Re: Big & Small Business Memories
Thanks for the welcome, Pomai and Pzarquon!
Like most of the people in this thread, I fondly remember
places like Arakawa's ("If you don't know what you're looking for, you'll find it at Arakawa's!") or Alex Drive in (fantastic watermellon freezes, on Kapahulu).
I went to Kuhio Grill while at UH, shopped at GEM, Holiday Mart, and KRess; dined at Cocos, Spindrifter, The Bistro (on Kapiolani), Bobby McGees, Tahitian Lanai, King's Bakery, Pearl City Tavern, Lyn's Delicatessen...ooooooh. I stay hungry!
I'm curious about why people name their companies as they do. It drives my wife crazy. I'm always asking waiters and managers how their company was named.
For instance, we were at Victoria Inn in Kaimuki and I wanted to know who Victoria was. Victoria Ward? Queen Victoria of England was very close to Hawaii's royalty. It could also have been Princess Victoria Kaiulani or Queen Victoria Kamamalu.
No, they told, me. It was a friend of the founder in the 1960s. Nobody famous.
Times Grill, as Pzarquon asks, is not related to the coffee shop in Kailua, but was opened by the Teruya brothers before they opened Times Supermarket.
The Companies We Keep was a joy to research, as you might imagine. It gave me an excuse to interview people like Goro Arakawa, who still lives in Waipahu. I think he's 82 now.
It opened doors to talk to people like Lex Brodie (now 91, mostly living in Hanalei), and Bob Sevey (Olympia, Washington).
It gave me the courage to approach Roy Disney (Walt's nephew, who owned KITV in the 1960s) when we happened to be in the same room in Hollywood. He contradicted what Bob Sevey had told me, by the way, that he (Roy) had changed the call letters of the TV station from KHVH to KITV.
Disney said it was already KITV when he bought it. It left me with a dilemma because I couldn't change the quote that Sevey gave me, even though it is not factually correct, without permission.
I had several purposes in writing the book (alas, money is not one of them for a local book), but one was preserving these people's stories. Lex Brodie, has led a fascinating life, but never wrote a bio. I had no idea he worked for Dole and ran the Chevron Station at Windward City SC.
He told me how his grandfather came to Kauai, where Lex was born; how he went to Roosevelt HS; joined the Outrigger CC ($25/year) when it was next to the Royal Hawaiian.
Lex was a beach boy and his first business was in front of the Royal, giving tourists outrigger canoe rides with Sam Kahanamoku (early 1930s).
I hope my book, in some small way, preserves some of these people's stories for succeeding generations.
Aloha,
Bob Sigall
Thanks for the welcome, Pomai and Pzarquon!
Like most of the people in this thread, I fondly remember
places like Arakawa's ("If you don't know what you're looking for, you'll find it at Arakawa's!") or Alex Drive in (fantastic watermellon freezes, on Kapahulu).
I went to Kuhio Grill while at UH, shopped at GEM, Holiday Mart, and KRess; dined at Cocos, Spindrifter, The Bistro (on Kapiolani), Bobby McGees, Tahitian Lanai, King's Bakery, Pearl City Tavern, Lyn's Delicatessen...ooooooh. I stay hungry!
I'm curious about why people name their companies as they do. It drives my wife crazy. I'm always asking waiters and managers how their company was named.
For instance, we were at Victoria Inn in Kaimuki and I wanted to know who Victoria was. Victoria Ward? Queen Victoria of England was very close to Hawaii's royalty. It could also have been Princess Victoria Kaiulani or Queen Victoria Kamamalu.
No, they told, me. It was a friend of the founder in the 1960s. Nobody famous.
Times Grill, as Pzarquon asks, is not related to the coffee shop in Kailua, but was opened by the Teruya brothers before they opened Times Supermarket.
The Companies We Keep was a joy to research, as you might imagine. It gave me an excuse to interview people like Goro Arakawa, who still lives in Waipahu. I think he's 82 now.
It opened doors to talk to people like Lex Brodie (now 91, mostly living in Hanalei), and Bob Sevey (Olympia, Washington).
It gave me the courage to approach Roy Disney (Walt's nephew, who owned KITV in the 1960s) when we happened to be in the same room in Hollywood. He contradicted what Bob Sevey had told me, by the way, that he (Roy) had changed the call letters of the TV station from KHVH to KITV.
Disney said it was already KITV when he bought it. It left me with a dilemma because I couldn't change the quote that Sevey gave me, even though it is not factually correct, without permission.
I had several purposes in writing the book (alas, money is not one of them for a local book), but one was preserving these people's stories. Lex Brodie, has led a fascinating life, but never wrote a bio. I had no idea he worked for Dole and ran the Chevron Station at Windward City SC.
He told me how his grandfather came to Kauai, where Lex was born; how he went to Roosevelt HS; joined the Outrigger CC ($25/year) when it was next to the Royal Hawaiian.
Lex was a beach boy and his first business was in front of the Royal, giving tourists outrigger canoe rides with Sam Kahanamoku (early 1930s).
I hope my book, in some small way, preserves some of these people's stories for succeeding generations.
Aloha,
Bob Sigall
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