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COURTESY BOB SIGALL
Who is Robert’s Rabbit mascot waving to"
We’ve all seen Robert’s Hawaii’s tour buses. On the side is a rabbit running in profile. On the back, it’s waving. Who is it waving to? The story starts in Tijuana, Mexico.
Company President Robert Iwamoto Jr. went to the dog races in Mexico. The greyhound dogs chase a mechanical rabbit around the track. They never catch it. It gave him an idea.
Greyhound was a major competitor of Robert’s Hawaii. The bus company’s dog mascot was shown running on the side of their buses. Iwamoto decided his mascot would be a rabbit, and he placed it in profile on his vehicles.
A few years later when Greyhound pulled out of Hawaii, Robert’s added a rabbit to the back of its motorcoaches, waving "aloha" to the former competitor.
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Bob Sigall, author of "The Companies We Keep" books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com
