Those of you who know me, know that I am ‘clean challenged,’ but did you also know that during my years in Houston, Texas I was also a successful owner of a cleaning business specializing in luxury homes? Ironic isn’t it?
The home I grew up in had a lot of character, 1932 Dole Street to be exact. It was an unassuming home, hidden behind a majestic ‘white wall.’ The ‘white wall’ was part of the driving directions to anyone commuting for a visit. If you’re coming from Hawaii Kai you’d head west on H-1, take the Wilder exit, turn left onto Dole Street, don’t go over the McCully bridge, veer right continuing onto Dole Street our house was on the right-hand side with the ’white wall.’
Our house was a humble 2-bedroom, 1-bath, but it was huge with respect to square footage. According to the City and County of Honolulu Real Property Division it’s 1,166 square feet; but it also lists the home as a three bedroom without any recent improvements, I disagree with that information. The master bedroom was able to accommodate a California king sized bed, horizontal dresser, vertical armoire, 2-night stands, with room enough to put a futon mattress down for an additional three to sleep comfortable. The second bedroom had four twin sized beds, a large desk for a minimum of four to do homework on without bumping elbows, and a walk-in closet. Where were the dressers? In the large full sized bathroom. The bathroom had a built-in dresser and cabinet, a medium sized ‘walk-in’ closet and the distance between the sink lavatory and the toilet was approximately 8’. The size of the bathroom is larger than many of the bedroom sizes available in today‘s properties. The living rooms seemed endless, it could be the total of the 1,166 square feet that the city lists. The kitchen was half the width and ¾ the length of the living room, there were no bumping of okoles and it comfortably fit two refrigerators. In fact, we would practice our break dancing on the kitchen tile as kids! The walls were wood paneled with white paint, and the windows required the pulley of rope and the screen latched to a hook embedded in the window panel.
Our yard was draped in flourishing fruit trees, ferns, hinahina, my 3rd grade marigold project, a frightening cactus tree flanked the front door staircase, a grapevine shaded the patio area, several pots of aloe and a line of tall ladylike ti-leaf trees bordered the side. We always had a snack with four mountain apple trees that would produce enough fruit to give to the Yoshida’s who in turn gave us some mangos, and also to the ever changing neighbors next door who’d give us their fruit from the avocado tree. As tart as the wine grapes were, we’d munch on them green or ripen, just because we could.
Growing up we had a good history of memories and I understand that during my Mom’s youth the likes of Peter Ahia, Roland Cazimero, Kawai Cockett, and many others in the music and hula industries kanikapila’d, made ti leaf skirts, strung lei, or just came over for a good, impromptu get together. There’s a story floating in our family history that my cousin John gave Peter Moon the chicken pox, need to confirm this story with Mr. Moon.
Living in a home that had many visitors, it was always important to keep the house tidy and clean; but alas NEENZ! It’s not so much that I’m a ‘pack rat,’ more like a ‘stacker.’ I’ll stack everything neatly on a chair. I’d do my laundry just before running out of clean clothes. As I got older, and financially able; it didn’t help as I was able to just ‘buy something new’ during those ‘stacking’ marathons.
I remember during a ‘rough’ period in my life my Mom telling me, “If you clean your room, you might feel better.” Of course being the, well no better term than doofus that I was, I took the advice as “parental reverse psychology.”
My Aunty Tina also gave me advice once, “Keep your room clean, you never know when Jesus will return.” And being the well, we’ve already established, doofus that I was, I responded, “Won’t He love me anyways?”
Today is different. Crank up a good Kalapana or C&K album, and break a sweat tackling the ‘stacks’ not only makes a room clean, but a spirit happy which was the real lesson behind my Mom’s advice.
Oh and for those wondering how I found success with a cleaning business, well an excellent staff of well-skilled associates.
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September 12th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Wonderful post! We had a mountain apple tree next door that we were free to eat from, and two mango trees in the front yard. Your post brought back a lot of good memories. Even the squishy mangos ones~