The retired director of records management for Maui Pineapple Co. said she never envisioned that the documents she filed into folders and the photographs she coded by color would become an integral part of an extensive exhibit that pays tribute to the "good old days" of pineapple.

An estimated crowd of 5,500 people came to see the exhibit yesterday during the second annual Maui Pineapple Festival and Homecoming. It was also a last opportunity to see what Maui Pineapple officials said was the only pineapple cannery left in the United States.

Maui Pineapple Co. closed the cannery June 30 (except for juicing operations), marking the end of an era of more than 100 years. Now, the company has shifted its focus from canned to fresh fruit production.

Yesterday's festival paid tribute to "pensioners," or longtime employees, who were treated to a breakfast in their honor and served as special guests throughout the daylong celebration filled with entertainment and food.

"I have mixed feelings," Maroney said. "It's so sad to see everyone leave.

"It was so emotional. Yet, I'm so thankful that we preserved things and now they can retrieve them out of an archive and put them on display for everyone to see."

Self-guided tours provided visitors a chance to go through the plant where hundreds of Valley Isle residents made a living preparing and packing pineapple grown on Maui.

Maroney's "Memory Lane" exhibit featured original photos taken during the plantation and cannery days as well as artifacts. Of note was a damage report from the opening days of World War II when the Kahului Cannery was shelled Dec. 15, 1941.

According to the report, an enemy submarine surfaced at dusk and fired several shells before workers reported for work at the cannery.

"You didn't hear about it too much because I guess people didn't get hurt and so they didn't talk much of it," said Maui Pineapple's current Records Manager Eunice Garcia.

The World War II damage report written by then-Kahului plant Superintendent Eugene S. Sheffeld Jr. said several shells struck the cannery building.

One shell penetrated the roof and another severed the boiler smokestack at its base. Damage was minor, but the company received $654.30 in compensation from the federal government. Documents show the payment was made on Jan. 15, 1943, a little more than a year after the shelling.

Maroney said that aside from the war damage report, she got a kick out of another document that provided directives to cannery workers about procedures they should follow if an air raid were to occur.

"You will finish cutting pineapple" before leaving the cannery, the directive states.

"I guess someone picked up real fast because it was rescinded a week later," Maroney said.

She also remembered a note from the cannery's Safety Committee. It notified the mostly female pineapple trimmers and

packers that they should not wear high heels or jewelry to work.

"I guess the women dressed up to work during those days," Maroney said.

With Maroney's help, Garcia spent several months going through the memorabilia locked within at least three file cabinets to prepare displays for yesterday's festival.

"We just grabbed stuff from the cannery and did what we could to tell the story," Garcia said.

The "Memory Lane" exhibit was developed to honor the company's history and unique pineapple heritage. It featured a series of cannery room replicas, from the glove room where employees first reported to get dressed in their uniforms and gloves, to the dispensary where would-be workers first had to pass physical and eye tests in order to be hired.

There was also a small room showing the pineapple trimming process and the quality-control room.

Aside from the cannery room depictions, Garcia put together an extensive display of documents and photographs showing the history of pineapple from its start in 1903, when the late David Dwight Baldwin and his brother, Henry Perrine Baldwin, established the Haiku Fruit and Packing Co. It evolved into the island's major pineapple production company with sites in Haliimaile, Kahului and West Maui.

Garcia said there haven't been any solid plans on what to do with all the pineapple photographs and memorabilia, so for now, the items will be stored away safely.