Fond memories of Miller Street
By Audrey Braun Lopes
Editor's note: On March 4, the Island Life section published a story about the little scrap of a neighborhood sandwiched between the H-1 Freeway, the Punchbowl off-ramp and Vineyard Street. This essay concerns the memories of one woman who grew up there, whose family home is one of the few original houses still standing in the area. We called the story: "You can't get there from here."
"You can't get there from here" now, but back in my childhood years, you could get anywhere from my neighborhood. In fact, this was the place to be. Right in the middle of the busy city!
I lived on Miller Street in the Punchbowl area from birth until I left 20 years later, and I still remember the mango trees, plumeria trees and big, old-fashioned houses that lined my street. You could walk anywhere from here.
Queen's hospital was right down the road, and I can remember going for burgers and shakes with my dad at Queen's Surf Restaurant, which was right across the hospital. A little further downtown, you could find the Hawai'i and Princess theaters. My dad and I would attend the Saturday matinee on the way home and would stop by the Alakea Grill for dinner.
On school days, as I walked home from nearby Royal Elementary School, I needed to stop at one of the two neighborhood stores to buy an Icee or something cold to help me make it the rest of the way up the hill. I didn't need any money as my parents had their own personal charge account there. The store owners knew the parents and their kids by name and we were all part of the big family.
Right up the street was Dole Playground, and this was my second home. I couldn't wait for summer when I could attend the Summer Fun program. We could go on field trips every week Ü fun things like fishing and crabbing at the old Matsuyama Farm in 'Ewa and camping at Hanauma Bay. On "Water Fun" day, the firemen would come to the playground and set up a huge sprinkler and let us kids have water battles using their fire hoses. During the year, we also had an after-school program with fun activities that kept us kids busy and out of trouble.
My favorite memory is watching the construction going on right next to my house while they built the H-1 Freeway. My friends and I would wait until the workers left for the day, slide down the side of the mountain into the ditch and play on the bulldozers and big, huge pipes that were being used to build this monstrous road. . . . Running outside, I would see the bulldozers knocking down the houses that needed to be removed to build the freeway. Needless to say, this was a spectacular event that drew all the neighborhood children and still remains a vivid memory in my mind.
This went on for four years until the freeway was finally completed. However, after that our quiet peaceful neighborhood was never the same. The constant noise and fumes from the endless stream of vehicles was always there but soon became a part of our lives.
Gone are the days when we could see the ships come in at Aloha Tower right from our window, and gone are the days we could view the fireworks show from Magic Island right from our front porch. Now all that can be seen are the huge concrete buildings and the mixture of many races that fills the streets of this once-quiet Portuguese community.
Audrey Braun Lopes lives in Kailua, but her mother, Elsie Braun, still has the house on Miller Street.
