Hawai'i Ways
Small-kid time in old Waimalu
By Jennifer Ikeda Hausler
My memories of Waimalu:
- Moving into our brand-new house on Hekaha Street in 1955. For this girl from Chicago, we were now living in the country. How did we manage with mom, dad, five kids and oba-chan in three bedrooms and only one bathroom?
- Dad getting us up at ungodly hours to pick up rocks and plant grass. To this day, I loathe yard work but still get up early. We planted plumeria for lei, since no one called it the make-man flower until later.
- Dad then piling all of us in the station wagon, taking us down to Ala Moana Beach Park for swimming.
- Brand-new streets on which to practice skating, biking and playing sky kini. Hardly any cars, as houses were being built all around us. Stealing bits of wood to make pretend houses.
- Great neighbors who helped each other. Mr. Hanohano taught me to build a kite using newspaper, sticks and poi as paste. Plenty of other kids to play with like the Katos, Kandas and Chamizos, a few blocks away.
- Eagerly awaiting the yasai man to come down the street so we could spend our nickels on crack seed, red squid legs and, if we were rich, abalone chips.
- Going shopping with mom each Saturday at the nearest grocery store, Big Way in Waipahu.
- Attending the brand new Alvah Scott School that hardly had any trees and meeting Mr. Nagamine, the first person I ever met with only one arm. He showed us that it certainly wasn't a handicap, and he was the best teacher I ever had. I still love reading to this day because of him.
- Holding our breath when the termite man came down the street, fumigating with large puffs of "smoke" that would probably be considered some kind of poison today.
- With oba-chan, catching the black taxi to town to watch samurai movies and eat saimin only if you were not the "No. 1 warui" (bad kid). Riding back from the Armed Forces YMCA with other country people.
- From the school bus, watching the cane in the fields starve from lack of irrigation each day during the sugar strike.
- Going to the 'Aiea heiau for class picnics and outings. Some said it was haunted and that it was full of spirits at night. It's still the serenest and most spiritual place I know.
- Being taken to Pearl City Tavern for a special night out, and seeing the monkeys play behind the bar, and at the end of the evening, picking up the special treat for kiddies from the treasure chest. Was this the precursor of the "Happy Meal"?
These were my "happy days," growing up when straws were made out of paper, TVs had only three channels and any adult could scold a child doing something wrong. I love today's energy and technology, but sometimes get nostalgic for those simpler times.
Jennifer Ikeda Hausler lives in Pearl City.
