About Me
I am an island boy born and raised on Maui when it was still the Territory of Hawaii and the landscape dominated by a sea of green. Sugar and pineapple were the predominant industries and naturally, I grew up in a landscape dotted by fields of tall sugar cane with their silver tassels waving in the trade winds and sugar mills as far as the eye could see.
It was a time when I did not discover shoes until the 8th grade and until then, I was able to run barefoot over gravel and rocks without fear of puncture or tears. Rubber slippers/flip flops still hadn’t been invented, underwear was preceded by khaki shorts and color television was still light years away.
Wailuku, Maui was the main commercial center of the island and the island population in 1950 was less than 50,000 when many residents lived in plantation housing scattered all over the island. In those days, no one locked their doors and everyone waved to each other as they passed by in their cars.
The Mecca of Market Street was the Iao Theater where kids would worship their western heroes like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lash LaRue and Whip Wilson on Saturday mornings at nine.
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My dad’s shop was located in a prime spot on Market street and I lived just a block away with my family and grandma Oba chan. So, Wailuku in the 40’s and 50’s was my playground and like any kid, I knew the ins and outs of every back alley, short cuts to the next block and every store owner in a three block radius.
In those days, we walked to public school sans shoes, but toting a home made school bag slung across our backs, roller skated on the streets and generally caused some mayhem without worrying our parents much. Life on Maui was idyllic where, stray dogs could easily be enticed off the streets into your home and thus be fed a snack or two and then adopted by the kids, where swimming holes in Iao stream was a major event to be shared with breast stroking toads and their polliwogs and ripen, rotting mangoes.
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Life was good and reassuring. We grew up confident about our futures, as any Cub Scout and Boy Scout would have. Our teachers, scout and church leaders were our surrogate parents and the community at large looked after all of us.
Maui has changed. Gone are the rows of pineapple growing in red dirt and the last of the giant sugar mills has been dismantled and laid to rust. The population of Maui has tripled along with tourism as the main industry. Wailuku is lovingly referred to as “Old Wailuku town,” but now is a bastion of pawnshops and
unfamiliar faces.
In my travels, I have sought out stories from people of all walks of life...shop owners, a smiling face, a kind gesture...all of which reminds me of a time when life was idyllic and peaceful.
Everyone has a story to tell. It has been my passion to seek out people’s stories and to share them with you hopefully giving you an appreciation for your own past experiences in life.
Let me know if you enjoy these stories. Share them with others and maybe even pen a few of your own.
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The Rice Tree Chronicles Book now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Austin Macauley Publishers
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