b'PART I: INTERVIEWSRecalling the Times\x02Woody Asai NYCHA, Supervising Housing GroundsmanMember since 1952In 1951, Woodrow Woody Asai, holding a degree in floral culture and ornamental horticulture from the Cornell College of Agriculture in Ithaca, NY, was hired as a gardener by the New York City Housing Authority in 1951. That was a year before Teamsters Local 237 was chartered.Thirty years later, in 1981, he retired from his job as supervising housing groundsman. He became active in thenewly formed Retiree Division, including a three-year stint as chair of the Activities Committee. He also launched asecond career as an actor and joined the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.Following are excerpts of an Oral History Project interview from November 2001My family started out on a farm in Houston, Texas. My oldest brother was ready for college, and my father heardabout a wonderful agricultural school in New York State, in Ithaca. He decided to move the family in two trucks. That wasin 1918 or soon after. My father didnt drive, so my older sister, who was only 13 years old, drove the ModelT Ford, withthe passengers, and my oldest brother drove the truck.All nine of usmy four brothers and four sisters and Istudied at Cornell.I grew up in Ithaca and lived there until November 1940, when I volunteered for one year of military service. AfterPearl Harbor they told us we had to stay for the duration of the war. So, I was in the service all during the war. I was part of the occupation force in Germany. They wouldnt send me to the South Pacific because my facial features looked like the enemy and it was dangerous for me.In 1946, I moved to New York City because most of my family had moved here, and Ive lived here ever since. I metmy wife here.My wife grew up in the state of Washington and she was involved in the internment business. The West Coast stateswere under executive order: People of Japanese descent were transported to internment camps. Many of them werecitizens, and their citizenship was violated. They only had a week to get rid of their possessions, businesses, and so on.Once they got out of the relocation camps, or concentration camps, they had to start from scratch. The only thing they had7 '