Big & Small Business Memories

[rasa]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

Thank you very much...

[na alii]

Re: Amusement

I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me prove a point to some friends who are non-believers. Back in the 70's there was an amusement park like shop in Ala Moana. It was located near Farrell's (possibly where Champs is now) I've asked several people who grew up here and no one remembers it. There was only one person who remebered it.

There was a boat ride and ferris wheel and games that you could play in there. I am trying to get proof to prove to my friends that I am not imagining things and that it did exsist.

Keiki Land was where my uncle used to take my sister and I there during small kid time.

[mel]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

The little amusement park like place at Ala Moana Center was called "Keiki Land". I think Farrells was right next door and a few spaces down was the Patty's Chinese Kitchen location before it moved to the present food court.

[1stwahine]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

It did exist..I took my son, neices and nephews there on many occasions.

Aunty Lynn

[rasa]

Re: Amusement

Regarding skating places, my vague memory recollects the Waiau location was called SKATELAND. They had a huge Star Wars X-Wing Fighter suspended from the ceiling.

Also in Waipahu there was SKATEWORLD.

What about Gibson's SKY SLIDE in Mapunapuna. Anyone remember that? If memory serves me right, patrons were given pieces of carpet about the size of a boogie board. You would lay on the carpet and slide down this huge fiberglass-constructed slide with divided lane gutters.

Still surviving and thriving is ICE PALACE in Stadium Mall (near Aloha Stadium). As in ice skating rink. I've had my share of spills 'n chills there. Lotsa' fun!

Just across Stadium Mall, where KMart now operates was the ever-so-memorable CASTLE PARK.

These are the features I remember about Castle Park:
• The Castle Entrance - Within this structure were an array of video games & amusement games. Surrounded by the castle was a water moat that had a river which led to a fountain in the parking lot.
• GoKart Race Track - Located to the left as you entered past the Castle, over the moat bridge. A paved miniature track lined with tires. The GoKarts ran on low-horsepower 2-stroke engines. We used to watch for the fastest car from the race before us and "race" to get that car when our turn came up.
• Batting Cage - Located behind the GoKart track, the cage had an automated pitching machine that you could set the speed. We used to always max it and try to whack line drives towards each other.
• Miniature Golf - Located to the right as you entered past the castle, over the moat bridge. 2 course levels: beginner and beginner wannabe. Lots of whimsical miniature structures to putt your way through. Kolohe kids never understood the "putt" concept. Only "DRIVE".
• Rapids Bumper Boats - Located straight and to the left as you entered.
• Water Park - Located straight and to the right as you entered. They had a simulated "sandy" beach and all kinds of whimsical playthings in the water area, like slides, water guns 'n stuff.

The closing of Castle Park bummed lots of folks out, including myself.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me prove a point to some friends who are non-believers. Back in the 70's there was an amusement park like shop in Ala Moana. It was located near Farrell's (possibly where Champs is now) I've asked several people who grew up here and no one remembers it. There was only one person who remebered it.

There was a boat ride and ferris wheel and games that you could play in there. I am trying to get proof to prove to my friends that I am not imagining things and that it did exsist.

[na alii]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

Nope. That was Pirate Bully Hayes. No doubt in my mind. I am old enough to have, uh, visited that establishment on occasion. And I used to get my used car parts from the Waiau junkyard behind it and to the right.

Buzz's came later, and was built up the hill on Ka'ahumanu St. And when they sold Pirate Bully Hayes to the Zippy's guys, the Pirate moved up the hill down the street from Buzz's. It was up there that somebody tossed a grenade. (Just happens I WASN'T there that night! But I could have been.)

I grew up in Waimalu, so that whole area is my stomping ground.

I just couldn't remember the name of the moving company. And I should remember because I used to work with M. Dyer's daughter, Mari.

Blaine

Aha..I knew it was Buzz's. I called Buzz's and the girl told me the original Buzz's in Pearl City is where Waiau Zippy's is now. I too grew up in Waimalu but you got 6 years over me since you are 6 years older than me. I work with your classmate Allan Perreira. Pirate Bully Hayes took over the original Buzz's after Buzz's moved to Kaahumanu St. I heard the grenade explosion that night since I lived in Waimalu Gardens on Ponokaulike St. where the freeway is now being widen. Buzz's moved to Kaahumanu in the early 70s and Waiau Zippy's came up around 1979. Where you used to work Burger Boy became Waimalu Drive-Inn for less than a year then Waimalu Zippy's opened in 1972. Now there are 4 Zippy's in a 2 mile stretch on Kamehameha Hwy. from PearlRidge to Pearl City.

[lurkah]

Re: Lucky Luck

His bar in Hawaii Kai wasn't called Lucky Luck. It was called OKOLE MALUNA, a popular Hawaiian slang for "bottom's up". It was located where Foodland in Koko Marina now sits. This was before Hawaii Kai was developed, and the entire valley area was pig farms and agriculture.

Mahalo for the clarification! You had me all confused when you said, "Located in Hawaii Kai, across Maunalua bay beach park, where Kuapa Isle now resides." I was thinking, what?! No can be, because I was around back then having grown up in Kuliouou Valley (valley just before Hawai'i Kai) before Hawai'i Kai even existed. And yes, I do have vague memories of seeing the "Okole Maluna" bar in that location, which was kitty-corner to the school I attended back then, Koko Head Elementary.

I lost contact with a lot of friends whose families had owned pig farms and floral nurseries. They were displaced by Henry J. Kaiser's Hawai'i Kai development and had to move to far away places like Waianae and the windward side.

I also went to Niu Valley Intermediate (now called Middle) School with Lucky Luck's son, Fred Luck. Really nice, quiet haole-looking boy with short, curly dirty blonde hair (taller than his dad), who always seemed to have a mean sun tan going...which I now realize probably came from his Samoan-Caucasian mom's complexion.

[Pomai]

Lucky Luck

O.K., more to brush up on Lucky Luck...

His bar in Hawaii Kai wasn't called Lucky Luck. It was called OKOLE MALUNA, a popular Hawaiian slang for "bottom's up". It was located where Foodland in Koko Marina now sits. This was before Hawaii Kai was developed, and the entire valley area was pig farms and agriculture.

My cousins used to catch White Kuhono Crab and Samoan Crab (which was abundant at the time) from Maunalua Bay. They would take their catch to Okole Maluna bar, where Lucky Luck himself would prepare it and sit down with them and enjoy.

Lucky Luck was a Marine officer during world war II, where he was stationed in Samoa. This is likely where he met his part-Samoan, part-caucasion wife, who was a Kennison.

From the Companies we Keep, the great Bob Sevey of KGMB recalls how Robert "Lucky" Luck was originally from Missouri, yet most thought he was a born and raised in Hawaii. Lucky's first job was driving delivery trucks for Primo Beer.

He somehow ended up becoming a very popular radio show DJ on KHVH AM during the same era as Akuhead Pupule.

He was also known to frequent the Palm Tree Inn in Waikiki.

Here's the "small rock" connection!...

Lucky's wife's family, the Kennison's owned a then-popular place called Pango Pango Nightclub, which was located in Moili`ili, where Star Market is. My (literally) great, great grand aunt Helen Lindsey Parker used to work there. "Tutu E", as family knows her, composed Akaka Falls and many other classic Hawaiian songs. Tutu E was a door hostess at Pango Pango, where she also played her Hawaiian music.

I wish I got to know Lucky Luck. Everyone I spoke with said he was such an awesome person.

Amazing.

[zztype]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

Blaine, you mean the old Buzz's Steak House which is now Waiau Zippy's. Skateland is now M. Dyer & Sons Moving & Storage

Nope. That was Pirate Bully Hayes. No doubt in my mind. I am old enough to have, uh, visited that establishment on occasion. And I used to get my used car parts from the Waiau junkyard behind it and to the right.

Buzz's came later, and was built up the hill on Ka'ahumanu St. And when they sold Pirate Bully Hayes to the Zippy's guys, the Pirate moved up the hill down the street from Buzz's. It was up there that somebody tossed a grenade. (Just happens I WASN'T there that night! But I could have been.)

I grew up in Waimalu, so that whole area is my stomping ground.

I just couldn't remember the name of the moving company. And I should remember because I used to work with M. Dyer's daughter, Mari.

Blaine

[na alii]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

Kinda related to roller rinks...Roller Derby is BACK! At least up here on the Mainland, anyway. And at least the wahine version. In Seattle, they just had a Roller Derby match between a couple of local women teams that was completely sold out (and tickets were like $30). I remember watching it on TV when I was a kid, with the banked tracks and those women who would cat fight in the middle of the track. I used to love watching the scorers break out of the pack, doing their whiplash thing and sometimes being bounced on their okoles. It was the only time I felt like there was someone who was clumsier than me!

Miulang

Raquel Welch in KC Bombers.

[Miulang]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

Roller discos were fun, but so many of them closed because of rising liability insurance issues. Chicago once had a small, but locally famous (and notorious) chain of roller discos known as "The Axel", but it died when the cost of providing liability insurance became prohibitive.

All told, the roller skating rink industry suffered when excessive personal injury law suits were being filed and awarded (mostly in the mid-80s) to those injured while skating in the rinks.

I agree with your opinion that you feel there is a market for them today, insurability issues notwithstanding.

Kinda related to roller rinks...Roller Derby is BACK! At least up here on the Mainland, anyway. And at least the wahine version. In Seattle, they just had a Roller Derby match between a couple of local women teams that was completely sold out (and tickets were like $30). I remember watching it on TV when I was a kid, with the banked tracks and those women who would cat fight in the middle of the track. I used to love watching the scorers break out of the pack, doing their whiplash thing and sometimes being bounced on their okoles. It was the only time I felt like there was someone who was clumsier than me!

Miulang

[na alii]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

Can anyone tell me where the old roller discos on Oahu were located and if the structure is still intact, what is it now?

My wife tells me she remembers a roller disco at the Chinese Cultural Plaza.

I'm sure there are many others. If I had the capital and if there was enough interest I would love to open one up as I think people would enjoy it even today.

KalihiBoy

In the late 80s and early 90s roller blades took over so roller skates are obsolete. Perhaps a roller blade rink?

[na alii]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

Everyone forgot Mililani Skate Palace.

[na alii]

Re: Big & Small Business Memories

I remember three of them:

Waiau, currently a moving and warehousing company. Just off Kamehameha Hwy., just past the old Pirate Bully Hayes (current Waiau Zippy's), but before the Sears Distribution Warehouse.

Chinese Cultural Plaza, second or third floor, Diamond Head side near parking garage elevator.

King Street, across Catholic Graveyard/KITV studios. Currently the ScanDesign showroom.

I think there were a couple more, too.

Blaine, you mean the old Buzz's Steak House which is now Waiau Zippy's. Skateland is now M. Dyer & Sons Moving & Storage

[Pomai]

Amusement

Regarding skating places, my vague memory recollects the Waiau location was called SKATELAND. They had a huge Star Wars X-Wing Fighter suspended from the ceiling.

Also in Waipahu there was SKATEWORLD.

What about Gibson's SKY SLIDE in Mapunapuna. Anyone remember that? If memory serves me right, patrons were given pieces of carpet about the size of a boogie board. You would lay on the carpet and slide down this huge fiberglass-constructed slide with divided lane gutters.

Still surviving and thriving is ICE PALACE in Stadium Mall (near Aloha Stadium). As in ice skating rink. I've had my share of spills 'n chills there. Lotsa' fun!

Just across Stadium Mall, where KMart now operates was the ever-so-memorable CASTLE PARK.

These are the features I remember about Castle Park:
• The Castle Entrance - Within this structure were an array of video games & amusement games. Surrounded by the castle was a water moat that had a river which led to a fountain in the parking lot.
• GoKart Race Track - Located to the left as you entered past the Castle, over the moat bridge. A paved miniature track lined with tires. The GoKarts ran on low-horsepower 2-stroke engines. We used to watch for the fastest car from the race before us and "race" to get that car when our turn came up.
• Batting Cage - Located behind the GoKart track, the cage had an automated pitching machine that you could set the speed. We used to always max it and try to whack line drives towards each other.
• Miniature Golf - Located to the right as you entered past the castle, over the moat bridge. 2 course levels: beginner and beginner wannabe. Lots of whimsical miniature structures to putt your way through. Kolohe kids never understood the "putt" concept. Only "DRIVE".
• Rapids Bumper Boats - Located straight and to the left as you entered.
• Water Park - Located straight and to the right as you entered. They had a simulated "sandy" beach and all kinds of whimsical playthings in the water area, like slides, water guns 'n stuff.

The closing of Castle Park bummed lots of folks out, including myself.