The Beamer Brothers in Honolulu entertained with guitar, duet, and humor. The native Hawaiians ended one song with “…amazing place with all these race.” Hawaiians were among the peoples who first populated the Islands. Other Polynesians, fruit workers—Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese—were imported to the Islands. Whalers were followed by other Americans. Missionaries followed mercenaries. Whites earned the slang title ‘Dumb Haoles.’ A black teacher who came to Hawaii from the United States confided he received more strident
Category: Hawaii
Maui, Then
“Going to Maui, tomorrow. Going to marry, Mary Oroqork.” First I had heard of the island. Introduced by the Honolulu hotel’s entertainer at the sing-along piano bar. I was a visiting professor just arrived for a year in the seventies. Didn’t go to Maui until Dad and my stepmother came to visit. We spent the night in a hotel there. ‘Red’ Elam rented a car. Drove down the east side of the island on Hana Highway,
Only a Paper Tree
The Kamehameha fourth-grade school teacher warned us. She had moved from Colorado to Honolulu six years before I taught a year at the University of Hawaii. Your son Kelson said he plans to furnish the Christmas tree for your condo apartment. He had better buy one as soon as the freighter arrives from the Mainland. Sometimes there is no second-tree shipment. Freshman Kelson didn’t buy early. And there was no second freighter. Undaunted, my son bought
Trophy Hunter
Employing sailboat racing lingo, a ‘trophy hunter’ would include a son who crewed better than the Old Man in a race to determine which team would represent Hawaii on the Mainland. Happened when I was visiting professor at University of Hawaii and Kelson was a freshman. Finals. Sailors from yacht club versus three members of the UH sailing team. The student team won the trophy, a necklace with the Hawaiian state motto Ua Mau ke
Talk Story
When I spent a year professing in Hawaii, my oldest daughter and son-in-law brought my first two grandchildren from Texas to visit. Britt was two, Kara was six-months old. My daughter Sheryl discovered Hawaiians still retain a version of some native words. Grandparents are Tutus. Grandmother is Tutu. And Grandfathers are often called Tutu Kane. Outsiders give us a strange look when they hear Britt, now a Colonel in the Air National Guard, call his
Talk Story
In Hawaii’s summer clime, where I spent a year serving the state’s University, I soon learned from the Kamehameha School fourth-grade school teacher that locals liked to “talk story.” A frequently recounted story told about Pele, the volcano goddess who threw fire at Kamapua’a, the Pigman. He was a suitor who tried to follow her across the mountain divide called ‘Pali’ on Oahu Island. This fable led to a local saying, “Don’t take pig across the Pali.”
Coin of the Realm
During the hoarding frenzy that came with the Covid pandemic, shoppers cleared shelves of toilet paper. Heard of one hoarder who was paying for favors with toilet paper rolls instead of coins. Some have expressed surprise at hoarded toilet paper being favored over coined money, but not this ‘haole.’ For you who never enjoyed a blessed year in our 50th state, as this visiting professor did in the 1970s, I borrow a definition from the internet: “Among Hawaiian residents
Sumo Wrestling
Son Kelson and I watched sumo wrestlers on TV at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Before the hefty Japanese men tried to push each other out of the ring the night before in Tokyo. You could do that impossible feat in 1975… if you lived in Honolulu, watched film flown in from Tokyo, and finished your day studying and teaching at the University of Hawaii. International Dateline lies just west of Hawaii. Afternoon in Honolulu
My Best Lecture
Some 200 former students heard about Pavlov’s theory of conditioned reflex applied to communication…and this professor confirmed what the Russian theorist taught. Theory says repeated rewards, in this case the end of my lecture, causes a predicted response. Some colleagues simplify and warn repeated propaganda or advertising can brainwash you. In 1977, I had returned to Austin from a year’s teaching at the University of Hawaii. I brought back a bunch of color slides, mostly photographs
Earthquake Hilo
Every time I read or hear about another earthquake, I pay close attention to the number quoted on the Richter scale. Hilo Hawaii, 1975, 7.3 Richter scale As I lay in my Hilo Hawaii guest bedroom, surrounded by windows on three sides, the bed began to shake. Then rattle. The clock enclosed in a marble case crashed on the table behind my head. I covered my head with my pillow, shut out the dawn light.