Hawai'i Ways, Hawai'i Days
Memories follow loss of the familiar
By Stacy Yuen Hernandez
Special to The Advertiser
"Liberty House sold, will become Macy's." A bittersweet feeling overcame me as I read that headline. I am looking forward to shopping at Macy's, but I also feel sad that Liberty House — something so familiar to the Islands — will soon be a memory.
My grandfather tells me about his childhood and shining shoes to make enough change to buy his family watercress for dinner. My mother used to speak of a McCully grocery store called Piggly Wiggly, long before we had Safeway, Times and Foodland. We tell our children about what used to be so they will get a better understanding of the present.
When I think of my childhood, I remember my mother picking me up from Ma'ema'e School and going grocery shopping at Chun Hoon, where the Nu'uanu Shopping Center now stands. I was intrigued by the Buddhist monks with their shaved heads and orange robes. My mother always ordered me not to stare.
Sometimes my grandparents would take me to a wonderful place called Keiki Land, a permanent carnival on Ala Moana Center's lower level. I loved riding the little boats and merry-go-round, but my favorite was the Ferris wheel, which was made up of enclosed metal cages to keep the kids from falling out.
Ala Moana has changed quite a bit since the days of my youth.
I was sad to see Farrell's Ice Cream parlor go. We celebrated birthdays there, and it was a cool place to hang out even when we were in high school. Farrell's was famous for an ice cream creation called "The Zoo." It was a huge vat of ice cream (most of it melted) with little clear-colored plastic animals stirred into it. The vat sat on a hole in a stretcher and waiters would run around carrying this stretcher, singing and hooting as they presented the birthday child with the messy concoction. I haven't thought about Farrell's since my law school days, when I thought of the ramifications of a child choking on one of the plastic animal figurines while consuming a birthday dessert.
Other Ala Moana eateries that remain in my memory bank are Lyn's Delicatessen, which made way for the food court. My first job was at Dunkin' Donuts, next door to Lyn's. I still recall the delicious smell of greasy pastrami when you walked into the deli.
As I grew older and clothes became important, Liberty House was the place to go. At least that's what my mother strongly believed. I disagreed and said I just I had to get my prom gown at The Ritz. She rolled her eyes and gave in.
Ala Moana isn't the only place that has changed in the past 25 years: Activities I enjoyed in my youth will never be experienced by my daughter. Castle Park came and went. When they were building this amusement park, I told my dad it would be just like Disneyland. It was actually more like that mini golf course in Anaheim, Calif., that I mistook for Disneyland when I went to the Magic Kingdom for the first time.
In high school, we discovered roller-skating and would hang out at RollerWorld on South King Street, now replaced by a furniture shop. I skated in circles for hours, whiling away the summer months.
I got into bowling in high school. My friends and I enjoyed hanging out at Kalakaua Bowl, where the mechanical pinsetter would never work. One of the workers would always have to go in the back to manually reset the pins for us. He would yell at us if we rolled the ball before he got out of the way.
What does this all have to do with Macy's buying Liberty House? Lots, I think. Liberty House will be my daughter's Piggly Wiggly. As will the Columbia Inn on Kapi'olani and numerous other places that now live only in my memory.
Stacy Yuen Hernandez is a Honolulu free-lance writer.
