“While in the old days, you walked to school and you walked home. There wasn’t any time for anything else. … Nobody got a ride to school unless they lived five miles away from the school.” (Sherwood Greenwell, Social History of Kona)
“[We’d] go down swimming … Straight down [from up mauka to Kainaliu beach] of we used to walk down to Keauhou Beach. That’s five of six miles. Yeah, we used to walk.” (William Ishida, Social History of Kona)
“I grew up with my aunts and uncles living in a big house with my grandparents and my parents. We walked to school, and we would chit-chatter. In the morning, we never played on the roadside because we had to get to school on time.”
“But coming home after school from Japanese[-language] school, it was different. We’d look around the roadside for thimbleberries, rose apple or mountain apple, or guavas. We didn’t encounter too much animosity growing up together with other nationalities.”
“Hōlualoa was a real multicultural community. We lived among many different races, and we did many things together in the neighborhood.”
“I grew up doing things with my aunties and uncles. It was more family togetherness. We didn’t have anything like television; we couldn’t afford to buy things. We picked seeds on the roadside, and we’d save them to do some craft things.”
“As a teenager, going to movies at the Hōlualoa Theater was a treat. I never went alone; always as a group. We enjoyed visiting our neighbors to sing songs and exchange stories.”
“My childhood days was very simple. It wasn’t like, oh we have to go someplace to have fun. It was a joy to visit my girlfriends’ home and do some embroidery or stitchery; picking guavas and mountain apples from the fields.”
“We would just go in the coffee field and we’d play with simple things, like getting a guava branch for sticks, or whatever. … It was a little community and we all knew the families in Hōlualoa. We knew everyone and we trusted everyone”.
“Coffee season, we’d never go anywhere. From early in the morning we’d go out to pick coffee; it was like we had to do it. We never say, ‘Oh, we don’t want to pick coffee.’ We’d get up and it’s our responsibility, it’s part of our life.”
“We’d pick every day; there’s no Sundays. If it rained, there were other chores, like bagging all the coffee underneath the hoshidana [large coffee sun-drying platforms with retractable roofs] to take it to American Factors.”
“When we were done with our coffee picking, we’d help families in Kainaliu. I remember going to my relative, the Takeguchis, near Konawaena School. The whole crew, my brothers and even my grandmother, we’d all go and help pick their coffee.”
“I remember asking my grandma, ‘How did you come from Hilo to Kona?’ And she said she and my grandfather walked from Hilo. I said, ‘You mean you walked all the way?’”
“She said they walked to Honu‘apo. You know, Ka‘ū? There’s a landing, Honu‘apo. And I said, ‘Oh, what did you do for sleeping and for food?’ She said they just walked, and during the evening before it gets real dark, they see a dim light here and there.”
“They’d go up, and many of the Hawaiians were very nice. They gave them a place for them to rest on the porch, and I guess they gave them whatever food. They made it to Honu‘apo, rode the boat, and landed at Nāpō‘opo‘o.” (Alfreida Kimura Fujita, Kona Heritage Stores)
“I think on my father’s side, the grandparents, after they finished their contract with the Plantation [in East Hawaii], then they were free, so they came to Kona.”
“But I think – on my mother’s side – I think they took off before their contract was over. My mother was the eldest – she had five brothers. And the one below her, they had to walk all the way [to Kona].”
They walked “From Hilo [to Honu‘apo]. … [T]they had a boat going in and out those days. So, they rode on the boat at Honu‘apo and then came to Kona. … Probably they slept over one night or two nights. Especially when you have a family, you know, it’s hard.“
“[W]e used to make our own fun. Go down the beach, we used to walk all the way. No more cars like today. And everything was nature in the raw. We go down there, and coming home it’s hot.”
“We all walked to school. Like, from Kainaliu till Konawaena – it was up where First Hawaiian Bank is now [next to the Kealakekua Public Library]. That used to be the old Konawaena School.”
“But that’s nothing. There were some people living farther away. They had to walk all the way. And the road was not much of a road, either, you know. Not paved road at all. All gravel road, and rough.” (Norman K. Okamura, Kona Heritage Stores)
“[F]ortunately, my father had two sisters who were schoolteachers, and they didn’t have a car. So every morning my father had to take them to school. So we used to ride in the car and go to school, same way. So we were real fortunate that my father had a taxi business and we were able to hang on and go to school. Didn’t have to walk.” (Susumu Oshima, Kona Heritage Stores)
“Well, I was really fortunate because the place we live is centralized. They call it central Kona, because all my friends, they all surrounded me. All my classmates and all that we always stood by each other for fun.”
“In fact, in my gang we had about fifteen to twenty of us and in the morning before we go to school, we always got together at the store.”
“We talk story, play cards, and we used to walk to school every day. And I remember because I love my sports, and the way we had to entertain ourselves is those days, we didn’t have any basketball. Tennis ball was available, … in the garage we made a basket out of a Crisco can. And we used to play basketball in that area.”
“And since it was war days when I was about twelve, thirteen, there was no field to play in. The [Māmalahoa] Highway was next to my store, so we played football in the highway because we could see the cars coming. Half an hour later or so (laughs), we own the field. Our field was a road.” (Sukeji Yamagata, Kona Heritage Stores)
“Of course, those days didn’t have many cars so you could take up the whole road to walk.” (Alfreida Kimura Fujita, Kona Heritage Stores)
“[My father would make] me watch the store. Well, I was old enough to watch. And he goes down, early in the morning, walk – there’s a trail from the church here.”
“And there’s a trail going all the way down. When I grew up, I wanted – I was so curious how to get there. Two girls and I, we took that trail.”
“I said, “Gee, and here my father went all the way to get food.” The walking down is okay but coming home with that basket of fish. . . . [it would take] about half an hour [to walk the trail].” (Madeline Fujihara Leslie, Kona Heritage Stores)
“[L]ots of the Japanese people had donkeys, and so did some Hawaiians, they would come shop, and put [the groceries] on, tie ’em up, so the donkey would pack those things home for them.”
“After they buy their groceries, they put ’em in a bag and then have two bags with some kind of thing around. And then it would balance, and the donkey go back home, up the hill.”
“That was their transportation like. They buy canned goods, like corned beef, cracker, those needed items, they buy. And people live way up, about a mile up the hill. And only by trail, no cars. So they would bring their donkey.”
“And I’ve seen them put two bags across. Then the donkey would go home with an even weight. Yeah, all had donkeys. I used to ride them, too.” (Madeline Fujihara Leslie, Kona Heritage Stores)
“And we used to go fishing right down here; we walked down. … Yeah, we walked down, because no cars those days. Went down fishing. … And later on when the war stopped, they had surplus jeeps, then we started buying those jeeps. Then we didn’t have to walk anymore.” (Sukeji Yamagata, Kona Heritage Stores)
