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When my “The Companies We Keep 3” book came out seven years ago, I stopped in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser office to chat with business editors, David Butts and Dave Segal. I asked them to write an article about my book.
They agreed but they also surprised me. Would I consider writing a weekly feature in the paper, they asked? That was how Rearview Mirror started in April 2011.
This past fall I printed the fifth “The Companies We Keep” book. It contains stories from the last three years of Rearview Mirror. Here are some of the stories in the book.
Jackie Kennedy in Hawaii
Jackie Kennedy spent a summer in Hawaii with her children, Caroline and John-John, in 1966. Over 4,000 residents greeted them at the airport, including musicians and a hula troupe. Six girls from Sacred Hearts Academy presented them with lei.
Jackie told reporters that she came to Hawaii because “at Vassar College a group of girls from Hawaii were my friends.”
Jackie’s Vasser roommate was local girl Edna Harrison, whose mother occasionally sent gift baskets of island treats. The fragrance of pikake lei, in particular, lingered in their room, which Jackie found delightful.
Jackie took watercolor lessons from a famous local artist and water-skied in Maunalua Bay. She threw a party and invited Don Ho to perform.
Steve Jobs and Hale Kipa
Apple’s Steve Jobs flew five islanders from Hale Kipa, a local nonprofit that helps runaway youth, to California for training and gave them five free computers. Former Executive Director Sam Cox says, “Steve Jobs came out, and I thought he looked like one of our runaway kids!”
“One thing I remember him saying,” Cox says, “is that someday every village in the world will have a computer, and when we do that, we will have information exchanges that no dictator will be able to censor, and we’ll have world peace.”
The Patron Saint of the Japanese-American GI
Thousands of World War II 442nd soldiers were treated poorly in Mississippi in 1943, except by one man. Store owner Earl Finch greeted and befriended them.
He became a sort of godfather to the boys and devoted nearly all his time to them. He arranged Christmas and New Year’s parties, rodeos and feasts, and took the boys sightseeing to New Orleans, Washington, Chicago and New York.
The New York World-Telegram called Finch a “One-Man USO.” The Saturday Evening Post said he was the “Patron Saint of the Japanese-American G.I.”
The GIs raised the money to bring Finch to Hawaii after the war, in March 1946. The day of his arrival was declared a holiday. Hundreds came to the airport to greet him. A 100-car motorcade took him to a hero’s welcome at City Hall, where he was given a key to the city.
He was the guest of honor at many celebrations and was showered with gifts over 25 days. A year later he moved to Hawaii and opened several businesses.
Mark Twain and Hawaii
Hawaii helped launch Mark Twain’s career. The 30-year-old came to Hawaii in 1866, 10 years before his first best-selling book.
He wrote 25 articles for the Sacramento Union, and after he returned to San Francisco, he decided to embark on the lecture circuit to earn money.
At the talks, Twain brought the faraway islands to life. The audience listened, laughed and cheered.
He earned tens of thousands in today’s dollars. In the next few months, Twain gave over 100 talks about Hawaii. It was great publicity for the kingdom, but more important for Twain, it got his career on track. He had found his voice.
The Vietnam BabyLift
The personal recollections of the Vietnam BabyLift were the most commented-on story I’ve published.
Operation BabyLift ran April 3-26, 1975, and evacuated more than 3,000 babies and young children, most of whom were orphans, to the U.S. Many islanders participated, including Fred Hemmings, who said one infant clung to him nearly the entire flight to the mainland.
“She was howling, and her arms reached up while her eyes pleaded for me to embrace her,” he recalled.
“When I held her she clutched to me so very tightly. After caring for her I went to secure her back in her bassinet, and she would not let me go and howled with anguish. I could not put her down.
“I spent the remaining time helping other children while somehow holding her. I should say she held me. I learned from this baby how important and nourishing it is for a child to be embraced both emotionally and physically.”
A lost skirt
One of the funniest stories in the book concerns flight attendant Patti Smart. She lost her skirt out the window of an Aloha Airlines DC-3.
A stray elbow knocked a tray of pineapple juice all over her skirt. She changed into a pair of capris and washed her skirt in a sink.
The co-pilot opened a cockpit window (they could do that in the 1950s), and she held the skirt next to it. In an instant it flew out the small window.
When the pilot radioed dispatch to call her mother to bring another skirt, it became public knowledge and was even written up in the newspapers.
Hilo Boarding School
You may have never heard of the Hilo Boarding School, built in 1836, but it was the oldest vocational school in the U.S. and was the inspiration for Kamehameha Schools and two mainland colleges.
A local boy, Samuel C. Armstrong, rose to be a brigadier general in the Civil War. Armstrong commanded an all-black regiment and later founded the Hampton Institute in Virginia to train newly freed slaves so they could achieve success off the plantations.
The Hampton Institute was based on the Hilo Boarding School model. One of its top students, Booker T. Washington, then led the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, also based on the Hilo Boarding School model.
The East-West Center
I was surprised to learn that the East-West Center played a role in founding the the Polynesian Voyaging Society and the Hawaii International Film Festival.
All three have as their missions to bring different cultures together.
One uses education, one use film and the other uses the Hokule‘a.
Bob Sigall’s latest book, “The Companies We Keep 5,” has arrived, with stories from the last three years of Rearview Mirror. “The Companies We Keep 1 and 2” are also back in print. Email Sigall at Sigall@yahoo.com.
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