I received a letter from Eileen Sherrill, who is now living in Prescott, Ariz. She’s returning to Hawaii after a six-year absence. She said she first came to Honolulu for summer session at the University of Hawaii in 1962. She had many interesting memories.
“The airport shuttle drove us past the Dole pineapple packing plant near Nimitz, and at that time, they discharged their waste into an open stream running into the ocean,” Sherrill recalls.
“The smell of rotting, decomposing pineapple was so strong that I couldn’t stand even tasting pineapple for over 20 years.
“I fell in love with Hawaii,” Sherrill says, “and transferred from a mainland college and moved here full time.”
Sherrill worked for a number of years at the front desk of the Reef Towers hotel on Lewers Street.
“Roy and Estelle Kelley, who started the Reef hotel — later named Outrigger Hotels — lived upstairs in the penthouse. Every morning they walked around the front desk from the back elevator which went to their penthouse. They checked out the traffic sheet, listing check-ins and check-outs for the day, then went over to the Edgewater hotel where they worked in central reservations for the chain.
“Our least expensive single rooms went for $8.50 a night and a double was $12.
“Mrs. Kelley was a darling. One cold, rainy night she went all the way up to her place, after a long day working, and brought me down one of her sweaters.
“They had several children and I assumed that they were Catholic but she said that they were ‘passionate Protestants.’
“The concept of a serve-yourself salad bar originated in Chuck’s Steak House on the lower level of the Reef Towers hotel,” Sherrill believes.
“Over the next 10 years, I paddled for the Hui Nalu Canoe Club where Duke Kahanamoku’s brother, Sargent, was our coach. We practiced in the Ala Wai Canal, as they still do today.
“Most of us kept our surfboards and lockers underneath the original Outrigger Canoe club on Waikiki Beach between the Moana and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
“We often ate a great hot plate lunch under the trees in a beautiful patio at the Uluniu Women’s Swimming Club next door. I think it cost $1.10.
“Don Ho was not yet a star and played in a small area off to the side in the original Duke Kahanamoku’s in the back of the International Marketplace. Singer Kui Lee stopped by sometimes.
“After Duke Kahanamoku’s closed at 2 a.m., we’d go to the Like Like Drive Inn for saimin. Somehow we made it to work the next morning — actually the same morning!”
Queen’s Surf was the real “in spot,” Sherrill says. “It was at one time the summer home of film actress Arlene Dahl.” Spencecliff turned it into an entertainment center.
“It had Sterling Mossman in the Barefoot Bar upstairs, Kui Lee in the main ballroom and a fabulous Tahitian show — Elaine Frisbee’s Puka Puka Otea — outside on the lanai.
“I remember about that time, Wayne Newton burst on the entertainment scene with a gig at the Royal Hawaiian’s Monarch Room when he was just 12 years old.
“On weekends, we’d leave the beach mid-afternoon to go to the Moana hotel’s Banyan Court. Beer was $0.65 and we would give the server a dollar. When the cost went up to $0.75 we still gave him the same amount, so our tips went down.
“One time a big group of old beach pals and some tourists pulled several tables together and were enjoying a Saturday afternoon. We then realized that one of the out-of-towners was movie star William Holden.
“In those days, Waikiki felt like a small town. We saw lots of celebrities, like Angie Dickinson, Burt Bacharach, Tommy Sands, Nancy Sinatra, and Ann-Margret and her husband Roger Smith.
“One time I was carrying a load of aloha shirts between two shops in the international marketplace and literally ran into Red Skelton. We visited for a while. He was so sweet to me.
“The next day, on my day off, I was at the beach and he walked by with his family and recognized me. He invited me to go out on a private catamaran sail around Diamond Head with them.
“One time Matson shipping lines experienced a strike, and of course all the island supplies came over on Matson. The very first shortage we experienced was toilet paper. People would steal it from restaurants and hotels, putting rolls in their big beach bags. One radio station had an on-the-air contest and the prize was rolls of toilet paper!
“There was a bar on Kalakaua Avenue between Lewers and Beach Walk called Tony’s Palm Tree Inn that charged $0.25 for beer. A little mom-and-pop diner/shack across from Kuhio beach called the Blue Moon had a nightly hot dinner special for $1.25.
“I remember when Perry Boy’s Smorgy restaurant was on the second level above the Reef hotel’s beach. It was a famous smorgasbord.
“I overheard some beach boys talking and one said ‘what did you have for lunch?’ And the other said ‘flying chicken.’
“I couldn’t stand it and I said what is flying chicken? And they said that’s when we sponsor one guy to go up through the smorgasbord and he takes all this fried chicken and sits on the balcony. When no one is looking, he’d toss it down to the others.
“I later saw several beach boys out there shagging chicken. If the ‘flying chicken’ went in the sand, they just washed it off in the ocean and ate it.
“When I was about 16 years old, living on the mainland,” Sherrill recalls, “I went on a three-day father-daughter trail ride. Tennessee Ernie Ford was on the ride, and entertained around the campfire at night. I did not understand the lyrics to some of the songs he sang.
“Then one year here in Hawaii I went to a party at the Waikiki Yacht Club after the Transpacific Yacht Race, and he again was entertaining, and now that I was older, I understood the lyrics! Little bit on the naughty side!
“Some time in late 1964, my husband and his daughter went surfing very early, and when they were finished they put their two surfboards in the back of their open convertible, and drove mauka on Lewers Street.
“There are a lot of people all over the sidewalk, and they didn’t know what was going on, but they turned right on Kalakaua. It was lined with people and immediately two motorcycle police officers passed them on either side and came in together in front of their car and two more came up and drove right on either side of them and they drove down the street together.
“They didn’t know what was going on but they looked in the rearview mirror and saw that they were directly in front of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s motorcade!
“Flags were flying on the black limo and so forth. So they, being the fools they were, started smiling and waving like they were the main act.”
Sherrill is back in Honolulu for a short visit. “This is fun,” she says, “having these old memories come back to me when I’m reminded by something.”
Do you have any memories of old Waikiki? If so, send them to me.
Bob Sigall’s latest book, “The Companies We Keep 5,” has 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.
