from UC Davis, served in the Army, and got an art degree from Cal State Hayward. He worked as a graphic designer at the Oakland Museum before establishing his own business as an exhibit designer and fabricator. He volunteers as the Topaz Stories Project’s exhibit designer and lives with his wife, Susan Kai, in Oakland, CA.
Copyright 2024, Jonathan Hirabayashi.
Lovely story of childhood friends and their strong bonds. Thank you!
What a lovely story Jonathan. And what a huge stash of marbles!
Thank you, Jonathan and Topaz Stories for this story that is a bright spot in what is usually a very dismal month. It’s good to be reminded that not everyone turned their back on us.
Joe Yoshino