The Era Following Life at 2211 South Beretania Street

Robert Akau
RD2
24 February 2011    The Era Following Life at 2211  South Beretania Street

Hearken back to a time when 2211 Beretania Street was a 2 way, tree shaded street having picket fenced homes on both sides. Moiliili ball park was a neighborhood place where the children of the community often went to play. Star Market was a designers dream as yet undiscovered. The Honolulu Stadium on King Street was the landmark of the day, with its majestic wood structure and dusty fields where baseball and football were played, sporting celebrity teams of the day visiting via the weekly arriving passenger liners of those days. She recalls a youth living with a sister at Grandma's house, along with Uncle Doiron. Uncle Doiron had also completed studies at McKinley in 1939. Aunt Lydia did the same until her graduation in the later 1940's. [Thesis] Mom's upbringing at 2211 Beretania Street was the foundation of her maturation.[Thesis]

Grandma, her mother, was a working person who often found herself working long hours and had relegated care and custody of her children, duties of mother to the care of Great grandma. The arrangement made Uncle Doiron the ruling male and assisting disciplinarian under Great grandma. Great grandma, was best remembered as having been employed in the court during the monarchial era. Uncle Doiron had the fortune of being one of nine children, which in the days before television seemed to have been common amount of children in families. Uncle Doiron's siblings were numerous and afforded Mom a smorgasbord of role models from which to learn about life. As was common of those times, their children were numerous. Mom was the eldest among her cousins by approximately 10 years. Lono was the shortened version of her given name, and was always addressed as such. To this day, an unfamiliar phone call addressing mother as Lono would quickly be responded to with inquiry about the callers family then quickly  passed  to Mom.

She had completed schooling prescribed by convention at the time. Her years at McKinley had helped her preparation for what her future held for her. She held part-time work for a photographer who did much work documenting Honolulu and often relegated to us how she would help process the photo negatives for the photographer and how the photographers coverage of the events of Pearl Harbor resulting in an extensive amount of negatives was a regretfully missed opportunity to collect negatives now a memory lost to time. Her memory recalls her employment with Hawaiian Airlines then called Inter-Island Air, as a clerk. It was at about this time of her life in which she would meet the man who would become her husband and our father. Clerical work at  the State Hospital in Kaneohe, often found her taking me along, on the HRT bus into town, then catching a taxi to travel to Kaneohe. Later, more convenient employment as a state government telephone directory assistance worker eased the travel and relocated her to the building at King and Punchbowl Street. The state government eventually moved into a new building on the block of Beretania, Richards, Hotel and Punchbowl Streets and relocated her there until retirement.

Presentation of two children close in birth order gave mother practice in the new and unexplored world of child rearing. In younger years, many learn about child care and rearing by watching younger cousins and siblings for our uncles and aunts. When we came along, this issue became constant and promised unending responsibilities for which I am greatly indebted to Mom for, in helping to raise us. Many opportunities afforded Mom training and experience in day to day chores required the upkeep of children.

There was a hiatus given to Mom for about ten years, allowing her rest, recuperation and respite for the ordeal of raising two of us. Bye and bye the next 10 years welcomed three more additional children into the family. This time, Mom had assistant runners to get various items involved in child care. During this time it was determined more prudent to vacate her employment responsibilities and turn to full time child care. As it was generally accepted that children have a healthier upbringing with a parent constantly present, Mom decided on a stay at home occupation. Dad would have the honored title of sole bread winner which was conventional for that era. The family was qualified to use the food-stamp system. Mom did seek assistance of food stamps and used us to collect bottles for the deposit money. This generation generally was better at school work and participating in extracurricular activities, purportedly due to Mom being in attendance.

The early years of my upbringing found myself living at the Manoa Army Housing complex. It was at about this period of consciousness, my recollected memory commences. Home, was a 1 bedroom, studio styled single family dwelling, which was one of many box styled homes created for returning veterans of world war 2 and the Korean War. I recall window blinds with pull strings used to in unison turn horizontal blinds into various horizontal positions to vary the amount of light, or minimize the amount of light into the room. I learned of  Mom's boundless ability to forgive, when once I went out on our front porch, and seeing a recently delivered gallon of fresh milk, I attempted to carry it into the house. The bottle at that time was about half of my height. As weighty as it was it tipped off of the porch and to the concrete below. It's crash was, to me, as traumatic as a California earthquake, if I had been through one.    My recollection of moving from Manoa Army Housing to Pu'unui is minimal to non-existant. At this period of life my sister and I were the children on board.

Arrival into Waimanalo saw the arrival of my younger sister and 2 other brothers. This period of life found us distanced from the life of downtown Honolulu, and afforded greater opportunity to explore this rural environment. We children experienced animal raising and learned about animal care. Mom was still the stalwart pillar of learning about rural living and was usually the leader in retrieving our wayward pony who would often leave the yard for the company of other horses in the neighboring tall grasses.

Kaumakapili Congregational church was attended by generations of her family, and found most of her cousins, uncles and aunts affiliated with the church. The church kept Hawaiian cultural practices alive.

The Hongwanji Luau during the 60's found mom deeply involved with various parts of the project. Impressed upon memory was how many business's having children in attendance at Hongwanji Mission School were involved with import of Japanese food products and supported the school to a great extent. Piggery farms from which the luau pork came from  were numerous during this era.

The Waimanalo Homestead Association gained my mom and dads loyal participation due to being selected as future residents in Waimanalo. Many were the social contacts. This era was after the end of the Korean War and enjoyed the growth of the postwar American economy.

The Kamehameha Schools Band Booster Club gained Mom as a loyal participant due to participation of the last three children in attendance at the Kamehameha Schools and also band and cheer leading members.

Current outreach projects with the Liliuokalani Children's Center has Mom as a loyal participant in activities to promote community awareness and outreach.

The extent to which her upbringing among her peers gave her  learning experience, She became a role model