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By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist
I think of Ala Wai Elementary School across the street from where I live as a playground for happy kids. Would you believe the school is celebrating its 50th birthday on Saturday? Where does the time go?
When Ala Wai Elementary opened in 1954, attorney Mike Wong was paiko-boarding at the Wall in Waikiki. Randy Iwase came to the second grade barefoot to show how tough he was. Now he wears a pinstripe suit as chairman of the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board.
When Ala Wai Elementary opened, fishermen built elevated seats on stilts over the canal where they lounged while waiting for a mullet to bite. After school, children lowered nets for crabs and ate what they caught.
Businessman Scott Harvey lived about where the Ilikai Hotel is now. His parents dropped him off at the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor and he came up the canal by boat to school. In addition to JPOs, some of the pupils wore SP (Special Police) armbands. They reported schoolmates who walked on the grass and got too close to the canal.
The condo I live in wasn't there. The highest roof around the school was on a two-story building. The kids built forts in the trees and bushes along Kapi'olani Boulevard. You could see
Diamond Head right across low-rise Waikiki. Can that be only 50 years ago?
Ala Wai Elementary is part of the fabric of Our Honolulu we've been knitting for the past half-century, one of the good parts, because kids who came out of the school have made our town a better place.
There was boy named Jake Shimabukuro who became an absolute whiz on the 'ukulele. And a girl, Roberta Conlan, who went to Atlantic City as Miss Hawai'i. Also a kid called George
Waialeale, now the head of the union that represents the telephone workers. And Kelly Boy Delima, lead singer for Kapena, plus Kent Hamasaki, retired battalion chief with the Honolulu Fire Department.
The schoolchildren learned their three Rs from generations of teachers. Marianne Wise started teaching in 1970 when her daughter, Robynne, was in kindergarten. Robynne graduated at Ala Wai Elementary, went on to Kamehameha, then to the University of Hawai'i. Her first teaching job was at Ala Wai to fill out a school year. Then she came back as a regular teacher to give the school a mother-daughter team.
The children and grandchildren of Anita Malama, chairman of the celebration, attended Ala Wai Elementary. "We're looking for people who attended Ala Wai to come and talk about it," she said. Jacqueline Moore Chun, composer of the school song, has written a new verse for the occasion.
Order a $7 plate lunch in advance by calling Anita at 551-8028. Festivities start at 2 p.m., with nonstop entertainment until 8 p.m. There will be a tree planting at the library.
Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.
