As children, we visited Kaua’i every summer to help my grandma in the taro patches. For me, it was great to just be able to spend time with her. For my brothers, it meant mudfights. I used to get muddy too, until my darling brother (Bobby) told me those long snakelike looking things were really frog eggs. That was the last time I set foot into the taro patch but I still went with them everyday.

My grandma lived on O’ahu but she tended to the patches on Kaua’i more than she spent on O’ahu and summertime was when I got to spend alot of time with her. I looked forward to summers. She stayed in a little shack that had a little kitchen area, basically enough room for a shelf, a two-burner and a sink. There was a little general store just a few feet away where we shopped for eggs and bread everyday. My grandma didn’t have a fridge so we basically lived on tuna, eggs, O’opu, rice and poi.

One day, I volunteered to help her fix lunch and I boiled some eggs for devil egg sandwiches. I knew that I was supposed to add salt, but what I didn’t know was the salt box was very flimsy and it spilled more salt than I needed. I didn’t think it would make that big a difference in the taste so I continued to mix the eggs and made the sandwiches. I was so proud of my work until everyone said it tasted like crap. Right there was a clue for me to stay out of the kitchen and leave the cooking to those who can cook.

After taking our lunch breaks, we’d trek it back to the patches to finish the day’s work. We loved when it was pau hana, that meant we could go swimming in the river. The water was always freezing cold but that didn’t stop us from jumping in it and following it down the path. Grandma didn’t know how to swim so she’d always be nervous and overprotective. We’d gather pipipi from the rocks and after dinner, grandma would boil them for us and we each had a safety pin to use for digging out the teeny weeny piece of meat. It was worth the work.

O’opu - I haven’t had it since my last summer in the patches, some 30 years ago. We’d sit on the bridge with real bamboo fishing poles with worms for bait. Sometimes we’d catch but not very often. My first and last experience at a hukilau was on Kaua’i too. It’s an experience I’ll never forget and unfortunately will never see again. There were so many people there, all helping to remove the fishes from the nets. Everyone laughing and talking story while they worked; People taking home only what they needed to feed their families; no one taking more than they needed. It was a time when people weren’t so greedy and hungered for money.

The shack didn’t have a bathroom so we all had to find a “spot” out back to do our business. I remember telling my grandma that people passing by in cars will be able to see the white toilet paper floating on top of the overgrown weeds. For our baths, sometimes we drove to a fresh water pond located at the foot of a waterfall (which we called the queen’s bath). Tourist would pass by and take pictures of us bathing there. One year, my mom flew to Kaua’i and showed us how to break the ginger so we could use the sap for shampoo. Paul Mitchell knows all about Awapuhi shampoo, he makes money with it. When we didn’t drive to the queen’s bath, we had a waterhose running from the kitchen sink, out the back door to a makeshift showerstall that my grand uncle built for us girls. And let me remind you, there was no hot water.

My grandma left me with so many happy experiences to remember and tales to pass on to my grandchildren. It’s weird how my own kids aren’t that interested but I know my grandchildren will be interested to know how my childhood was in the old days and I look forward to reliving them through my stories.

Got an email from my cousin in MA. We’re both the only daughters in our family (although I now have an adopted sister) and she’s like a sister to me. My son also lives in MA and he bugs my cousin all the time. I’m thankful that she’s there for him to lean on and seek advice because we are so much alike I know she’ll guide him on the right path.

When I last wrote to her, we had definite plans to return home next year, but now I’ll need to tell her to keep saving her money so we can meet in Hawaii in 2005 instead. Speaking of saving money . . . I need to do a bit of saving myself. I’m thinking of applying for a position while I’m here now that I know we have nearly two years to go until we leave. Perhaps being out of the house will also help me lose some weight, I’m hoping anyway.

Anyway, it was so good to hear from her. She made my day!

We (myself and my daughter) had planned to have an early Thanksgiving dinner because hubby won’t be here for Thanksgiving. His job requires him to be away so this weekend, I roasted a Turkey with my grandma’s stuffing, baked a ham and made Hawaiian Potato salad. Why do we call it Hawaiian potato salad anyway? Usually, people refer to food prepared with pineapples as being “Hawaiian”; people who aren’t Hawaiian, that is. Always that was strange seeing as how most local people only eat pinapples at a pa’ina anyway. Ah well. Our dinner was delicious and I didn’t eat til I got the Kanack Attack ; )

Hubby took Kamalani to the store today and she nagged for toys since they already have the place decked out in Christmas decorations. Halloween isn’t even here yet, we’ve still got Thanksgiving to go but already the Christmas stuff is out to torment little children for the next two months. Isn’t that cruel?

Hubby found out his position has been extended for another year here. In a way, that’s good news because it’s so safe here but then I won’t be able to be with my sons. They’ll understand, I hope. I haven’t told them the wonderful news yet, still working on mustering up the courage to disappoint them. They were looking forward to having their Mom and Dad back. It’s just another year, we’ll all survive it.

Plans for this week? I have no plans right now but I’m sure fun and adventure will await us, as it usually does.

I thought about it and decided not to bore the readers (me) with my umpteenth zillionth battle of the bulge. Instead, I’ll just dedicate this blog/journal to all things Hawaiian (at heart) and that includes us locals living in Japan.

There are quite a bit of us locals up here and since we live on a relatively small base, we all know each other or have heard of each other. By locals, I mean people who are originally from any of the Pacific islands, Guam included. Sometimes we all get together and pulehu in the backyard, suck em up a little, play ukulele and sing. Of course all the younger boys call us Uncle and Aunty, just like back home. They still take off their slippers or shoes before they enter the house and they still kiss and hug in greeting. So when they come over, it’s like being back home with my sons all over again. ugh!

There’s a mentoring progam where my hubby works and these local boys have listed him as their mentor. This is funny because he doesn’t even work in the same division as those guys and what’s funnier is that he didn’t know this until I told him. That’s something my sons would’ve done.

Can you tell I miss my sons?

Living in Japan does not exempt me from receiving Podagee jokes, so here’s one to pass along. I’m sure the locals will understand AND appreciate it.

A Honolulu construction site boss was interviewing men for a job, when along came a Podagee. I’m not hiring any Podagees, the foreman thought to himself, so he made up a test to avoid hiring the Podagee without getting into an argument.

“Here’s your first question,” the foreman said. “Without using numbers, represent the number 9.”

“Without numbers?” The Podagee says. “Das easy,” and proceeds to draw three trees.

“What’s this?” the boss asks.

“What, you no mo one brain? Tree and tree and tree make nine,” says the Podagee.

“Fair enough,” says the boss. “Here is your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99.”

The Podagee stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree.
“Hea you go.”

The boss scratches his head and says, “How on earth do you get that to represent 99?”

“Each of da trees is dirty now! So it’s dirty tree, and dirty tree, and dirty tree. Das is 99.”

The boss is getting worried he’s going to have to hire this Podagee, so he says, “All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100.”

The Podagee stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again, makes a little mark at the base of each tree, and says, “Hea you go. One hundred.”

The boss looks at the attempt. “You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred.”

The Podagee leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree, and says, “A little dog come along and crap by each tree. So now you got dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, which make one hundred. So when I start?”