Your Hometown: Then & Now

[Pomai]

Share with us the memories of the place you grew up and how it's changed over the years.

Do you still live in the town you grew up in, or have you moved to a different area, island, state or other country? Do you still have family living in your childhood hometown, or have they also moved on?

Where do you call home now?

I've shared that I'm originally from Kaneohe, and I must say, Kaneohe is still the same for the most part. A few businesses have come and and gone, but many are still there! Still get Nanko's fishing supply. Deluxe Bakery. Kaneohe Bakery. Da' laundromat next door. Kin Wah. I haven't been to Windward Mall since they renovated, but I hear it's great.

It's cool living in Waikiki and a fun place to call "home" for now. But when I have children, I'll likely rent out my place and buy in a suburb.

For now, when I want to get away from the city, I spend time out at Mom's in Hawaii Kai. It's nice having a yard to barbecue in. Grilling with propane on a high rise rooftop isn't the greatest. lol

[cezanne]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

I was born at Tripler (Navy brat) then my family got immediately shipped to CA. Lived there for 5 years. My dad got reassigned to CINCPAC Pearl Harbor and we coulda lived in the military housing but my mom wanted to move back to Kahalu'u were she was born and raised.

Was pretty much raised there since 5 years old. Moved out and went to college and became a towny for 10 years. Got married, bought a house by where I was raised and stay ovah hea still yet.

As far as then and now..."I remember days when we were younger, we used to catch o'opu in the mountain stream". For real, the kids nowadays don't even know what o'opu is. Still get Hygienic Store tho... been there since my mom was born.

[Babooze]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

Oh boy where do I start? I was born and raised in Makaha. To tell the truth I cant imagine a better place to grow up at the time. There was so much to do we were never bored. Never had the time really. The Ocean was full of fish, the beaches were clean and empty, and the mountains were lush and full of game. The one thing that I remember growing up was that the people were always willing to help each other. No need to worry about crime or drugs. I mean most of the people in Waianae were a bit "rough around the edges" but they were as REAL as it gets. Just very warm, caring and hospitable people.
I cant say exactly when I started noticing the families stop the weekend trips to Pokai bay or the weeks long camping trips at Makua. It was probably around the time the chronics started taking over the beaches and parks. What I did see was that some how this all started to be the norm for Waianae. All of the sudden its WESSIDE! Blue tarps everywhere. Wacked out druggies at every corner! Children staying inside. People not caring about the community anymore!

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

Cracking a five cent bag of sunflower seeds from the old Waialua Store while walking down past the mill...I can still almost smell the cane being cooked down into molasses.

[Beau]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

I remember as a young kid that Ala Moana Center catered more to local residents than it does now. I used to like to go to Woolworths there, and remember the Okazu Ya, Chinese Food, and American style soda fountain.

Villa Roma was THE store for young women. I still see in my mind's eye, my older sister's beautiful emerald green beaded prom dress that she got from that store.

My paternal grandmother had several acres of land on the North Shore. From the mauka side of Kamehameha Hwy. across Sunset Beach to the backside of the mountain. I used to stay with her during the summer for a couple of weeks.

The North Shore was really country then. People on that side of the island, including my older cousins usually drove old, rusted jalopies. Now when I go to that side of the island, it has a "touristy" feel to it.

Sigh...Not everything is better nowadays.

[acousticlady]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

I grew up on a really small island off the very southern most point of New Jersey. The island was really a sand bar in the Atlantic Ocean. Unlike in Hawaii, we did have access to the mainland (aka, off-shore). The only problem was that the road didn't really lead anywhere - at least near-by. Atlantic City was the closest center of commerce and that was a 45 minute drive. And, back in those pre-casino days, wasn't much of a bargin. "Real" civilization didn't start until you got just outside Philadelphia (2 hours). There were technically three towns on the island (which was 5 miles long and 4-5 blocks wide), North Wildwood, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest, though to outsiders, you'd never know. I grew up in "the Crest". It was one of the coolest places in the world to grow up. We had the beach on the ocean front and the bay on the backside. By the time each of us was 8 or so, we had our own boats. I think at one time we had a sailboat (sunfish), motorboat (glorified rowboat) and a paddle boat and a 19 ft ski boat. Then there was the boardwalk. It was only open in the summer but it was "the" place to be - especially as a young teenager. We went from a really busy, crowded town full of tourists to a small town where everyone knew who you were. For nine months out the year, the beach and water were our only form of entertainment. Oh yeah, and 1 movie theater in Wildwood.

This was great as a kid, but as an adult trying to make a living, is wasn't so great. There were two career options - tourism and clamming. The clam boats worked fairly regularly and paid well, but were hard to get onto. If you worked in tourism, you had to make all of your money for the year in 3 months. Collecting unemployment was a way of life. Then the casinos moved into Atlantic City. What was supossed to be a positive effect on our little corner of the universe, ended up being the death of a lifestyle that had lived for generations.

When I first visited Kihei in the 80's, I fell in love with the place because it was the only place I'd seen that had the same feel of the town I grew up in. And although it too has grown dramatically in recent years, it still maintains that feel. I call Kihei home now even though I have to come back to NY for the school year. I have never felt at home in NY and in 15 years still have no idea who my neighbors are. Compare that to my place in Kihei. I know every neighbor by name, their life histories and what they are doing next week - even while I am in NY. When I come back home after being away, I get "Where you been?". When I come back to NY, I doubt anyone notices I've been gone. One of these days I'm going to find a job on Maui so I don't have to keep coming back here. But that's another thread.......

[Honoruru]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

I was born in Wahiawa, but lived there less than a year, so Aiea is what I think of my hometown. When I was growing up, Aiea was considered country. There was no H-1, no Pearlridge Shopping Center, no Aloha Stadium. It was a very small town. There used to be a working sugar mill, where everyone for miles around could tell time by the 8 o' clock and 4 o' clock whistle of the sugar mill.

H-1, Hawaii's first freeway, literally dug its way through the town, right above its very heart. Pearlridge Shopping Center was, I believe, former sugar cane land. And Aloha Stadium was Halawa Housing, where I grew up--I used to live somewhere in the parking lot.

Now, Aiea is a cluster of bedroom communities, a sprawl, a crossroad between metropolitan Honolulu and the growing mega-bedroom communities of Central Oahu.

[tutusue]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

[...]It was one of the coolest places in the world to grow up.[...]We went from a really busy, crowded town full of tourists to a small town where everyone knew who you were. For nine months out the year, the beach and water were our only form of entertainment. Oh yeah, and 1 movie theater in Wildwood.[...]

I think this must be the east coast version of where I grew up on the west coast...Laguna Beach, CA. Laguna was an idyllic, small, beach town when I was a kid; population 10,000, no locks on home or car doors, safe to walk around at night. Now it's a crowded, grossly expensive, over-built, yuppified, "what kinda car do YOU drive?" kinda place. Still beautiful but doesn't resemble the idyllic town I remember.

Laguna was also my dad's home town. He was LBHS class of '35 (the first grad class for that new high school) and I was class of '62. We had some of the same teachers!

Summers were about the beach during the day and working at the Festival at night. Since my family were beach bums at heart, the former was expected of me. And, since my family was closely associated with the Festival since it's inception, the latter was expected. I started at the ripe ol' age of 3! Once the Festival expanded to a 6 week run, summer traffic became unbearable.

There's no biological family left in Laguna and that truly makes me sad. My "family of choice", currently visiting me, still lives there and we've spent hours discussing the changes. Sad...sad...sad.

And, like acousticlady, I found areas in Hawaii that remind me of (the old) Laguna. I feel so lucky to have been raised there...and to now live here!

[anapuni808]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

I remember as a young kid that Ala Moana Center catered more to local residents than it does now. I used to like to go to Woolworths there, and remember the Okazu Ya, Chinese Food, and American style soda fountain.

Villa Roma was THE store for young women. I still see in my mind's eye, my older sister's beautiful emerald green beaded prom dress that she got from that store.

My paternal grandmother had several acres of land on the North Shore. From the mauka side of Kamehameha Hwy. across Sunset Beach to the backside of the mountain. I used to stay with her during the summer for a couple of weeks.

The North Shore was really country then. People on that side of the island, including my older cousins usually drove old, rusted jalopies. Now when I go to that side of the island, it has a "touristy" feel to it.

Sigh...Not everything is better nowadays.

Beau - that sounds like you're describing my mother-in-law's property. maybe we're related?

[Beau]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

Beau - that sounds like you're describing my mother-in-law's property. maybe we're related?

Maybe we are. I'm telling you, this island is so small, you can't talk stink about anyone! LOL

My grandmother originally owned an apartment building on leased land near Detention Home where she worked as a matron for some years. Anyways, when the City and County condemned the land her apt. bldg. was on to build a public park, they reimbursed her a fraction of what her apt. bldg. was worth. She took that money and used it to buy land on the North Shore.

My grandmother's original house was cut into half and transported to the North Shore property a couple of yards from Kamehameha Hwy. This is where my Uncle and his family lived. My grandmother had a new house built for her up the dirt, unpaved road from my Uncle's house.

It's all changed. My grandmother died, and her house is being rented out. My Uncle later built a beautiful home higher up (behind my grandmother's house) near the back side of the mountain. And the road leading to those homes is now paved.

[Miulang]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

The neighborhood where I grew up is still the same. Most of the neighbors are the neighbors I had when I was small. None of the old houses has been torn down to be replaced by a newer one. Up the street, in Wailuku town itself, most of the old time stores are gone, to be replaced by coffee shops, pawn shops and restaurants. The Wailuku merchants try every now and then to upgrade the area to encourage new businesses to move in, but it's still called "Sleepy Wailuku Town". Before the Mokulele and Piilani Hwys were built, everybody had to drive through Wailuku in order to get to South Maui or Lahaina. Now the 2 State roads bypass Wailuku, which is part of the reason why redevelopment has been so slow in coming. The area between Wailuku Elementary School and Waikapu has seen lots of development though. This area used to be sugar cane field. The houses there are so crammed together and the yards are so small that you can see into your neighbors' windows without any trouble at all.

Miulang

[woodman]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

Pomai,

Kin Wah might still be there, but their fried rice has gone down hill; some days good, some days it's bad.

They used to be consistent, not hit-&-miss like they are, now.

[Lei K]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

Maybe we are. I'm telling you, this island is so small, you can't talk stink about anyone! LOL.

Ain't dat da truth.

The island stay small even online. Neva know what relatives are lurking around the corner. *glances around*

As for the topic I was partly raised so many places that I don't feel qualified to discuss a hometown.

Back home (O'ahu) I lived in 6 different cities total and here in So Cal I've lived in 5.

[Nords]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

Small town near Pittsburgh. (The city's cleaned up considerably since the 1960s-70s.) My family moved away the week I finished high school.

I was there a few months ago, the first time in nearly 20 years. All my hometown roads had doubled in lanes and the land had grown so crowded that I got hopelessly lost the minute I left the interstate. Our nice sunny neighborhood with its young trees & shrubs had turned into overgrown forest with moss & mold all over the houses. It seemed as though every fifth or sixth home was for sale.

I might return for the 30th reunion next year, but otherwise I don't have anything drawing me back.

[Pomai]

Re: Your Hometown: Then & Now

As far as then and now..."I remember days when we were younger, we used to catch o'opu in the mountain stream". For real, the kids nowadays don't even know what o'opu is. Still get Hygienic Store tho... been there since my mom was born.

Of course, "back in the day", what made Hygienic store famous wasn't the store itself, but the "store" under the banyan tree next to it.

When my friend's older sister was in high school at Castle, we used to tag along with her at parties (not doing anything bad, we were too young). They used to have "raves" every weekend at Heeia Kea Small Boat Harbor. The whole parking lot would be PACKED with high schoolers in their cars, pounding sounds like an outdoor nightclub. Cops never did bother, just came around to check up. It was so awesome. I sure wished I was in high school at that time.

Does anyone know if the Glass Bottom Boat still operates out of Heeia Kea Harbor? That was there for the longest time.