By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Mr. Sardinha, in his orange shorts, white tank top and gold chains (way before "Saturday Night Fever"), still looms large in the memory of a generation of kids who grew up in Wailuku.

Mr. Sardinha looked like a local John Saxon from "Enter the Dragon." He barked out commands about what he didn't want in the water (including, but not limited to, suntan oil, dirty feet, anybody with 'ukus, and various bodily fluids). He watched over a pack of blue-lipped kids too happy to want to get out of the cold water; little swimmers having too much fun to care that there were so many little swimmers in the Wailuku pool that very little swimming was actually possible.

Mr. Sardinha saved lives, not only by keeping kids from drowning in the Wailuku pool; he and his fellow county lifeguards gave kids something better to do than smoke dope, drink beer and get into trouble.

People think of Hawai'i as an endless playground. How could kids possibly get bored here? There's always a beautiful beach for free recreation.

Truth is, lots of kids growing up here have about as much access to a beach as kids growing up in Nebraska. If you don't have a car or a ride, you're pretty well land-locked in places like Kalihi on O'ahu, Maunaloa on Moloka'i, and Wailuku on Maui.

A bored kid is fertile soil for trouble to sprout and take root. That's one of the reasons why the Wailuku pool has been so important for more than 60 years. It's where thousands of kids learned to swim. It's where kids could go after school and on the weekends and have healthy fun under adult supervision. Nothing like an afternoon of dog paddling and treading water to make a kid relaxed and tired.

With all the talk lately of tackling drug problems , targeting obesity and increasing attendance in schools, Wailuku should be up in arms at the thought of allowing that water of life to be sold off for a six-story office building.

That would be just plain wrong. The Wailuku pool has been a haven for antsy kids who had no other way to burn off extra energy. Swimming lessons are something kids look forward to in school, a reason to show up in the morning with your swimsuit in a plastic bag.

The kids who need that pool the most are the ones who already need so much; the ones who can't rely on their parents for weekend and after-school recreation or supervision, the ones who don't get driven to soccer or ballet or piano, the ones who have many empty hours to kill.

If it's going to take Maui County coming up with the money to pay the landowner's price of $700,000, or if some wealthy Maui resident wants to step in and be a hero, or if it takes 500 Wailuku families doing weekend car washes and bake sales, so be it. Let me know where to send a donation.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.