Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

[kimo55]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

insults?
whew.
don't understand that.

but ok. maybe yaki, you want to be insulted. it ain't my intent.
it most emphatically is not condescension.
just describing exactly what's goin on.

[tikiyaki]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

insult?
whew.
don't understand that.

...exactly

[kimo55]

look;
newbie is someone new to a subject. and to a board.
what is happening here is what happens often, alotta basic questions that are covered fully in previous threads.
je'like the basic rule on many chatboards. First rule, read the FAQ

Second rule. use search feature. there's a reason why it's there. very helpful.

this covers much ground and prevents others from needing to unneccessarily go over very basic stuff that's been covered already...

If you are directed to follow a basic net guideline and take it as an insult, whew. just makes more work and stress. why you gotta do that.

"Now you're mincing words. "Hawaiian Food" , "Hawaiian Cusine"
A new label maybe, but does ANY of it represent local Hawaiian style cooking ? Well, Maybe someone of actual Hawaiian descent would be the better one to answer that question."

you see, this is nonproductive argumentation and fairly insulting....
mincing words? no. trying to elucidate. and again; this question has been covered here many times before.

Right...the usual standard issue condescending reply complete with all the usual slew of insults.

see, this is an indication you would be better served by posting your intro to Hawaii 101 queries at
http://hawaiithreads.com/showthread....ght=hawaii.com

Once upon a time, HT was known as a board for people who live here and expats. we are talking story. this means we talk about what we know and love. In our language.
there is a time and place for everything. hawaii.com's chat board is for newbies who wanna discuss at length their HVB questions:
"what is Hawaiian cuisine"
"no, it ain't Hawaiian BBQ. a brand new phrase"
"NOW yer just mincing words."
ok, try hawaii.com, if you want a beginners course. and that ain't an insult, yaki, that's the format.

[Whitepoint3rchum]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

I come from the "I was born and raised here. You still flew here." faction.

Hehe...

[kimo55]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

I sheeshee....
on your hehe.

[Menehune Man]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

Funny as in F - that how a thread can go from one subject to another!

Human beings planet earth. Period.

Flew here or there, raised here or there really makes no difference.
We're all on ONE planet.

[kimo55]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

(it 'planet' here, used as a noun? or a verb?)


yea but I... have spent more time on this planet and spent better time on a better part of this planet learning better stuff and thinking and saying better things that YOU on your version of the planet.

[Menehune Man]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

(it 'planet' here, used as a noun? or a verb?)


yea but I... have spent more time on this planet and spent better time on a better part of this planet learning better stuff and thinking and saying better things that YOU on your version of the planet.

Not! An' no ack li'dat!

[Palolo Joe]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

I sheeshee....
on your hehe.

And that is why I don't feel bad about calling you on your bullcrap...

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

I get the feeling we all need to qualify ourselves on how old we all are and where we originated from (at birth not ancestrial), and what ethnicity we associate with in order to be able to determine who flew in from where.

Like Speedtek I was born and raised here in Hawaii just after statehood. 1960 to be exact. The 60's is our recollection of "Old Hawaii" when Ben Franklin was more than a craft store, and where you could really buy a breakfast at a counter inside a Woolworths.

To Kimo, "Old Hawaii" probably means pre statehood days like no Pali Tunnels, Auto racing at the Honolulu Stadium before it became the Termite Palace.

To my dad "Old Hawaii" was, seeing the Honolulu stadium being built, seeing dirt roads in Waikiki, knowing what Kakaako looked like before Ala Moana Shopping center was built.

When I was a kid I never saw Woolworths as a charming five and dime store. It was the mega store of it's time along with Sears and JC Penney. The five and dimes were the ones that spelled the demise of the true mom and pops like Lau Market in Palolo or Cyrils cyclery in the Waialae Shopping center (now known as Kahala Mall) or even the infamous Hasegawa General Store in Maui.

Funny how we look at Woolworths (a very big national chain at one time) as the humble five and dime that served our childhood memories well.

My kids will never know what a five and dime is but they do know WalMart. They know where the baby section is as well as the toy section is just as I remember the wooden shelves holding the Matchbox cars at F.W's

They will remember the McDonald's in WalMart as I did the coffee counter at F.W's

To my kids WalMart is their humble childhood memories of what department store was to them. Who knows what they'll be telling their kids when the "Galactic sized WalMart" becomes the norm and the WalMart supercenters will be looked upon as the five and ten (dollar) stores of their youth.

Island Culture is an ever evolving term. Zippy's is an Island Culture, back in the 50's it was Chunky's, or Mynah Bird Drive Inn. KGU in the Advertiser bldg on Kapiolani BLVD was an Island Culture back in the 20's, KSSK in the Dole Cannery is an Island Culture right now.

But it seems what is Island Culture to a younger generation is progress gone bad to the older generation. To Kimo's generation his childhood was a more slower paced humbler time. To the adults back then it was progress gone bad as well.

You wanna dial it back to the most humble of times? Okay...Yeah there was a time when there was no evil and no clothes to get all uptight about, no bad guys, no nuttin'! Den sistah ova hea wen eat da forbidden fruit and gave em to braddah ova dea and das wen progress went bad.

Okay more recent? Once upon a time Oahu was a cool place, then some guy came in and messed it all up. No it wasn't Haole man...it was the great one himself Kamehameha with the help of Haole man! And Hawaii was never the same after that. Progress gone bad.

Whose to say their generation was better than the successive generation. Whose to say mine was the best and yours was the worst. Adam and Eve could say it cuz frankly there wasn't a preceding generation to dispute theirs...oh yeah except the big man himself where in the beginning...well we know that story.

So when did Island Culture became an adversary to Mainland chains? Who knows...which store was the first from the Mainland to start business here in Hawaii? Wo Fat's in Chinatown bringing Chinese cuisine to Hawaii (I'm sure some Chinese immigrant did that first) but it's when the Hawaiian culture became infused with something else from another culture. And that's when we get Island Culture. Like I said, "ever evolving" and WalMart has become just that, becoming infused into what we now know as "Island Culture" or a blending of different cultures making it local to Hawaii.

Heck Aku was an Island Icon but he was this Jewish guy who jumped ship in Hawaii to start work at KHVH. Ironically it was this Haole guy named Henry who coined those very call letters. F.W. Woolworths a humble five and dime in Hawaii? Remember that's another Mainland Chain that infiltrated Island culture along with Sears, Penneys, Ben Franklin, Dole. Even our old time Okazuya's came from Japan. Noodle shops like Tanouye's, Sekiya's, Boulevard Saimin all had roots from Japan.

Dare I say...even Hawaiian culture came from...what, Tahiti? Where does it end...or begin? Island Culture is ever evolving and you know what? It doesn't matter what generation you live in because every generation of mainland integration makes the successive generation look at those days as the "Old Days" of Hawaii and will lament on how the new mainland chains are destroying Hawaii. Honestly, I think the Aina was cursed from the day the first human set foot on it's virgin beaches and crapped on it's fertile soil. Hey even the Hawaiians had to go at some point after eating.

[kimo55]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

"Whose to say their generation was better than the successive generation. Whose to say mine was the best and yours was the worst"
I dunno best and worst from nuttin.

I just know thru the 60's and seventies, the early years in Hawaii I experienced, many here who also experienced it lament the destruction now, of much of even the real old days that still remained even then.
Yes, of course, it is acknowledged every generation has their "good ol days" but there comes a point where any semblance of "Hawaii" will fully disappear.
F.W. may have been a mainland chain store. But they sold much island goods. For kama'aina.
Those who know walmart will of course chime in now and remind us they also sell local stuff. Not at all to the degree FW did. they have tourist stuff made by Oahu companies and then, stuff imported from PH.
That's maybe why F.W. and now, Longs is not considered such a big evil presence; they cater to locals by prodiving a service as a retailer of local merchandise.

[MadAzza]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

I just know thru the 60's and seventies, the early years in Hawaii I experienced, many here who also experienced it lament the destruction now, of much of even the real old days that still remained even then.

News flash: It's that way EVERYWHERE. For you to dump this bullshit anti-mainland attitude into practically every post is ridiculous and shows an appalling ignorance about the mainland (to be fair, that type of ignorance is not unusual on HT -- in fact, it's rampant).

Nobody I know on the mainland wants strip malls, either. And I realize that you spent your formative years in Southern California, but Southern California IS NOT the entire mainland. It sure as hell isn't a little town on the river in Mississippi, or the island I grew up on in Washington, or a ranch in Colorado, or a borough in New York City, or Texas, Montana, Maine or Rhode Island. And guess what? People in those places don't like "big box" culture or strip malls or Wal-Mart any more than you do. So why don't you knock it off?

Try opening your eyes, and perhaps actually going someplace on the mainland other than Southern California. You might learn something. Unless you really don't want to, which is entirely possible. It's much easier to remain prejudiced.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

Try going to a Walmart and compare to Longs. Go to the Longs camera department. Nothing local there. Go to their cosmetic department...same there. Some Longs have fishing supplies but what name brands do you see there? Shindaiwa...

How about Long's pharmacy? Not a whole lot of local stuff there either. Oh Tiger Balm...but guess what, Walmart sells that too. Household stuff? Batteries, masking tape, school supplies...nothing local there. Oh okay Hoy Hoy trap a roach. Yep Walmart sell it there as well.

Hinode rice? Walmart too. Arare? Nope not exclusive to Longs,

From cosmetics to toys to magazines to even such local staples as rice, both stores carry them. I honestly cannot see what Longs sells as local products that Walmart doesn't as well.

Heck Walmart here in Hilo has an agreement with the Hawaiian Home Lands to allow local Hawaiian farmers and crafters to sell their products on site rent free or reduced rental fees. Does Longs?

I love Longs but heck even Woolworths never sold that much more local stuff than WalMart.

Now what of the resembleness of what Old Hawaii was to some of us and what it meant for our parents or grandparents? It's all a matter of perspective here and like I said the destruction of Hawaii occured when the first human planted his foot on Hawaii's virgin beaches and then crapped on it's fertile soil. It's all a matter of perspective.

[kimo55]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

For you to dump this bullshit anti-mainland attitude into practically every post is ridiculous and shows an appalling ignorance about the mainland So why don't you knock it off? Try opening your eyes, You might learn something. Unless you really don't want to, which is entirely possible. It's much easier to remain prejudiced.

jeez. to be shat upon so vehemently.
for my discussions and points of view
maybe palolo was right.
Hey Joe. ya might have yer wish after all.

not fun. not fun anymore.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Mainland Chains vs. Island Culture

News flash: It's that way EVERYWHERE. For you to dump this bullshit anti-mainland attitude into practically every post is ridiculous and shows an appalling ignorance about the mainland (to be fair, that type of ignorance is not unusual on HT -- in fact, it's rampant).

Nobody I know on the mainland wants strip malls, either. And I realize that you spent your formative years in Southern California, but Southern California IS NOT the entire mainland. It sure as hell isn't a little town on the river in Mississippi, or the island I grew up on in Washington, or a ranch in Colorado, or a borough in New York City, or Texas, Montana, Maine or Rhode Island. And guess what? People in those places don't like "big box" culture or strip malls or Wal-Mart any more than you do. So why don't you knock it off?

Try opening your eyes, and perhaps actually going someplace on the mainland other than Southern California. You might learn something. Unless you really don't want to, which is entirely possible. It's much easier to remain prejudiced.

Wow I guess it's the sofa tonight Kimo?