Toshio Fukuda was born in 1917. What does he attribute his long healthy life to? Maybe it’s his daily root beer float. His love for the sweet treat dates back to when he was a kid and went to the local soda fountain in his Oakland neighborhood. Toshio simply says, “I’m very fortunate and thankful that my parents took such good care of me.”
As a child, he loved going to the theatre to watch cowboy movies and going fishing, but he admits he wasn’t very good at fishing. His parents sent him to live with relatives in Japan when he was 6 years old. He was a good student and was active in judo and swimming. He returned to the U.S. at age 14 and eventually enrolled at Cal Berkeley majoring in Political Science. Soon after, he was sent to an internment camp. It was there that he met his wife. “I always knew she was the one for me.” They married and honeymooned in Monterey.
Toshio and his late wife lived for many years in the Bay Area. He found work at the Simmons Mattress Company. “The pay wasn’t too good, but they were one of the few businesses at the time willing to hire Japanese.” They loved going to Lake Tahoe where they enjoyed seeing dinner shows. “We once met Lawrence Welk in our hotel elevator. My wife was a great fan, and we told him we had tickets to his dinner show that night. Mr. Welk wanted to bring my wife up on stage to dance with him, but she said no thank you. She was too shy to dance in public.”
Toshio now enjoys living at Greenhaven Terrace and “I’m thankful that my niece and nephew in Sacramento help me out these days.”
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