Hawai'i Ways, Hawai'i Days
Yearning for the simple life of long ago
Editor's note: Wendy Lum sent in these memories penned by her father, who lives below St. Louis Heights, near Hokulani Elementary in Kaimuki.
By Henry D.C. Lum
Special to The Advertiser
My dad migrated from China to work in the sugar plantation. He worked hard and saved. He also taught us to save for home ownership and for old age; that is why I have lived in this house for 78 years. He raised seven children and I was the youngest.
We planted vegetables, raised all kinds of fowl, and even had to pick koa and keawe beans to supplement our basic needs. We had lychee trees, dragon-eye trees, star fruit and all kinds of mangoes. It was like growing a fresh fruit stand.
As a boy, I would select Chinese mangoes to eat for the day, which were sweet and stringy. For amusement, I watched the fowls fight for the mango seed. One time I was sitting on a branch eating lychee, when the branch broke. The next time I picked the fruit of a lower branch.
My summer vacation was spent digging weeds in our lychee orchid. It was the same chore every year. I suspect someone dropped grass seedlings while school was in session. I wonder who it could be? Our orchard was located where the Hokulani School's parking lot is now. Our chicken coop was built eight feet off the ground because of the flooding of the river nearby. I often found only empty egg shells in the coup. The culprit was a mongoose, who would use his sharp tooth to pick a hole and suck all the inside of the egg.
Outside of the boundaries of our house were all kinds of trees and an abandoned banana field. It was all rice paddies up at the Crane Park area. There was a water pond at the Kanewai Park recreation building that irrigated the vegetable garden below, where the ball park is now. There was also a water buffalo that was used to plow the land there. Where the two round-shape dormitories of UH are now located was a pig farm.
Our only and nearest neighbor lived a block away. I remembered when he swam in six feet deep of flooded waters to check on our welfare and then swam back. It was a heroic deed. I would do the same, if I knew how to swim.
As time goes by, so does the population. UH started and our area was needed for a public school. My brother and I knew sooner or later the state government would condemn our land for school property. We wanted farm land and the cheapest farm land for cattle was in Wai'anae. We had no experience in cattle husbandry, but we were determined to learn and prepare to move our farm.
We bought two calves and hand-fed them with warm quarts of milk. After months, we fed them barley mixed with pineapple bran. We moved them to greener grass pasture after we finished our work chores. I remember, when it was my duty day to take care of our "babies," Lani would come up to me and moo. I would give her a handful of barley. That's how our loving friendship began.
One day I was leading Lani to a new grassy area when she stopped suddenly and lifted her nostrils to sniff. She then turned 180 degrees, having smelled a beehive. The rope got tangled with my leg and I was dragged along with it and fractured my ribs. My love and affection overcame my pain.
One of the things we liked to do was play "bullfighting." At first I pushed Lani all over, but as she grew older it was the other way around. Lani treated me with respect and I was the one that fed her. Then one day a notice was posted near the cattle pen, "Land condemnation." Now you know the story of my two pet cows. It saddened me to lose two friends. Although times have changed, I will always remember the good old days of living a simple life.
Henry Lum, now retired, continues to live in the same home he has occupied for all of his 78 years, though his family farm is gone.
