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| Camp 56 or 57, someplace between Waipahu and Kunia |
Then we moved to what was called Camp 56 (I think) or maybe 57. It was along one side of a big road. The other side was all cane fields. We moved there so I could catch a bus to go to a school about five miles away.
I don't remember much. I have such a poor memory. I think I lived there from the time I was about 5 to perhaps 7 or 8.
I remember a stray black cat with mangled ears. The kitchen in back was a separate structure away from the bedroom and living room connected by a small walkway.
There was a terrible accident one night. A motorcyclist collided with a car. The woman in the car saw it about to happen and dropped her baby out of the car window thinking she was saving it. The baby died. Until the police and ambulance came, the injured were helped into our houses.
Another time, I was chasing my younger brother, Dennis with a wooden stick pretending it was a sword. I managed to fall and poke my side with the stick. That was a long trip to the emergency room. I still have the scar.
I remember playing with my mother's sewing machine. Dennis must have been about 3 or 4 years old and came over to see what I was doing. He stuck his finger under the needle and got punctured before I could stop the wheel.
Actually... being the big sister, I did try to take care of him as best as I could but in these early days, I guess I was still coming up short.
Dennis was my best friend, my best companion and best playmate. We could talk long into the night and we knew everything about each other. His memories of those early days are sharper than mine.
Camp 56 is gone. The previous home in Kunia is also gone. In fact all the houses we grew up in are completely gone. The places have been bulldozed, leveled and become shopping areas or housing tracks. I have only a few pictures to prove it ever existed. I guess someday we'll be gone and pictures will be all that will be left of us.
Perhaps that's why I'm so busy scanning photos right now. I want to remember.
POSTSCRIPT: My brother, Dennis just came up with a google map photo of the area where Camp 56 or 57 once stood.
I hope, for your sake, that computers don't become obsolete. Maybe, in 50 years, something better will take its place. Then what?
ReplyDeleteKay -- Please include a map with your "scrapbooks." Jeepers, you're lucky you didn't rupture your spleen. Does Dennis have a scar on his fingertip, or does he even remember it? The accident events would be very hard to forget, goodness. Any others in the "neighborhood" who might have some photos? Five miles bussed to school is pretty far for Oahu. DrumMajor
ReplyDeleteIt's no wonder you don't remember much about your actual home place with so many memories of accidents happening while you lived there. That car accident must have been pretty scary for you to understand at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteI remember things that happened when I was growing up, but I don't remember the homes we lived in at all. Maybe it's because there were so many of them. We moved all the time since my dad was in the military.
ReplyDeleteThat was one scary memory of the car accident and the baby. I would have remembered something like that, too.
we drove this past holiday weekend past two of my grandparent's homes. Now gone=just empty lots but the memories of them are so strong in my mind and dreams...that will never be erased and also in the family history books I've written about both families.
ReplyDeleteAll those memories would be hard to forget. I can't imagine throwing a baby out of a car as being the best alternative.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing kids do make it to adult hood? You were a walking hazzard but it seems your brother didn't hold a grudge.What a sweetie.
I think that is why most of us blog, so memories don't get bulldozed out of existance.
I've been thinking a lot about my childhood lately. Maybe that's a sign we are getting older, or have more time on our hands (ie. no young children in our household lol). I remember Pali Hwy before it was a highway and playing in the H1 gulch when it was being landscaped for the freeway. Along with the visual though, I recall my emotions back then. That's when I tell my husband, "those were the good old days"...we were carefree and naive. Not laden with worries and doubts.
ReplyDeleteL.
most people don't realize that grass shacks without plumbing and electricity predated the typical plantation housing preserved in your photo. I bet your olde home was already 50-years old by the time you moved into it but sturdy as ever, which is a testament to how well they were built using salvaged lumber from shipping skips or crates. Other wise there wouldn't have been housing for the sugar cane and pineapple contract workers. The islands didn't have forests to chop down trees and saw into for wood. And obviously the plantation comptroller wouldn't approve paying for lumber delivered by steam ships all the way from the west coast just so the field workers would have a roof after working 12-hour days.
ReplyDeleteInspired by you and Lin I have started organizing my albums.Btw i punctured my own finger on my mom's sewing machine.Remember a furious mom and taking toxoid shot later .Memories...
ReplyDeleteMy home I lived in when young burnt to the ground. I think we only have fleeting memories when we are young. You are right Kay, our pictures are great memories. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteIt is so interesting and different how we all look at the past and at our childhoods. I was an only child and I was considered an odd ball -- even my parents looked at me as though the stork had dropped the wrong kid. Early school years were anything but fun, but oh how things have changed during my life and it has been a fantastic life with many reasons to have photos and lots of them!! Great post as always, Kay!! Hope your week is going well!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
I love your posts about your memories and your genealogy. I bought a scanner that is kind of like a stick that you run over the photos and documents and hope to make some order from all my photo memories.
ReplyDeletethankyou so much for sharing this today, you were a lucky girl to have not died from the stick injury, I know it must have been difficult childhood even though it is paridise,
ReplyDeleteYes,. and you can only do so many a day. We are a fine pair. I'm up to 1983 today. My husband had long hair, and my kids and I were thin. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting, if not pleasant memories!
ReplyDeleteblessings......
ReplyDeleteevolution for better or worst it is a reality.
Scanning photos can be tedious but well worth the work.
I love the photo. I'm glad you are gathering the photos and memories. This is important work. Shat kind of a scanner are you using? I need to do the same type work with old family photos.
ReplyDeleteThis rich post!
ReplyDeleteI care about the past,
about Hawaii history,
the plantation camps,
YOU.
someday we too will be only memories, photos and our posts - because they say the web is forever. Hope that's true, Kay, because you have lived and posted valuable things!
Warm Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
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Drum Major: I don't know any of the neighbors we had at that camp so it would be hard to find out if anybody else has a photo. I was surprised to find this photo because as far as I know we didn't own a camera.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I don't think Dennis has a scar. I'm not sure he remembers it, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did because he has such an amazing memory.
L: We really were very innocent. It was a whole 'nother world in Hawaii back then.
Ron: Salvaged lumber? Really? The homes were pretty old as far as I can remember.
Sally: We have an
Epson Perfection V500 Photo
scanner. It's been a real work horse.
Cloudia: You are such a fabulous Hawaiian historian, Cloudia. I'm always impressed with the knowledge you're able to pass on to the world.
Really? Chasing Dennis with a wooden stick pretending it was a sword? Those are the same kinds of games/activities we played as kids.
ReplyDeleteYour memory is not as foggy as you think, every word painted a crystal clear picture -- so clear I felt like I was playing along with you and Dennis that fateful day. Ouch, that hurts!
Great post, Kay. Thanks for sharing.
Now I understand what impels you to work so hard on your family photos. It's important work.
ReplyDeleteSome painful memories here, Kay.
ReplyDeleteYou wax poetic and philosophic.
Cloudia said true things about you.
Wow, your childhood memory left my insides churning. The baby dropped out the window is horrific. The cat with mangled ears is sad, but at least the cat was still walking around. As for your little brother, he survived intact I guess. Dianne
ReplyDelete... We are about the same age I guess. Myself, a few years over 6 decades. Retired Navy, now in WA (Washington State), but I grew up in a house just outside the Sugar Mill's fence on the Okinawan side of Japanese Camp(one of the only filipinos). I remember Kunia road pretty much. From where you lived there is that one "resubol" (reservoir) up the road and still there. Another where your camp used to be, and one closer to Waipahu with avocado trees on the stone wall on the south side. My Mom grew in what was Kolopea on the otherside of NavMag Lualualei, close to where my older sister lives in Mililani today. Odd that from such simple beginning many of us have traveled so far
ReplyDelete