Legacy List with Matt Paxton

(bright music) - [Announcer] Coming up on "Legacy List with Matt Paxton": - This is super cool.

- [Announcer] The team is in Southern California to help a woman clean out her family home.

- [Woman] Here it is.

- [Announcer] The house is filled with some familiar items.

- Dude, I actually wanted to buy this one.

- [Announcer] Endless childhood memories.

- I mean, when's the last time you used a pencil sharpener like this?

- [Announcer] And a few things that are out of this world.

- [Man] Top secret baby.

- This is one of the coolest boxes we've ever found.

- I'm Matt Paxton.

Let's do it, man.

My team of specialists, Jaime, Mike, and Avi help me help people downsize their homes and settle estates.

As the largest population of baby boomers in American history transitioned towards retirement, they and their families face the overwhelming task of emptying their homes to move.

We help them sift through a lifetime of possessions... - Bingo!

- [Matt] Heirlooms and collectibles.

We have literally found a piece of history.

To help them find the missing family treasures that mean the most to them.

- Oh my goodness.

- Jackie Robinson.

And along the way, they'll discover that the most important museum in the world may be in their family's basement.

- Oh.

- Oh.

- I've never seen that.

That is cool looking.

- From attics to cellars, closets to cupboards, we uncover the memories they want to preserve.

This is living history.

This is what we're here to find.

Let's go!

And discover the compelling, personal and often historical stories spanning generations that are their family's legacy.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Legacy List is provided by Bekins Van Lines.

At Bekins, our goal is to provide a smooth and simple moving experience, no matter the size or distance of your move.

Bekins is ready to help you get there.

You can find us at Bekins.com.

Bekins, this is moving.

FirstLight Home Care, committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at firstlighthomecare.com.

(upbeat music) - Today I'm in Downey, California.

I'm right outside of Los Angeles.

And look at all of this traffic.

I'm here to see Viki Goto.

She needs our help cleaning out her childhood home that's been empty for about three or four years because her dad recently passed.

It's hard for someone like Viki to let go of this stuff because her dad bought this house and built this family here in this town.

And Viki's had a lot of losses lately.

She's lost her dad and her sister.

It's gonna be an emotional cleanup, but I can see why she gave us a call.

(happy music) (knocking at door) Viki, good to finally meet you.

- So nice to finally meet you.

I'm excited you're here.

Come on in.

- Me too.

Thank you, thank you.

It was a cool little drive in.

- Oh, did you have any trouble finding it?

- I mean a lot of traffic, but yeah, it was beautiful.

Look at this.

God, this couch is amazing.

I love it.

How long have they been here?

- They have been here, I think these might have come with us when my parents first moved out to California.

- I mean, I'd put like '71 or '70 on it.

- Yeah.

- And they're in incredible shape, actually.

All right, so tell me why I'm here.

- Well, this is my parents' house and house where I grew up.

My father passed away about three years ago.

- Okay.

- And prior to that, he lived in a retirement community for two years.

My mother had passed away previously.

And so, you know, we really just hadn't talked about what to do with the house.

He really didn't want to to sell it.

- Knowing his story, home ownership's a big deal.

- Yes, it's the only house we've ever, you know, owned.

And I never imagined that I'd be the last one left out of my immediate family.

So my hope is to get it cleaned out and fixed up and rented out this year, hopefully.

- Okay.

And what was your dad's name?

- Tadashi.

He just shortened it to Tad, everyone called him Tad.

(upbeat music) - [Matt] Lotta space stuff.

Walk me through that.

- Yeah, so my father worked in the aerospace industry.

That's the reason why we're in Downey.

He worked on all of the Apollo missions, the space shuttle, Saturn V. That was his career.

- Viki really loved her dad and she really idolized what he did for a career.

She's just so excited about all the work that her dad did in the space industry.

- You know, one of the big regrets that I have is that I didn't find out more about what he actually did.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- Whenever I would ask him, he would say "It's top secret."

And I don't know if that was really true or... - As a man, I appreciate that answer.

It makes you feel cooler than you actually are.

- Well, I think he also just didn't wanna explain it to a, you know, a seven-year-old.

So I don't know really a lot about what he did.

I'm hoping to find out more.

- Okay.

- Alright, these dolls are staring at me.

I keep looking at you, but I feel like this doll's looking at me.

- So my father was born and raised in Maui, in Hawaii.

He is second generation Japanese American.

So some of the dolls, one in particular I know was probably from my grandparents.

My nephew has developed a real interest in Japanese culture.

So I want to make sure that I keep things that he might be interested in.

- Alright.

Well, I think we can help.

I'm looking around, but this is not a bad room.

Where else do we need to go?

- There's another couple of places I'd like to show you.

Let's go.

(bright music) - [Matt] I love this house.

It is so cool.

And it's a lot bigger than it looks.

- [Viki] Yeah.

- It's a huge house.

Oh.

Alright, so what room is this?

- This was my sister's bedroom.

- [Matt] Okay.

- Originally, and then became a storage room, as you can see.

- Yes.

- All of his- - Oh, look at that.

- Colleagues signed it.

I tried to read all the messages.

'Cause I really didn't know a lot of the people who he worked with or- - Because it's all top secret.

- It was all top secret.

- Yeah.

You have really started the process.

- We started when my sister was able to come out.

We really tried to start sorting through things.

- Did she know that she was sick when she came out the first time to help you clean?

- She did.

She battled cancer for about four years.

So she was not in active treatment when she came out, but unfortunately just a year later, she passed away.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- You expect to clean out your parents' house.

You don't expect to clean out your sister's room.

And so that's when this clean out got very real, when I started to understand like how alone in this process, Viki really is.

She spent a lot of time both caretaking and grieving.

She's gotta get this house empty so she can do something with it.

I can see how this is overwhelming, but it's not bad.

Where's the real volume?

(upbeat music) - [Viki] Here we go.

- Alright, now we're talking.

(Viki laughs) Here we go.

- Here it is.

- This is where I can help you.

- [Viki] So I have tried to do a little bit of sorting.

- [Matt] Whose handwriting is that?

The Franklin mint.

- My mother's.

- Okay.

- She liked to do the calligraphy.

- Yeah.

Fancy.

These toys I'm very interested in.

- My father also was a very big As Seen on TV purchaser.

He loved it, and he would not only buy one thing, but he would have to buy one for me, my sister, our neighbor.

You'll find a plethora of things.

I would be happy to donate anything that's still in usable shape.

- I mean, this garage is filled with As Seen on TV items, and Mike and I both grew up loving those commercials.

I'm really excited to go through the garage with Mike.

(happy music) From my experience, this looks easy, but it's not gonna be.

- Yes.

- 'Cause there's gonna be a lot of emotion here.

- Yes.

This is where I think I get stuck because I will find one bag of correspondences and then, you know, spend all day going through them.

- I think if you have the time, then you should take it and you should go through those memories and you should really live 'em for a minute.

- [Viki] Yes.

- That being said, we only have a couple days here.

(Viki laughs) So what is gonna make this space successful for you?

- There's one other area out in the patio, but this is really the main part that I've needed help with.

If I can at least get this cleaned out, it'll sort of get me the momentum to finish some of the other places.

- Okay.

I think we just need to get into this.

Let's get this done.

But before we do anything else, we need to go sit down and go through your legacy list.

- [Viki] Okay, great.

(happy music) - [Matt] I have to ask about your mom and your dad.

How did they meet?

- That's definitely the number one question that I get asked, because you know, my dad grew up in Hawaii and my mom was in Mississippi, and my grandparents on my dad's side were Buddhist, and he got a scholarship to go to a Baptist college in Mississippi.

When he went to junior college in Mississippi, that's where he met my mom at, at Clark College.

- Okay.

- Yep.

- I also wanna give you the space to tell these stories.

So I think let's do that now.

Let's get on the legacy list.

- Okay.

- The first item, I think is a Pachinko machine.

- Okay.

- Which is sort of like Japanese pinball.

And we loved playing with it.

- So y'all did play it?

- We did.

- Okay.

- It was pre-video games, so this was, we played a lot of games as a family.

I'm not even really sure where we got it.

I think maybe my uncle might have given it to us.

It's here somewhere.

It hasn't worked in a long time.

- Okay.

- And I would love to see if there's any way that it could be brought back to functioning for my nephew, because I think that's something that he would be interested in.

- 'Cause he's really gotten into the Japanese culture.

- [Viki] Yes.

- [Matt] Alright.

What's the next item?

- The next item, we had some Kokeshi dolls, which are little Japanese wooden dolls.

They're decorative items.

- Now, these are different from the dolls I've seen?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- So these are hand done.

And there's a couple that my grandparents definitely gave us, and then one that I haven't seen in a while, but I'm hoping that it's some place here, which was a nesting doll.

And so there's a bunch of little smaller dolls inside the the doll.

And my sister and I really loved.

They were something that would given to children and were handmade and passed down through the families.

- So kinda like a Russian doll where they would all collapse inside or- - Yes.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Another item that I think is still here, the lamp that we had when we were little.

And in the old house, my sister and I shared a room.

I remember it because it had a little girl walking a dog.

And I don't know if I love the lamp because I love dogs, or if I love dogs because I love the lamp.

It's one of those things.

- Oh, chicken or the egg thing.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- I definitely remember just really liking it when we were little.

- All of your items so far are from your childhood.

- Yeah.

- I love it.

Alright, let's keep going.

- Okay, the next item that I would love to be able to find, I know there aren't a whole lot of photos of my mother prior to her coming to California.

She always told me that her younger photos growing up when they were in Mississippi, there was a tornado that blew through their little town, and a lot of their stuff just went missing.

I'd love to find anything that was her pre-California days when she was still in Mississippi, and particularly in college.

- Alright, is there anything else?

- Well, my dad worked in the space industry.

And there's so many things that, you know, he collected over the years, but there were some sort of special items, which I think were only available to him as a member of the team.

And somewhere, I think there's a collection of the crew patches themselves.

My dad used to say that he had a moon rock.

I don't know if that's true or not.

- Moon rock.

- That could also be, you know, like the- - Folklore.

- Folklore for sure.

- Alright.

I know what we're looking for item wise.

And I know the two spaces we need to clean.

Let me call my team.

We'll get together and you and I will meet back here in a couple days and see what we found.

- Fantastic.

I'm excited.

- Me too.

This is a really cool legacy list.

You know, two big rooms in this house that needed to be cleaned out.

It's the sunroom and the garage, and it's really where just all the decisions had been pushed to be made later.

We wanna get both of these areas cleaned out as quickly as possible.

- [Jaime] Okay, so what's y'all's favorite thing about California so far?

I'll go first.

- Okay.

- Tacos.

- Oo!

- Golf.

- I'm gonna say the beach.

- [Mike] You think we'll meet any celebrities out here?

- [Avi] Well, I think we're going to see one now.

- That's right.

- You know what I'm talking about.

- O, oh my bad.

- The Matt Paxton.

- [Avi] Where'd he say to meet?

- [Jaime] Speak of the devil.

- What's up guys?

- Hey!

- There he is.

- Welcome to Downey.

- What's happening?

- Hey, man.

- Just chilling, man.

Working hard.

- Yeah.

- What do you think?

Any traffic?

- No.

None.

- None?

- [Avi] Just a little.

- Apparently that whole thing is real.

Like there's a lot of traffic here.

- Absolutely.

- Alright.

Awesome client, Viki Goto.

This was her childhood home.

She grew up here with her whole family.

She's the last one left.

- Oh wow.

- And so she's gotta clean it out.

- Yeah.

I pre-sent you the legacy lists.

- Yeah.

- Some very cool items.

They grew up here during the space race.

- Yeah, I'm really curious about the space capsule.

- I mean, it sounds like he was- the stuff that I've seen so far, he was heavily involved in it.

Jaime, there's a bunch of clothes in this house.

And being the California girl that Viki is, she's like, "I wanna recycle them."

She doesn't want the stuff just to go in the trash.

- And a lot of 'em were her sister's too.

- Yes.

And her mom's.

- From what I understand.

Yeah.

- Really cool stories and memories in this house.

She's like, you can see the finish line.

Like that's how close she is.

She just needs help getting pushed over.

- Well, it took four days to get to the moon.

And we have three days to clean this house out.

- I like it.

Okay.

Hopefully we can do it.

What a great analogy.

- We can do it!

- Alright!

You guys, guys coming?

To help clean.

- Oh yeah.

- Okay.

Mike, you and I are gonna go into the garage.

- [Mike] Okay.

- And then you guys are gonna go into the back porch.

- Alright.

- Okay.

- Alright.

Great.

- Cool.

After you.

- [Jaime] After you, Mike.

(upbeat music) But she's gonna rent it out, not live here.

- [Matt] She's gonna rent it.

- [Jaime] Yeah.

Oo!

- Oh man.

Well, no attic or basement this time, but... - Yeah, this is a first for us.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- I'm not complaining.

- Not this time?

- Yet.

Walking into the back porch, I saw a lot of different things and it was clearly the catchall space.

- Back porches can be pretty common places where things just build up.

They become somewhat of a storage place, for family members.

We had a lot of work ahead of us.

- Oh this is cute.

- I'll start from here.

- Thank you, sir.

Alrighty.

Here we go.

Another day.

Another garage.

- Yeah!

At first glance, this looked like any other garage I've been in 100 times.

But hearing the story, I knew there was gonna be some things in there that I wouldn't see anywhere else.

- This I think, is one of the most important rooms for Viki.

She needs to like get all this out.

(jazzy music) - This looks kind of important.

- Oh my gosh.

- [Avi] What do you got?

- His business cards.

- Oo, for what company?

- It says B-1 Division Rockwell International T Tad.

- Yeah.

These are all financial documents.

Looks like.

- Like how old?

- '81.

(Jaime laughs) - [Matt] Bunch of Tupperware.

- Oh God.

- What she told me is he was also really into As Seen on TV things.

- Oh man.

That's really reassuring when the rocket scientist is also buying stuff at 2:00 a.m. - Yeah.

Well I mean, he's just like us.

You know?

- Except a rocket scientist.

- Except a rock scientist.

Yes.

- Like this is so funny.

Like people have been saving boxes for appliances forever.

- You know, it's funny, if you go to my mom's house right now, you will find these same cards for every occasion.

- He bought two of everything.

- Okay.

What's that?

- Slushie Magic.

We've got the vegetable slicer that looks like a computer mouse.

The vegetable mouse.

Man, I wish I thought of that.

We'd be millionaires.

- This is like a box of As Seen on TV.

- Like the entire box?

- Just like, you know, furniture feet, As Seen on TV.

- A Tornado SuperJet.

- You got a lot of purses over here.

- Self cleaning toilet kit.

- [Avi] Alright.

- Dude, I always, I actually wanted this one.

The TacVisor.

It made your, you ever seen the commercials for this one?

- Oh yeah.

You could drive anytime day or night.

No glare, no nothing.

- Dude, I actually wanted to buy this one.

Viki's dad loved As Seen on TV stuff.

And you would just think a man that is so educated and so smart would not fall for all these As Seen on TV items.

And he fell hard, man.

He loved 'em.

It says, I can use this hunting.

- No deer will, - They won't suspect a thing?

- They won't suspect a thing.

- Okay.

Yeah.

Alright.

I can see why he would get lost in this stuff.

- [Matt] You can see why?

(jazzy music) Selling is an art form, as much theater as it is commerce.

And there's no better example than the TV infomercial.

When televisions became a fixture of American living rooms in the 1950s, the infomercial was on the air.

Consumers, sitting on their couches, were sitting ducks.

Infomercials were designed to imitate regular television programming, and often ran at night when drowsy consumers were most vulnerable.

Sales people no longer had to go door to door.

They could just look into the camera and offer you a deal.

That was probably too good to be true.

The first infomercial aired in 1949.

The floodgates were open.

One of the early pioneers of the infomercial was Ron Popeil, who got his start selling a food slicer, invented by his father.

His first big success?

A nozzle for your garden hose.

But it wasn't just a nozzle.

You could fill it with soap, wax and fertilizer.

But wait, there's more.

You could even fill it with insecticide to rid your garden of pesky bugs.

It was a huge success.

And Ron Popeil became a very rich man.

Another one of his signature gadgets was the Veg-O-Matic.

It slices, it dices.

It's so important to American culture that it's in the Smithsonian.

Combined infomercial earnings is well into the billions.

But the real legacy of infomercials is that they forever changed the way consumers shopped.

This tele shopping method led to the birth of dedicated 24-hour shopping networks.

So grab your phone, slip on your Snuggie, and go buy something you don't really need.

Operators are standing by.

(phone rings) - We gotta get back to work.

And I think this is exactly why people get stuck in garages and attics.

They start having fun with cool stuff.

And then it's three hours later.

- Yeah.

- Got some books, some kids books.

Some kids would love this box.

- We've got like a grill that's still in the box.

- Oh, Jaime, "The Seven Samurai".

I don't know how much you know about this.

- Nothing.

- Pretty classic movie.

- Here's the question though.

Do you think she owns a VHS player?

- Oo.

I'm gonna bet we might find one over here somewhere.

- You know what?

You're right.

You're right.

- We've got some old Barbies here.

- Dog collars.

I don't know, but is that a tape or is that a?

- Yeah.

- [Matt] It's a 8 millimeter.

- Is that Super 8?

- This is super cool.

- Yep.

Completely unused.

- [Jaime] Oh, but look at this.

- [Avi] Oh.

- It's a Kokeshi doll.

- Kokeshi doll, yes!

- Yeah.

Japanese folk art.

There's like a whole box of 'em.

Look at her.

- That is cool.

- And the ones with the bobbleheads are a little bit newer.

The original ones were made at first in the early 1800s.

Here we go.

- Oh!

- This is like more what the original ones looked like.

- [Avi] Yeah.

- I mean, this is a legacy list item.

It really showcases Japanese heritage.

You can see the progression of how the dolls changed over the years.

- I mean, this is something that she is gonna love to pass down to her niece and nephew.

- Absolutely.

- These are perfect items for that.

- Well look at that.

- [Avi] Man, that's a good find.

- A good find!

- One down!

- [Jaime] Yeah.

Legacy list item.

Check.

(bell dings) (bright music) - Well, this is not on the legacy list.

- [Mike] What you got?

- For Viki.

- Aw.

- To Daddy, a bed for your puppy.

Merry Christmas.

- Class picture.

Williams Elementary staff.

Oh, here's Mattie's graduation photo.

Morton High School.

Top third from left.

- Oh yeah.

- Nice.

- Oh, look at that.

- Here's a lot of albums.

- Okay.

- There's goats and stuff in these pictures.

That's gotta be Mississippi.

I think this is a legacy list item, man.

This was.

Yeah, man, it looks like it's from the mom's side of the family.

- She was looking for more information on her mom.

Legacy list?

- Great.

- Alright, we got one.

Let's keep looking.

- Okay.

(jazzy music) - Oh my gosh.

Look at this.

- Oh man.

- Feel how heavy that is.

- Why.

- I think because it's the one that probably sat on the teacher's desk.

- Oh the desk, yeah.

So I mean, when's the last time you used a pencil sharpener like this?

- Alright, look at this.

- Oh, whoa.

What do we have there?

- Uh oh?

Personal.

It's to him, actual picture, looking at Earth from the moon.

- [Mike] Wow.

- That's a heck of a postcard.

Look at this.

- Oh, is that a map of the moon?

Please tell me that's a map of the moon.

- We're starting to go through these boxes from her dad's office.

And you realize like he was a huge part of the space race.

I mean, early '60s to to well into the '80s.

I mean, he really did see everything from an Apollo all the way to the Spaceship Challenger.

I mean, it's really amazing what he saw and was a part of.

Apollo VIII.

This is super cool.

July 20th, 1969, man walked on the moon.

An unparalleled human achievement that spanned a decade of hard work and perseverance.

But why did America embark on such an audacious mission in the first place?

One word, Sputnik.

When the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into orbit in 1957, the space race was officially on.

President Kennedy upped the ante and vowed to send an American to the moon by the end of the decade.

It all started with the Mercury program under the guidance of the newly established National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA.

American scientists and engineers successfully sent a man into space to orbit the Earth.

Next up, Project Gemini.

The program prepared astronauts to stay in space longer and practice docking space crafts, skills that would be needed to complete the moon mission.

The third NASA project was Apollo.

Its mission: Put a man on the moon.

The world watched in wonder as Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder of the lunar module Eagle and took the first steps on the lunar surface.

- That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

- He was joined by Buzz Aldrin, and the two spent 21 hours on the moon and collected 46 pounds of rocks.

They also got a view that was out of this world.

It took the hard work and dedication of nearly 400,000 people: engineers, seamstresses, scientists, nurses, mathematicians, and many more.

But Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy's promise to land a man on the moon.

Seeing that is super cool.

And here's all the patches.

Look at this.

So you had to be on the team to get these patches.

- Whoa!

- Look at this.

Apollo.

That's an Apollo 11 patch.

What is that?

- Dude, heat shield Apollo 11 to moon and home.

- What?

- That's insane.

I am a big space nerd.

Finding things that left this planet and traveled into space is like a dream come true.

- Top secret baby.

- Yeah.

(laughs) This is one of the coolest boxes we've ever found.

- Yeah, I'm kind of in shock.

I'm like, what in the world, dude?

- This traveled from here to the moon and back.

- I've never held anything that went into space.

- No!

- That's insane.

Alright, so we have yet another legacy list item.

(bright music) - I think just another empty box here.

- Look at this.

This is her mom's planner from 2001.

- Oh man.

- And she literally lists- - Oh wow.

- What card she's gonna send to who on what date.

- There they go.

The cards are there.

- Full circle.

- Jaime.

- [Jaime] What you got?

- I think this might be the lamp.

- [Jaime] Look at that.

So many memories attached to this one object for her.

It's in pretty good shape too.

I mean this definitely was in a little girl's room.

- I would think so.

No, I can imagine.

You know, the memories that Viki would have, you know, seeing this lamp and with her sharing this room with Stephanie.

- [Jaime] This is awesome.

Legacy list check.

Good job.

(upbeat music) - So there's space laws in terms of owning moon rocks?

- I don't know.

I mean, the question would be, well, how'd you get it?

- Yeah.

- You know?

I don't know.

Alright.

- [Mike] Oh, Matt.

- What?

What you got over there?

- Hang on.

Oh, this is awesome.

And it's heavy, but.

- [Matt] Uh oh, is that what I think it is?

- If you think it's a Pachinko machine.

- I have never seen one.

Not in real life.

- Really?

- Not in real life.

- [Mike] Oh man.

- Yeah.

Look at this.

Was this just for kids or is this for everybody?

- Oh, no, no, no, no.

Gambling was illegal in Japan.

But the folks would take the little balls and go across the street and get cash for them.

So it was like, tell me you're gambling without telling me you're gambling.

I've seen quite a few of these.

- [Matt] You have?

- But the thing about it is, they never work.

So I'm really excited to get this thing back up and running and, and- - Well, if you can do that, that would be an amazing win for this family.

- [Mike] Hey man.

Another legacy list item.

- [Matt] I love it.

You did it good.

(happy music) - Alright, see what's in this chest.

I think the back room, to Viki is one of the last places that she really needs to get through before she can move forward with her plans with the house.

There was so much personal stuff back there that we really had to take our time and sort through the items one by one.

- This was a long day, but a productive one.

I mean, we found a lot of legacy list items and some items that Viki didn't have on her list that I think she'll really appreciate.

- We're finding a lot of memories attached to specific people in each room.

And this garage is all about her dad.

I can see why it's been so hard for her to finish this room.

We found a lot of legacy list items today, but we've still got more work to do.

So we'll come back tomorrow and get started again.

(upbeat music) - Staring here, moving boxes.

We had so much to do and not a lot of time.

So the plan was to go through the garage and sort everything.

We were looking for items that could be donated, things that just needed to be discarded, but we had to make efficient decisions on what group these items went into.

- Ah, we'll figure out.

- Okay.

- See ya.

- See ya dudes.

(thoughtful music) - [Viki] So this is my parents' bedroom.

- [Jaime] Wow.

- And I've started to kind of go through things a little bit.

You know, my mother passed away and my father never cleaned out her things.

- Yeah, which is typical.

It's hard.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So now everything, both hers and his are here.

And- - And I see this, this closet around the corner too.

- [Viki] Yes.

- Oh, wow.

That's a decent sized closet.

- Yes.

- [Jaime] Look at these hats.

- Yes.

There were probably a few that were his favorite.

And then all of these kind of sat behind this nice glass to not get dusty.

- Yeah.

So what's your thinking on things like this?

Like what do you want to do with them?

- Well, you know, anything that I think is still maybe usable, I would love to donate.

- Yes.

- But I know a lot of things, particularly for my mother's clothing, her work wardrobe is probably, you know, a good 20 years old, maybe more.

- It could, it could be coming back in style.

That's true, that's true, that's true.

If something is not usable, I would love to be able to find some place to recycle it.

- Yeah.

- And just try to keep it out of the landfill if possible.

- I walked into her parents' closet and it was really well preserved.

The items hanging in there were a bit dated, but I could tell that her parents really took pride in how they dressed and how they presented themselves.

And I think that sentiment was important to Viki when deciding where to send these clothes.

- I see an old Star Wars T-shirt right there.

That was probably mine.

- Really?

- That was the very first movie that I actually waited in line.

- And I can tell you wore this shirt a lot.

- Yes, I did.

Yes.

This was our old elementary school T-shirt.

And we were the Lewis Apollos.

Very patriotic.

And we were very proud.

It was very close to the Rockwell plant.

And so, you know, probably most of the kids had some parent that worked there.

I really, you know, I would probably wanna look through these a little bit, because this looks like my sister's maybe baby blanket that... - Someone made?

- Was made for her, yeah.

- I mean, that's a special piece.

- [Viki] Yeah.

- How tough is it to make decisions on things like this?

- It's so hard because, you know, I wanna make sure that I do the right thing.

- Yeah.

- I'm sorry.

- [Jaime] It's okay.

- But you know, I know I can't keep everything, so... - But you can keep some things.

- [Viki] Yeah.

- Talking with Viki, I could really feel the burden that she's been carrying around.

As an only child, I can relate to how she's feeling.

When I think about having to go through my parents' things and what am I gonna do with them.

You know, the question that crosses my mind is, well, why am I keeping these items if I don't have someone to give them too?

- I think maybe I could cut this in half or maybe less.

- [Jaime] That's a good goal to start with.

(upbeat music) - Finding the Pachinko machine was really cool.

I did some digging and I found Preston, who is really good at fixing old games and amusements.

So I called him up and sure enough he was able to come by and take a look at the machine.

Well, you see it right here.

We've got the Pachinko machine.

- [Preston] Very cool.

- Growing up in a military town, I actually have seen quite a few of these, because service members would bring them back home as gift for family.

And the thing about it was none of them ever worked.

So I was really excited to see if we could get this thing operational again.

So this reminds me of pinball.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So I wanted to bring this, just to give some context.

This is Bagatelle, which is a similar game.

And it was a way of kind of miniaturizing billiards.

Spring loaded.

There we go.

- Alright.

- Exactly right?

- Alright.

- Pretty simple, pretty straightforward.

- So that's 20 points?

- Yeah.

So people would just play and add up their score.

And high score wins.

Pachinko, you know, shoot the balls up the shoot, and you get flashing lights and you get some sort of prize and keeps people playing.

(upbeat music) - [Mike] Pachinko machines are a mechanical arcade game that are big in Japan.

How big?

Japanese gamblers spend about $200 billion a year playing the wildly popular game.

What's the attraction?

Most gambling for money is illegal in Japan.

But when you play Pachinko, you're not playing for money.

You're trying to collect metal balls that can be redeemed for prizes that can be exchanged for money.

That's what you call a loophole.

Pachinko machines were first introduced to Japan during the 1920s, and were inspired by other table games that came before it.

Like Bagatelle.

The object of this game was to get a number of balls past a series of wooden pegs and into holes.

The game dates back to the 18th century.

It was so popular that French soldiers made sure to bring Bagatelle tables with them to America while helping fight the British during the Revolutionary War.

The soldiers eventually left, but Bagatelle stayed behind.

In 1871, a British inventor by the name of Montague Redgrave patented an updated version of Bagatelle that had a spring loaded plunger and could fit on a counter.

It was such a big hit, you could say people flipped out over it.

(bell dings) During the depression era, coin operated table games provided cheap entertainment and were early versions of the modern day pinball machine we all know and love.

With the introduction of video games in the 1970s, pinball playing hit a steep decline.

But you can't keep a good game down.

In recent years, pinball has been making it comeback with a whole new generation of pinheads.

Just like Pachinko, it's one game you don't want to bet against.

- [Preston] All right.

- [Mike] All right, man I'm so excited about.

- Looks like this wire broke off here, so I'm try to get that back in there.

- Oh boy.

- When we tilt this guy up, we should see some white.

- [Mike] Um... - Nothing yet?

- Nothing.

- Well, we did for a second.

I'm not sure what happened.

Oh, you know, I bet it's this cherry switch one.

Huh?

- We popped open the back of the Pachinko machine and it was like a rat's nest of wires in there.

Watching Preston work on this Pachinko machine was like watching a mechanic work on a sports car.

- There we go.

- Hey!

- Let there be light?

- Indeed.

- Go ahead.

- [Mike] Let's do this.

(balls clinking) - It's spring loaded, so you've definitely gotta- - Oh, look at the first one right in the middle.

- Oh, yeah?

- Yeah.

But it didn't do anything.

- Uh oh.

(drill whirring) - To be honest, I couldn't tell whether he was encouraged or doubtful whether this thing would ever work again.

- Alright.

So this is another piece of the whole jackpot mechanism.

So another one of the things you have to check before you play is that this is in the up position.

'Cause if it's down, then the jackpot won't trigger.

You're gonna see it.

You see that?

(bell dings) - Hey!

- There you go.

- [Preston] Think it's good to go.

Kind of the fun of it is that you can just send it through over and over and over, and just hope one of 'em's gonna hit a jackpot.

There you go.

- [Mike] You know, this is so much fun.

- [Preston] Yeah, totally.

(upbeat music) - To be honest, things are moving a little slow because of all the sorting, but I'm determined to have this place cleaned out by tomorrow.

- Viki really wants to get some of her dad's items in a museum.

So we're gonna go over to the Columbia Memorial Space Center and see what they can tell us about this stuff.

- [Avi] Oh, thank you dear sir.

- [Matt] Look at this.

Look at this.

- [Jaime] First Royal in the space, 1984.

- [Matt] Royal?

Who's that?

- Blast off.

Houston.

We got one for space Walk.

- What?

Huh?

(all laughing) - [Avi] How does it feel out there?

- [Matt] Kinda lonely.

- Kinda lonely, aw.

- Kinda lonely.

(happy music) Oh, it's just a door.

Look at this.

- Welcome to the Columbia Memorial Space Center.

Come on in.

- Oh my God.

- Oh, that was trippy.

- Look at this, dude!

- Nice to meet.

- Thanks for having us, man.

- Absolutely.

- Alright, tell us where we are.

This is, I just walked into a different world.

- Well, you're in the Columbia Memorial Space Center Museum.

But this is our spacecraft environment.

We're part of a network of Challenger Learning Centers, which means we have a mission control simulator.

In the other room over there, we have this spacecraft simulator, and we send students on two hour missions to the moon or Mars.

- This is really, really cool.

- Thanks.

- Alright.

Well, we were told to come here.

We are cleaning a house here in Downey.

- Yep.

- Of a guy that used to work, I guess, on this site.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- He worked there for 30 years.

- There were 35,000 people who worked here on that site during the Apollo time.

- Wow.

- Southern California was, and it continues to be the epicenter of aerospace for the country.

All the planes, all the spacecraft, all the rocket engines, everything had some sort of connection back here.

- So we have a lot of questions, I think.

Alright, so this is Tad here.

- Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is definitely shuttle time.

- That's shuttle time?

- This is the '80s.

Yeah.

- Lots of different patches.

- Yeah, some of this stuff like this and this one that seems more like legit NASA issue kind of thing.

- Alright, this I thought was interesting.

- Ah.

- Some kind of coin.

- Oh yeah.

So this is Apollo 8, which to a lot of the engineers was even more momentous than the, oh, this is awesome.

Yeah.

So this is from, definitely from '68.

This is totally something that they would've given out to higher level engineers and stuff like that.

- You were about to say something about Apollo 8 being more significant.

- Oh yeah.

- Can you finish that?

I'm just curious.

- Sure.

So Apollo 8 was the first time that humanity had been outside of the envelope of the Earth, right?

It was the first one to go and orbit the moon.

- Alright, another thing we found here, can you tell me what this is?

- So this is the orbits around the moon.

And these are the pathways that the Apollo 8 capsule are gonna go to to orbit it.

So we do know he was a systems analyst on the capsules.

- Okay.

- Can you kind of tell us, like, just by that title, what would it be, wat did he do?

- So that was, it's a little bit of a catchall title.

So he could have done a bunch of different things.

But likely he was either helped design or like refine the design of some of the systems in the capsule, right?

There's the electrical system, there's life support, there's navigation.

So he was probably working with the top of the line, 1968 technology.

- Alright, so this, goes from technology to physics.

Do you know what that is?

- Well, it says heat shield Apollo 11.

Which is amazing.

So, alright, so this is a piece of the command module of Apollo 11, which is named Columbia.

The one that went to the moon.

What you had were these layers of honeycomb material like this?

- [Avi] Yeah.

- And this is really lightweight.

This is probably the outer layer.

And each of these holes would be hand filled with an epoxy resin.

The way that this keeps the astronauts alive throughout all of that is you come in at a certain angle, all that resin material and all that stuff is burning off the heat shield.

It was just taking in all the heat and destroying itself.

But that's taking the energy away from where the capsule is.

Every capsule came back to Downey and they took it apart.

But I'm sure that this was a piece that was kind of on the side, that kind of popped off and somebody said, "Hey, do you want a, do you want a piece of it?"

Yeah, exactly.

- So the family has more boxes.

Would the museum be interested in receiving some of these items?

- Absolutely.

We really honor the thousands of people who got those three people out there.

- [Avi] Yeah.

- I really wasn't aware of the extent to which Viki's father worked on various space missions.

I mean, to be able to hear someone kind of explain the importance of what his job was to the program at that time was, really, really special.

(happy music) - While everybody else was at the Space Museum, I was making space in the garage.

You know, I've gotta give my guys a lot of credit.

They really hustled on this one.

This was not easy, but we got the job done.

- We had a really successful week.

Mike's guys cleaned out the garage and the back porch, and we found a lot of really cool items.

I love showing family members an empty room because you can physically see the relief and you can see the stress just melt away.

Alright, here we go.

Look at this.

- Oh my God.

This.

- What do you think?

- It has not been this empty I think since we moved here.

- Watch your step, we gotta go down one.

- You can actually fit two cars in here now.

- Well, a two car garage should only fit one car in my world.

- And it usually does.

Oh wow.

This is so amazing.

- Alright.

So Mike, tell us what you guys did.

- We did a lot.

Yeah.

We went through everything that was in here.

We sorted it in terms of the items that you wanted to keep, items that could be donated or recycled, and then things that just need to be discarded.

- How much do you think did get recycled?

- Oh, I'd say about half.

- Okay.

- That's great.

- That's a good goal.

- Yeah, definitely.

Wow.

I just feel such a weight is off of my shoulders.

- Yeah.

That's kind of the goal.

- Yeah.

- It's true.

It's true.

I can't believe it.

- [Matt] Mike and his team also cleaned out the back porch.

- Oh, great.

Wow.

This would've taken me another 10 years, probably.

- Well, we also got stuck in here.

We did the same thing you did.

We started playing with the As Seen on TV stuff, and I had to leave in order for this to get done.

- Wow.

It's amazing.

- Alright.

You wanna go in and check out the legacy list?

- Let's do it.

- Alright.

After you.

- See you guys.

- [Matt] Thanks, Mike.

Good job.

(happy music) Alright.

We're here.

We're end of kind of a journey.

I would say.

Walk me through the relief of going through all these things.

- One of my friends tells me that you're sort of energetically connected to all of your possessions, and- - That's a good way to say that.

- Yeah.

And I really think she's onto something.

I'm hoping this will really give me a lot of energy to finish all the rest of the house that needs to be done.

- So we're gonna go to the legacy list, 'cause there was just so many cool things that we found.

- Oh, I'm excited.

- Okay.

Here we go.

First thing you asked for was the Kokeshi dolls.

We found a bunch.

But this... - It's the one.

- Is a really nice one.

Tell me about to.

Who gave it to you?

- Every year we used to go to Nisei Week, which is a festival in downtown LA in Little Tokyo.

And that's where they had a big parade and all kinds of cultural activities.

I feel like maybe we might have have purchased this one.

- Another item was the lamp.

- Yes.

- And you've talked to me a lot about that.

- Oh, you found it!

- So here is the lamp.

- Oh, there it is.

(Viki laughs) - I have no idea where we got it.

I just always loved the little girl and her dog.

My dad and I had an ongoing battle about getting a dog.

I broke him down when I was about 10 years old.

And you know, we had the dog of course, loved my dad the best.

- Yeah.

This symbolizes so much more than light.

- Yeah.

- I love it.

And the fact it was in the room when you and your sister shared a room.

- Yes.

- I love it.

With someone as spectacular as your dad.

The mom often gets forgotten.

And it's funny, your dad had saved all your mom's stuff.

Here's your mom's... - Oh wow.

- High school.

- Warden High School.

- Here she is.

- [Viki] See, very fashion forward there.

- [Matt] Very.

- Let me get my glasses on for this.

Oh wow.

- So these are your mom.

- Oh.

Wow.

So these were her college pictures.

It looks like 1961.

Yes, so this would've been right before she came out to California.

- Yeah.

This might be my favorite picture.

- Oh yeah.

Let's see, that's' 65.

So that's my sister as a baby.

I love the hair.

- Yeah.

Hair was, she brought Mississippi to California.

- Yes.

This is really great.

- Is this your sister?

- That is my sister!

- Look at that pose.

- Yes.

I don't know what possessed my parents, but these are obviously like studio headshots.

They were, I think, ahead of their time for, you know, having a multiracial child in advertisements.

I don't think anything ever came of it.

- What was it like growing up in California?

Multiracial family?

- Well, you know it was really interesting because my mom was a teacher at the school where we went.

Everyone sort of knew us, but so we, it never really occurred to me that we were any different from anyone else.

When I look back on it, you know, they got married in like 1961-62, and at that time it was still illegal in a lot of states for couples to be interracial and get married.

And so like that blows my mind.

- That is, I mean, you're right.

- Yeah.

- It's mind blowing.

- [Viki] It really is.

- Your dad.

(Viki laughs) - At the buffet, how surprising.

- Your dad was it at work, man, there's so many pictures of your dad.

- Oh wow.

- At work.

- I really don't remember seeing a lot of pictures of him from work.

- Yeah.

We spent some time today at the Columbia Memorial Space Center.

- [Viki] Oh, that's great.

- And one thing we learned was this whole city had a pride in working there.

We did find out some things.

- [Viki] Oh, okay.

- This, you had to work on it to get it.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Okay.

- Right.

- Same thing here.

Apollo 11.

- Oh.

- And seven.

What the folks were really blown away with was this coin.

And it looks like a pretty simple coin, but this is unique.

This is actually signed by Frank Borman.

And Frank Borman was an astronaut.

He was a commander of Apollo 8.

And here's actually the Borman patch.

- Oh wow.

There it is.

- I don't wanna give into your dad's joke, but I'm not saying it was top secret, but it was high enough that he got some pretty legit stuff that not everybody would receive.

And then this blew everybody away.

This was part of the heat shield from Apollo 11.

- Oh, wow.

- So this actually went to the moon and back.

- Oh, that's amazing.

- And when they would, the capsules would come back and they would take 'em apart piece by piece.

So this actually went to space.

- Oh my goodness.

- It says to to moon and home.

- Is that his handwriting?

- Yeah.

That's amazing.

- I think we all wanna be important in our jobs and our careers, but like this is a man that really was and did something massive, and that's just really admirable.

Your dad kept everything in the garage, which was amazing.

And so we actually found a lot of like video reels.

- Oh wow.

- And this is a cool one.

(rocket roars) - Oh wow.

There she goes.

- That's the famous shot.

- Oh my God, that's amazing.

- So that's here in Downey, where they're building the capsules.

- Oh yeah.

- I mean, it's really amazing when you realize what they achieved with such little technology compared to what we have now.

- Which all came from this, really.

- Yeah.

- [Viki] Is that him?

- Is right now is coordinating all tests and the final checkup of the Apollo program.

I feel it's, it's a pride for me to be part of this program and to see for myself that we could achieve this scientific goal and to see how we have accomplished with the knowledge that we have, the limited knowledge of a human, that we can see outer space what God had created and to understand more of the universe.

- Oh my God.

I can't believe you found that.

I have never seen that before.

That's amazing.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it.

- I know.

- Oh, it was so, it was so fantastic to see him and to get to hear him too.

- Oh, oh my God.

I wish my sister could see that.

I wish my sister could see that.

I'm definitely showing that to my niece and nephew.

- From what we understand, I mean, that was a promotional video shot by North American Aviation.

- Yeah.

- It was really awesome to see Viki experience the whole thing, because we want you to have those emotions because it doesn't just clean a house.

It lets you move forward with your life.

One thing I love about what your family did, is they worked really hard, but they also played hard.

This is your dad's Pachinko machine.

- Just like I remembered it.

Here it is.

Yep.

- Is it?

Okay.

Here's the good news.

We had a specialist come in.

He worked on the wiring.

It now works.

- Oh wow.

That is fantastic.

Thank you so much.

- Hey, thank you so much for everything.

- It's been wonderful.

- This has just been a joy.

And I'm just excited to see you finish this house.

And as you said to me the first day, let's reset this whole thing.

Let's get another family in here and let them experience the American dream here.

Alright, I wanna see this thing work.

- Oh boy.

I have not seen this, you know, lit up and working.

Shall we give it a go?

- Go for it.

- Okay, lady luck.

Let's have it.

Hedge your bets.

(Viki laughs) - I really do think we provided Viki with a sense of relief.

She really needed some extra hands around, but also she needed some validation that she is making the right decisions.

- We're trying to get it into the hole.

- Now that Viki has this in her rearview mirror, I think she's gonna be able to finally enjoy her life and focus on herself and her family.

- Oh!

- Yay.

- [Matt] Look at that.

- I think our team did a great job getting Viki prepared for her next phase in life.

I think Viki's ready for lift off now.

- Oh my gosh.

- [Viki] You won a lot.

- [Matt] I can see why this is addictive.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Legacy List" is provided by Wheaton Worldwide Moving.

Wheaton's number one goal is to help you, your loved ones, and your belongings, get to your new home quickly and safely.

You can find us at wheatonworldwide.com Wheaton Worldwide moving, we move your life.

First Light Home Care, committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

First Light believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at firstlighthomecare.com (upbeat music) - [Man] Visit mylegacylist.com to learn more about the tips, tools, and professionals to help make your own big life move easier.

Learn more about this episode or submit your story to be featured on the show, at mylegacylist.com