Lika’s Log

When I was in 2nd grade in Ewa School we use to have bomb drills. I was in Mrs Tokunaga’s class, so that would be like 1962-ish maybe; give or take some. Decades ago. I don’t remember being told why we had to do bomb drills. I just assumed it meant we were gonna get bombed one day. I knew they bombed Pearl Harbor once upon a itme. Ewa is located between Pearl Harbor and Barbers Point, so maybe us was going be next. The Teacha said bomb drill we did bomb drill, we did not question why, ha’come. Or I didn’t. My parents told me “you betta listen to yo’ teacha or else!” Else means “da belt” yeah.

A signal would come ova da intercom and we would all have to duck unda our desk. Except da teacha, she was standing there watching, timing us with her stop watch. We would be kneeling down, okole on ankles bent ova face down hands ova da head. We couldn’t get up till we got da all clear sign.

I remember these drills vividly cause as a girl wearing a dress you had to make sure you pulled your dress snug ova yo’okoke and make sure you dress is tucked unda. If you didn’t do that your dress could fly up or some wise ass or titamoke behind you would reach ova and flippem up. Den you would her somebody singing: ” I see your panty. You get puka panty.” And you know kids puka or not, dey going say you get puka panty. Make A da kine.

My kids don’t believe me when I tellem’ we couldn’t wear pants or shorts to school. Females all wore a dress or skirt & blouse. It wasn’t till I was a junior or senior that the dress code was changed. Girls wore dresses, period; there was no question to it.

At Ewa school they gave us a form to order Dogtags. It cost 25 cents. Sounds cheap now. But in dose days extra money was not easy to come up with. For four kids as an extra dolla we no had. And I think the way we came up wit da money was, we all had to bring homelunch for one day. My parents believed we should always eat lunch in school because they had betta food den wot we had at home. So lunch was always budgeted in.

Lunch in those days was 25cents. And they were good hot home style cooked meals. I still love cafeteria made yeast rolls. MMMMMmmm. I still rememba da head Cafeteria lady was Mrs Lau, greasy looking make up, red lipstick and her hair all tucked into her hairnet.

Everybody in school had dogtags. We all proudly wore it around our neck dangling on a long chain. The dogtags had our name, our parents name and our address. Some people had their blood type or it said Asmathic. In those days Fernandez Village didn’t have street names (they do now). But each house did have one house numba. So da address on my dogtag says 140 Fernandez Village. We all got our mail at da post office.

Amazingly I still have my Dogtag, I carry it on my keychain. Totally vintage. I thought I was da only one who still has one. But a few years ago I went to a party at my Cuz’s house in Phoenix and she had a bunch of friends ova. So her husband asks me, “Eh you from Ewa right?” I was like yeah, “I was raised deya, I moved Waipahu 7th grade.” So he turns and pulls dis guy ova and says “so you know him?” Me and da guy stay looking at each ada, “No”. Anden we started talking story. “Wea in Fernandez Village?” OMG SMALL WORLD, he was my olda sistas classmate and we lived da next street ova. Anden he busted out his car keys and showed me his dogtag! We just cracked up. Was too funny. But I digress……

The purpose of the Dogtags was that IF Oahu was attacked, it may happen while the kids are in school and seperated from their parents who are at work. So by wearing a dogtag us kids would be carrying ID and in times of WAR that would help.

Well this story came to mind last night as I watched TV and they showed all these kids who are still missing and stories of real little kids who were separated from parents. Also there was a piece on TV about San Francisco and other cities what would happen if they had a natural disaster or if NYC had a nuclear bomb explode there. Scary stuff.

Anyway I was thinking I know schools & government aren’t going to do what Ewa School did in da 60’s. But I think parents can get something made for their kids. A necklace or bracelet. I think the medical ID type bracelet would work cause both the front and back can be engraved.

With the experience of watching Katrina I would hope that adults think in a proactive manner. Like if they know something disasterous like this can or is happening, the least they could do is prepare to have the kid carry some kind of ID.

I know kids nowdays not going be “obidient dorks” wearing dogtags 24-7 like us kids use to. Ok, some might. But I think as precautionary measures parents could have something ready: a little purse or backpack that da kid can carry himself in emergency. So they would have ID, parents info, a small flashlight, granola bar, small toy or stuff animal and a list of of name and phone numbers of relatives in and out of state.

Come to think of it, not only do kids need an emergency pack but big people need one too. There are alot of families from Hurricane Katrina who lost irreplaceable precious pictures.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2005 at 7:22 am and is filed under Da Kine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.