The Honokai Story: Wes’side Memories

Speakers: Candace Baldes Ramos (CBR), Christina Higgins (CH) and Gisella/Sella Kahapea (SK)

Date: November 22, 2024

DD: Ok, today is, what is the date? September 15

SP: Sunday, September 15 at 6:21.

DD: Sunday, September 15, and we are sitting at Kamokila Park, that’s the Honokaihale Park, with Braddah Sam Paʻe and Braddah Micah. What was your last name again?

MM: Mizukami.

DD: Mizukami. Yup, and me, Braddah D, we ova hea, we going talk story about Honokaihale, just asking Sam if he can share some of his memories.

SP: Mmhmm.

DD: So before we go any further, we just wanna mahalo Braddah foa spending the time, and aloha.

SP: No, thank you very much for allowing me to be here to share, memories of being, in my childhood days, being here at Honokaihale growing up.

DD: Right on.

SP: My span of history here, I’d say about maybe six years ’cause I think I got here at five years old, and I think I left at 11. It was just what, ‘78 when I left? So it was what, ‘72 ish? ‘71 maybe, is when I got here, small kid hanabada days. And those days of memories of being here, I still remember some stuff. I still remember a lot of things, and I still hang around with all the neighborhood OGs. I guess we considered the OGs now.

DD: Rahj, right on, okay, mahalo nui, she go. Okay, so if we can start, maybe you can share your name, where/when you were born, where you grew up, where you went school, la’dat kind of stuff?

SP: Okay, so my name is Sam, Sam Paʻe, last name spelled P – A – ‘okina – E. I’m a junior, Sam Paʻe, Junior, born January 21st, 1967. Born and raised, born in town, and then my mom and my dad ended up meeting up, and we ended up somewhere in town, Date Street. And we ended up in Waipahu, so I remember some memories in Waipahu. And then from there, in ‘72, we ended up moving here in Honokaihale, and ‘72 to ‘78, went to school here. I remember one time going to school, I think, geez, I was maybe third grade, Makakilo Elementary, catching the bus hea and going to Makakilo. And then from there, I think everybody from Honokaihale end up going up Mauka Lani Elementary. And I think from fourth grade up to sixth grade, I mean, if you try to do the timeline, I think it falls right in that, right? ‘Cause I remember fourth grade and sixth grade up in Mauka Lani Elementary. And I think midyear of my sixth grade year is where we ended up moving out of Honokaihale, and then moving into the Waianae Coast, ended up moving to Nanakuli, and I remember being there from sixth grade. And then I graduated from Nanakuli High School in 1985. And so my small part of my elementary is in Makakilo-Mauka Lani Elementary, and then one year or half year in Nanaikapono, and then from there, went to Nanakuli Intermediate and graduated from Nanakuli High School.

DD: Ah, right on, rahjah, Golden Hawks.

SP: Yeah.

DD: Okay, mahalo, you had mentioned the bus, catch the bus to Makakilo-Mauka Lani, just fo’ the sake of sharing with people, are you talking about the city bus, or?

SP: No, they used to have school buses that used to come into Honokaihale. And I remember where I stayed, I think we were like, stop number three or number four. So the bus would end up coming up, I cannot remember the street name, but anyway, they would stop one place, pick up a whole bunch of kids there, and they’d go up, I guess up Paʻakai [Street], going up the road by whea I think Tracy McKean’s dem house was the next stop. That would be the next stop. And they would come up to the top of the road. And I think that would be probably where, I donno, the Fredericks live, somewhere around there. And then come down to our loop by Halalani Place, and that’s where we would end up being picked up. And then from there, they go around, pick up the rest of the kids, and then from there we ended up going up to Mauka Lani Elementary. And, we all going up to the school there. And then, they would drop us off, and then we would start school from that point. And after that, then we would catch the same bus. We would see the same bus driver. So we would have the same bus number, and the bus driver would remember all the rotten kids. And I think I was part of the list there. And they would remember everybody’s name. And I remember him remembering my name. And then he would drop us off in the exact same spot. And yeah, das the days of catching the bus. [laughs]

DD: Da school bus, yeah!

SP: Da school bus! Everybody sit down, stop sticking your head out the window. [both cracking up]

DD: No jumping on that seat!

SP: Yeahhhh, climbing up the seat, yeah those are the days, those are the days.

DD: [sharing story from younger brother Dutro about giving the bus driver a hard time] [everybody laughing]

SP: Yeah, das Honokai fo’ you! [all still laughing] Everybody knew everybody, because it’s only us guys, you know what I mean? It’s not like a diverse group of other people from other communities. Was just one community.

DD: Yeah.

SP: Everybody knew everybody’s aunties, third cousins, fourth sisters, brother, that grew up in the place. And, you being small, in those younger days, you just say what you say.

DD: Hilarious. Okay, Braddah, could you share some, you know, anything about your family? What can you share about your family?

SP: My parents dem had, my mom especially, she already was married like twice. So she already had four kids basically, and my older sister, her name was Loretta. She grew up in Honokaihale as well, and she graduated from Campbell, Campbell High School, class of ‘77. But anyway, when my mom and my dad met, my dad was a construction worker, heavy into construction. My mom was the housewife, would take care of the family, would take care of everything, get the meals ready, get all the kids ready for going to school, wake us all up, make sure we ate. And so that was my mom. And then my dad was an actual [concrete] mason, and heavy into the construction. And he was in that position, and he grew up around families that he wanted to learn how fo’ do construction work. So he ended up taking up a trade as mason. So he would do concrete work, anything that have to do with concrete. So he was instrumental, from what I understand, in helping the community here in Honokaihale. Whatever they needed, if somebody needed concrete work, he would be the man to ask. And from my understanding, he wouldn’t even want anything. He would just make sure that everybody got the help that they needed at that point in time. You know, nobody had that much money. Everybody was all dea fo’ help each oddah.

DD: Mmhmm.

SP: And the community was real small, and the community was real tight. So everybody helps everybody from that point in time. I was only small at that time, but I remember going to people’s houses, and that’s when I started remembering everybody. I remember the Duhaylonsod’s, the Carlos’s, the Numazu’s, Gabriel’s, the McKean’s, Lalau’s, Kawai’s, they were all the people that my parents helped, my dad helped out. They were instrumental in helping out.

DD: Yeah. I wanna attest to that, for the record. Yeah, Sam’s dad would teach my dad how to make cement. He helped at our house too. Braddah, could you share mom and dad’s name? I remembah mom’s birthday. Remembah she had her birthday party befoa she passed away?

SP: Oh, yeah. My mom is Marlene Rachel Paʻe. She was born November 26, 1935. And then my dad, he was born October 7, 1940. But my mom was older than my dad. And they made a life for us guys here in Honokaihale. And so that’s where everything started.

DD: Yeah, that was a nice party for Mom. I remembah that. Okay, you also mentioned that your sistah went Campbell, and I’m assuming that she went Campbell in Ewa Beach ’cause the school bus would take her over dea too?

SP: Yup.

DD: Okay, making shua.

SP: Yeah, at that time, I was just a small little kid, running around in hanabadas and stuff ladat. So I remember her going to Campbell High School. She graduated there. She was way older than us. So she would catch another set of buses, not understanding what timeframe at that point, but I remember her going to Campbell and graduating from Campbell High School at that point in time. Das as much as I remember.

DD: Yeah. Mahalo for that ’cause people know that we live closah to Nanakuli, but just so that they undahstand that the school bus would take us all down on the other side.

SP: Her name was Loretta Ecsedy. That was from my mom’s second marriage. I’ll get the timeframe on the age difference between me and my sister. But I think she was like six years older than us.

DD: Okay, mahalo. Okay, so could you describe where Honokai is?

SP: It’s actually, my best way to describe it, in a remote area, where if you coming to the west side, and before at that time there was no Kapolei, everything was all cane fields. There was no Ko Olina. So it’s actually, right now, sitting next to Ko Olina. So if you plan on going to Ko Olina, you going see Honokaihale first. The first neighborhood that you going see just befoa Ko Olina. Anyway, this place was remote, in the middle of cane fields, and literally, if you didn’t know where it was, and you wasn’t looking for it, you’re going actually bypass the whole place. [both laughing] You literally bypass because all you see, canefield, go, go, go, boom, and then all of a sudden houses, okay, done! No moa houses, then get nottin but cane fields. So like, literally from the first house to the last house, only going take you less than 15 seconds. [all laughing] So it was in a remote area. But unless you actually was in between, literally in between the closest community to Honokaihale at that time was Makakilo. And then after Makakilo was nothing but cane fields and kiawe trees and everything, and then the next set of community you probably hit is the surfing area, and beaches and stuff like that. And then you hit Nanakuli and that’s, you know, one span in between Makakilo and Honokaihale, I don’t know, maybe about a mile, two miles. And then the span from Honokaihale to the next town in Nanakuli is anoddah three miles. Mm-Hmm. So like, it was in a remote area.

DD: Rahj, mahalo for sharing that. Okay, we already went share when you came to Honokai, can you share some of your earliest memories of this place?

SP: Oh brah, [reminiscing and sighing] ahh, I used to ride bike up and down this place. I used to swim, and not too many people knew about it, but there was places to swim. But these are places where, you know, you really shouldn’t be, but we was doing it anyway. And das why we was one of the runts running around the place. They had cane fields, yeah? So they had this place called the Reservoir. They had Coolahs [Coolers], this place would be on the other side of the street [Farrington Highway]. We used to walk up there, [and] the older generation guys, it was a big pond, and basically it was a water, I guess one placement where the water reservoir would stay one place. And then the thing would flow down. So there would be, mauka side of Farrington Highway, and up there would be all cane fields. So everything was all cane fields. And so the water trenches used to run from that small little cooler, or that small little reservoir place, which is, I don't know, I would say probably 10 feet wide by 20 feet long [spoken with amusement], yeah, and then the water would fill up, and then that thing would flow down these small little trenches. But anyway, we would block the place off, because once the water starts to flow down the trenches, the depth of the place was only like, I don't know, maybe two feet, waist high, because the water would run down the trench. But if you block the trench off [laughing], you block the trench off, the pool itself, or that place was actually six feet deep. So you would block the place off, the water would fill up, and then the thing would actually get more deeper. And we used to jump off a tree, jump off the tree, and do practice bombs. So, if anybody knew that these guys was from Honokaihale, if they would jump off one rock, they would see, “Oh, these guys know exactly what they doing. They know how do suicides [a type of jump off into the water]. they know how to do bombs, and they would do em perfect! But how would you guys know how for do this kind of stuff?” We had our own little secret spot, and that was in Coolahs. [laughing]

And then on the makai side of Farrington Highway, going down the road, they used to have this big reservoir, which the water entrapment, I guess the water would keep the place there. And then they would feed all these cane fields and stuff like that. And it would hold [at] the reservoir then. So used to have tilapias, choke tilapias inside dea. So we used to all go swimming inside dea. When the water was deep enough, we ended up walking inside, we walking all in mud. Now if you feel sediment in between your toes, das da place fo’ go. [both laugh]

Shee, swimming inside dea and then little bit more from the reservoir, go up a little bit more, maybe towards Farrington Highway, about another maybe 400 yards, there would be another place where the underground water from the city would actually start filling up the place to feed all the cane fields. And inside there had one small little entrapment that would keep water inside there. And then, we called it The Cage. Cages. We used to go swim right inside dea and go swim inside dea. Oh, and we had to go crawl underneath and swim underneath the cage and hold onto the cage ova dea, and swim inside dea. I mean, da kine stuff that we did. Burrah! We coulda died. [all laughing] All da kine stuff, we coulda died. But those are the memories of when I was around, Cages, Coolahs, and the Reservoir, and then everything else after that, you know, just playing around inside the flumes, all the water flumes and, you know, even drinking the watah. Eh, when we run all ova, we thirsty, we drink the watah. Now inside the thing, had all this limu and errything, had all this moss and everything, eh, growing inside the thing. And we drink the watah anyway. But at that point in time, you know, if you actually think about it, we’re part of what Generation X, in a sense? Yeah we drink anything. And at that time, neva have bottled water.

DD: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re right.

SP: Yeah, neva have bottled watah. The generations nowadays, what they have is okay and fine, but we toughed it out. We used to ride our bikes down the hill. We crash, we eat it, and we no cry, because if you going cry, you go home, and you crying because you went fall down off your bike, you going get lickens. [all laughing]

DD: Yeah.

SP: Eh scrapes and everything, yeah? You can tell you had one good one, when you fall down on the street, and you scrape the ground and your skin come out, undaneath is white. Das how you know. Generations call em all kine stuff, but we call em, das when you went eat it one good one, calling it “eat it” when you went crash, eat it, good one. And then the blood and everything and stuff ladat, strawberries, and from dea we had to go home and then try hide da thing, because now, if your parents find out you got hurt, now how you goin play? You know like before, you used to play baseball, football, at that point in time. And if you get hurt, and you cannot play football the next day, oh, your parents going get mad because you supposed to play, you supposed to play one game. So now my faddah got mad at me, ho, but those are the memories. Those are the days from Honokaihale.

DD: Good memories, sounds like a fun time. Mahalo for sharing that.

SP: And now das my only span of five years now. There’s a lot of stuff that I ran around in doing and stuff ladat.

DD: Love it. Okay, mahalo for sharing that, could you describe the community in terms of the families and neighbors? What was it like from that angle living in Honokai?

SP: From one small kid’s point of view, everybody knew everybody’s son, everybody’s daughtah, everybody’s niece, everybody’s nephew. I would go around the cornah, and I couldn’t go any place without somebody knowing who I was. The Crespo’s knew who I was, Sidney Crespo-dem, Chareese Crespo-dem, and stuff ladat. And then going more down the road, you know, had the Ioane’s, they knew who I was. I was same age as Leila. And then get the older sista Lisa. And then if you turn around the corner and head ‘Ewa, you passed, at that time had the Vasquez, Peter Vasquez, they used to live hea too. And going down the road and then around the corner, had the Carlos’s inside the loop, had the Numazu’s inside the loop, and then Cindy-dem, what was the last name?

DD: Tenorio

SP: Tenorio’s. They used to live inside dea. And then because my parents knew everybody, well everybody knew my parents, everybody know Sam’s coming around the corner. “Eh I just saw your kid going down the road.” So everybody knew everybody. So everybody would watch everybody, see that was the thing. Everybody knew everybody’s son, nephew and stuff ladat, so was good. And then when we had big events, everybody used to always meet up at one point in time, jump on our Schwinn bikes at that point in time, we all had Schwinns and Mongoose. Mongoose was the biggest name bikes at that point in time. We used to always ride our bikes up and down the place over here and stuff. Everybody used to meet up. Everybody used to make their own ramps too, their jumps, make em out of concrete blocks and piece of wood. [laughing] My faddah had plenny brah [concrete blocks], so every time when come time to make one ramp, we know exactly whose house fo’ see fo’ get the blocks, the CMU blocks and stuff ladat. Yeah, was one good time.

Special events that they had over here, especially in this park when they first was starting foa build the park. They had the Turkey Shoot. That time they called it the Turkey Shoot. And that was like one community get together that everybody in the community, they would make this event. They would, you know, one family would make the games, the other family would make the food. The other family would help the other family get the word out, you know, tents and games and stuff like that. So I remember those days where they had, the community always got together with that stuff like that. So it was good times. It was good times.

DD: Yeah. Sounds like a nice time with all the neighbahs knowing each oddah. Yeah, mahalo for sharing that. You kinda talk about celebrations. Is there anything else you can share about any holidays that you remembah in the community? Anything stick out?

SP: Ho brah! Halloweens! Christmases! Man, Halloween time, we used to go cruise around da kine ah? Dress up. We used to get good candy at that point in time. The thing is, was safe at that time. You know what I mean? Nowadays you get, you hear places of people putting substance and stuff or other things inside the candy and stuff, but not this place. This place, because everybody knew each other’s kids, and everybody knew, yeah? So everybody would know everybody. So everybody would have an enjoyable and have a good time. Yeah. And because this place was remote, and nobody was around, everybody had the good candy, you know what I mean? [all laughing] And then on top of that, everybody know that, eh, this house get one bettah candy. So everybody tell everybody, “Eh, go to Mistahhh… Crespo’s house. Go to Mistah Vasquez place. Yeah, brah ova dea.” Everybody know, even the Young’s, you know the Young’s, they had the Young’s used to live across the Duhaylonsod’s. Even them guys, they had good stuff ova dea. [laughs] I remembah because my aunty used to live right next to them. So I used to go to my aunty’s house and my aunty tell me, “Eh, go to the Young’s place. Go. They get good candy ova dea.” Anyway, so had those times, Halloween was good. Christmas times, because the community was so small, they would have, I remember a group of people walking or jumping inside the car and, and you know, telling Merry Christmas to everybody and then singing carols and stuff like that. But it was a small memory of me at that time ’cause I was too busy inside the house ’cause I like go peek inside the present and [all laughing] and see what I can get. But Christmases was good. Da New Year’s! Da New Year’s!

DD: Oh shit.

SP: Brah, so that is where I experienced my first 10,000 firecrackah popping things, and then people running around the whole thing. But the adults would be the ones who be, you know, getting close to the thing. And then of course, like me, I niele ah? Like go ova dea and go check em out, and go again get right next to the whole thing, and then next thing you know, one of em pop on my feet. Pau, I no like even go ova dea anymore. But, the celebration at 12 o’clock, I remembah, every single house, 10,000, at that time, popping 10,000 was the top of the top. You know what I mean? Nowdays they get 20,000, they get 40,000 plus. But at that time, every single house, every single house down the street had these poles sticking in the yard with the rope, if not, basketball court, they had em hanging from their garage, right? They had the basketball rim hanging from their garage. Okay from dea, some of em would put one stick on top and brace em out. But if not, you put em on top the basketball court and you just let em rip. Let em rip from that point. So at that time, it was fun. It was fun times, the New Years, the Christmases, the Turkey shoots, which was in November. So at that time, you know, later towards the year is when we actually look forward to a lot of stuff, because there was a lot of other stuff to do, besides running around, riding your bike, jumping in Coolahs, going to Reservoirs and swimming and stuff like that. So, those are the days, at that time.

DD: Good memories, mahalo for that, right on. Okay, what about when you was living dea, could you tell us like, where would you go to the store, church, work, like in relation to audi places? You mentioned school, but anything you wanna share about that?

SP: At that time, we was only small. If anything, maybe even later towards the years, seven, eight, nine years old and stuff like that, the closest store would be at Makakilo, the Malama Market. Right now it’s the malama market, but if you guys actually looked at history of that, that market was there for years. So I remember going over there, and then if not, then go to Nanakuli. The oddah store I remember is Yuen’s. Yuun’s Store was there in Nanakuli. Churches, not too much, if anything, if we were to go church, we would end up going church, it would be in Nanakuli, Saint Rita’s. Saint Rita’s Church, they was there was there for a long time. That’s about it. As far as other social activities outside of having fun over here in Honokaihale.

DD: Mahalo, ’cause Honokai had no stores, so you had to go elsewhere, yeah?

SP: Yes.

DD: Okay, mahalo. So can you share a little bit of the surrounding countryside? Could you describe the land, the sea? I know you mentioned sugar cane and kiawe, is there anything else you can describe, how it used to look?

SP: Yeah, there was a lot of cane fields over here at that time. Sugarcane was the abundant source of economical income for the state at that time. At that time I didn’t even realize that, but now that I think about it, in the older years, so had sugar cane a lot around here. So I remember around here having a lot of sugar cane, kiawes, a lot of kiawe. And then going down to the beaches, not too much at that age, I didn’t go too much to the beach unless my sister would end up taking us down the beach and stuff like that. So the fondest memories of me in the landscape around here was in the back of the houses, would have a lot of rocks and kiawes. So we would end up, you know, climbing rocks. We would figure out how fo’ do em, because there’s a lot of rocks, and climb cave trees and stuff like that. So that’s the memories of my stuff, on my part.

DD: Mahalo, how has the countryside changed when you look around now, compare it, how has it changed?

SP: Oh yeah, economical growth here now has improved a lot. There’s a lot of population, more population now around this area with the birth of building Ko Olina. I remember before Ko Olina was ever, ever, ever built. Used to be one dirt road that would have to go to Paradise Cove, and then that road, it would literally lead you down the kiawe path, down the canefield path, and you wouldn’t even realize where you’re going until all of a sudden you hit this big landscape of Paradise Cove. So Paradise Cove has been there a lot way before the development of Ko Olina. So Ko Olina has been built fast, within the last 15, 20 years and stuff like that, even more than that. But the development there has been, you know, rapidly changing, and so it changes the whole landscape of this place, so what it used to look like versus what it is now. So now if you see this place, you literally notice Honokaihale. Now, the stoplights, the traffic, the cars, the sirens [sirens being heard from Farrington Highway at this moment while talking story], the speeding motorcycles, and mopeds running up and down the road and stuff, like you literally see em now. And then everybody knows where Honokaihale is now because they know that it’s another community. That’s the first community you’re ever gonna see once you pass Kapolei, Makakilo-Kapolei.

DD: Yeahhh, mahalo. Mahalo for describing that. Can we turn to the ocean? You know, if you can describe what you remember of West Beach, Kahe, Tracks, maybe Campbell Industrial, the harbor, like any memories you have of ova hea kind places?

SP: Well, no, the only memory I do really have is Kahe Point, not Kahe power plant, or Electric Beach. At that point in time, it was Kahe Point, one small little cove where I used to, I was only on small little runt at that time, paddle out with my boogie board halfway out. No go past the wall. Used to have the concrete wall, so I was never allowed to go past the wall, or not even get close to passing the wall, probably halfway out and that’s about it because anything can happen. At that point in time, at that point in time, I didn’t realize how the change of the ocean, you know, can change significantly, especially over there. Now that I know how things can get real dangerous, why my older sister told me, “Do not go past the wall. Do not even get close to that wall.” And I was like, “Wow, I like go catch the big waves ova dea.” “No, don’t go past the wall.” So I would only catch whitewash and stuff like that. But yeah, the landscape over there still look the same from when I was that age, what, seven, eight years old, nine, somewhere around there. The pavilion is still there. The bathroom is still there. Maybe the climate change of landscape inside that small little cove has now actually gotten smaller from what it used to be, but it still basically looks the same. So the memory still remains the same.

DD: Yeah, mahalo for describing Kahe. What about, do you remember what kind of fish, birds, limu, do you remember anything ladat ova dea?

SP: Not really, ’cause I was only small at that time. At that time I didn’t really understand it, at that point in time. So, wish I could give you more.

DD: No, that’s good. That’s fine. By the way, I’ll add this in. Sam is a supah good waterman these days, yeah. [both laugh] That’s another episode,

SP: Humbly speaking, thank you.

DD: Yeah, okay, let’s see. So anyways, so what kind of activities did you do at the beach? Did you mention surfing?

SP: Yeah, well, right now?

DD: Back then.

SP: Back then it was only boogie board. Yeah, was only boogie board and maybe body surfing. But body surfing really wasn't that good, so all I used to do is end up getting smash in the sand. But that’s about it. [both laughing]

DD: Any fishing or diving back then?

SP: No, no fishing and diving. I was too young yet. At that time I didn’t understand it. But yeah, was just basically boogie board and swim around.

DD: Okay, boogie board, yeah. And then I think you answered this already, how has the shoreline changed? You kind of answered that right?

SP: Yea’, yea’.

DD: And how often do you go down to the beach nowadays?

SP: Ohhh, I am so active in the ocean right now. Every day, whenever, the opportunity that I get, if I don’t have to work, I will go there. And I will go down to the beach, whether it’s stormy or raining or anything and stuff like that. I’ll still go, even if I gotta put my feet in the water, it’s just making that time, fo’ get that point in the water, you know, having some connection with the ocean is really, needs to start my weekend or start my day.

DD: Das a waterman.

SP: Yeah.

DD: Okay, we closing the story now. Okay Braddah, so I know that you said you moved, when did you move out?

SP: We moved out in ‘78. My parents-dem went end up selling the house. And we ended up moving into Nanakuli. We ended up moving into Nanakuli and been there ever since.

DD: Okay mahalo for that. And then for the record, what was your Aunty-dem name that was still living in Honokai?

SP: Oh, she was my Aunty Nettie, Annette, at that time was Annette Hoʻohuli. So she was married to a Hoʻohuli, but from my understanding, he passed away. So I only had my cousin Gigi Girl and Violet, Hyram and Hylan.

DD: Yeah, Albette.

SP: I had Albette, and my other cousin Noe, she was there too. So they’re all my cousins that would be at the house. And that’s where I knew that I had family and stuff like that ova dea [down the road in Honokaihale].

DD: Yeah. So they stayed there after you guys moved, but they ended up moving out later too, yeah?

SP: Yes. They ended up moving. They ended up selling the place, and so now Gigi Girl lives in Nanakuli. Violet lives in Nanakuli. My Aunty Annette had passed on. My cousin Albette lives Hauʻula, and my cousin Noe lives on the Big Island.

DD: Right on, right on, good family, I remember them.

SP: Hyram and Hylan in Nanakuli.

DD: [They used to] Live right across the street from me.

SP: Yeah. [both laugh].

DD: Okay, Braddah, do you miss the old Honokaihale?

SP: Yeah, I do. I come here like every once in a while just fo’ reminisce on what I used to do here, where I used to go. This is the family used to live here. I come back and see old families. I used to live in Halalani Place. And I used to live right across the Lalau’s.

DD: Mmhmm.

SP: So one year I came by here, and I went go stop fo’ go see, you know, Eric or Ellice, but at that time Eric owned the house now, but Eric wasn’t there. And so I met the daughter. Pass by, yeah, every once in a while, then I’ll stop see the Seno’s, or stop by your guys place, the Duhaylonsod’s, just fo’ come and say hi, pass by the Crespo’s and stuff like that. Anoddah family I remember fondly was the Delos Santos.

DD: Ah yeah.

SP: Right inside the same loop [cul de sac], inside there. Me and Naomi was about the same, Naomi is a little bit older, one year older, but I remember her, she ended up coming to Nanakuli [High School].

DD: Yeah, you’re right.

SP: She ended up coming to Nanakuli, and then I remember her. And then had the Gouveia’s, the Gella’s, Duncan Gella, yeah I just come in every once in a while just fo’ reminisce the place.

DD: Yeah and Naomi also came in second place, Brown Bags to Stardom [statewide talent contest] to Na Leo Pilimehana.

SP: Yeahhhh.

DD: Okay, last question then. What would you like the next generation, or future generation, or people to know about Honokai?

SP: The community, on how tight knit this place is, this place really is, uh, knowing that you only have families that live inside here that really knows each other. So you cannot really go around the street without the other side of the street knowing that you’re coming down. You know what I mean? If you create one havoc, then somebody going know. You know what I mean? So this place is really not that big. If you actually look at Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi ain’t that big. Oahu ain’t any biggah. Honokai ain’t any biggah than that. So somebody going know somebody’s third cousins, fourth sisters, aunties, brothers that was married to his third cousin on the calabash side of his mom. You know what I mean? So that kind of stuff, you know, if you guys can watch the community, watch for everybody, because if something happens inside there, and if you can help, you know, and that’s how it used to be back in the day. Everybody was able to help somebody.

I remembah one time, somebody went steal, I think somebody told me, Wesley Gomes told me this story. And Wesley Gomes still live in Honokaihale. Wesley Gomes told me this. I was talking to him in the [Honokaihale] reunion, he was telling me, “Brah you remember somebody stealing your bike?” I go, “No.” He go, “Brah,” okay, this is one story now, he go, “Brah, your moddah said this person went steal the bike.” Okay, so him, and this [story] is from Wesley now, him, two moa oddah guys, and Tino Ulufale, you guys know the Ulufale family, yeah? Tino was well known. [both laugh] But anyway, they went ova dea, and I donno what happened, but I got my bike back. [all laughing] according to what Wesley said. And my mom was grateful, but because the Gomes family knew my family and knew everybody knew everybody, I got my bike back. One noddah thing I would like to share about, especially back in the day, if you don’t mind me adding a little bit moa.

DD: Yeah, yeah, guarantee.

SP: I used to watch, and I forget what family was this, but when we was at Hononkaihale, catching the bus, these guys would come on the bus with pigeons, okay? They would take em up to Mauka Lani [Elementary School], k? And we would have one cage full of pigeons, so I don’t know, maybe 10 or 20 pigeons or stuff like that, maybe even less than that, k? They would take em up to Mauka Lani [on the school bus], and they would let em go, k? At the end of the day, the pigeons would return back to the house.

DD: Homing pigeons.

SP: Homing pigeons, yeah. The pigeons would end up flying. They would end up coming back to the house, and I would say, “Eh, das mean, brah. I like go do that. E Mom, I can have pigeons?” “You ain’t having pigeons in this house. [laughs] Why? Whatchu going do with the pigeon?” “Oh, I like fly em all from the school and bring em back.” “No, you ain’t going have pigeons!” But yeah, and then it ended up growing, up to one point where like three different people had one whole box with all these pigeons inside [both laughing]. And then they would go up, and then they would let the pigeons go. And then these are older guys.

DD: Yeah, my braddah was one of em. He had. Daren, my oldest braddah. But da kine too, the Domingo’s, ah?

SP: I donno, yeah I think was them too. Yeah yeah yeah, because inside Halalani place had

DD: Mitchell Seno had.

SP: Had Seno, the Seno’s around dea, Mitchell. Had the Domingo’s, the Lalau’s, the Tilton’s, right dea was right next to us, and then had us guys. But yeah, I remember them guys letting go the pigeons, go flash back, and race the pigeons, and see whose pigeon would come back first and stuff like that. But yeah, I remember, das anoddah fond memory. I remember letting out pigeons and stuff ladat. But das how close the community was. Everybody, everybody had fun. Everybody was creative basically to swimming, to letting pigeons go, Turkey shoots, down to the Christmases, down to the New Years. And now, I guess, think now, I was only, sheee what, five years, six years, six years of me being here. But look how much memory, now that are we talking more about it, look how much memory I get. I can imagine the oddah families been here longer than that, but more stories they can talk about. So mahalo very much for letting me share my manaʻo with this place, and thank you very much for having me be a part of this whole thing.

DD: Yeah. If there’s anything else come to mind in the future, just hit me up and we go add em in. But to close up, just wanna mahalo nui Braddah Sam, taking time out his Sunday fo’ kickback with us, talk story and share some of his stories. And yeah, I guess the moon is out, and the wind is blowing, and we stuck at the park, so we bettah close it for now.

SP: Seven o’ clock, yeah.

DD: So aaaaaloha.

SP: Aloha.