1960 After The Wave

First, welcome Brother Myron to the world of blogging. I have added his link.

It was still Kapiolani Elementary School. Third Grade, I believe. We lived at 764 Kilauea Avenue and then 11 Wilson Street (or was it the other way around?). Anyway, the houses were actually joined together so it kind of didn't matter. Don't remember who lived in either of the houses when we lived in the other one...confused? So am I, I think. There was a bar directly on the corner of Wilson St and Kilauea Avenue called, "Kilauea Inn" where Dad hung out a lot. Only a bar but in those days, they served a lot of pupus legally so guys could hang around all day and night.

One of the largest memories was that an actress named LINDA DARNELL stopped in one day. I really didn't know who she was but we shyly went down there and got her autograph. It wasn't until some time later that Mom pointed her out in a movie that we saw. By that time, I had lost the signature.

Across Wilson Street was another place named, "Smile Inn," which served some really great food and the saimin there was tremendous. It was also a drinking place that Dad hung around and I do remember going there to eat plate lunches and such. Seems to me it was behind the Ota Store. Ota Store was on the corner of Hoku Street and Kilauea Avenue and across on the Hoku Street side was Faye's barber Shop.

Prior to the tidal wave, across of the 764 Kilauea Avenue house, from Piopio Street and heading in the direction towards downtown Hilo, there was nothing but "bushes" as we called them. Guava trees, waiwi (the little tasty guava-like treats), mountain apple trees, california grass, and other assorted types of jungle trees and such. I remember we had a "camp" carved out and "hidden" from everyone - it was our secret meeting place.

We used to play at the Lanai pond (actually a restaurant, but too fancy for us to go to at the time) and Glenn used to catch a lot of frogs there. There was, and still is, a huge Banyan tree on the grounds of the restaurant. Across Kilauea Avenue was the stream that ran under the street into the pond. On that mauka side, we used to also go for frogs; but, there was a lot of "Jojo's" - a species of fresh water eels. If I am not mistaken, they are what the Japanese called "Unagi" and they are quite a delicacy in Japan. Note that the water in those days was clean and we used to be able to drink it when we got thirsty. Did a lot of swimming in the water. Very cold because somewhere upside closer to Kinoole Street, the springs were located.

Ohhhhh...it almost came to me who lived in the other adjoining house at Wilson Street/Kilauea Avenue......shucks....maybe later on.