Every so often you come across a little story that seems to stand for more than the original incident.
Recently, I heard the story about Ben Cayetano and the money lei.
When Cayetano was governor, the story goes, he attended a conference on arts and education. There were booksellers at the event, and he stopped off at a table to purchase books by two local authors, both of whom had graduated from his alma mater, Farrington High School.
(OK, points for buying books and double points for buying books from Hawaii authors.)
The total for the two books was $23, and Cayetano asked if it was OK if he paid with dollar bills. As he counted out the money from his wallet, he explained that the stack of ones came from a money lei that he had taken apart and ironed early that morning.
Ironed?!
Sure enough, though the bills lay flat, there were still marks from accordion folds.
When asked, Cayetano said he vaguely recalls the event but said that it’s definitely something he would do. "As a matter of fact I iron my own clothes, a habit I developed since high school," he said.
It’s hard to say which is more remarkable — a sitting governor deconstructing and then ironing a money lei one bill at a time (and who would give the governor a lei of ones anyway?!) or the idea of Cayetano, the pit bull politician from Kalihi, standing behind an ironing board.
Cayetano chose to address the ironing business, saying it’s relaxing for him. "Some guys like yard work — I liked ironing and washing clothes." Even while in the governor’s office, married to a woman who owns a commercial laundry business, Cayetano sometimes did his own ironing.
"On business trips, the first thing I did when I arrived at the hotel was to check the closet for an iron and ironing board. I would then lay out all of my suits, shirts and trousers, press them and hang them in the closet.
"Once on a trip to Tokyo, I noticed there was no iron and ironing board in the room and called the front desk and asked that the two items be delivered to my room. A few minutes later, a room maid knocked on my door and asked for the clothing I wanted pressed. I told her no, I wanted an iron and ironing board so I could press them myself. A few minutes later, the hotel manager appeared at my door, apologized for the room maid’s inability to understand English and assured me the hotel would press all of my clothes and have them ready by the end of the day. The man was shocked when I told him I wanted to do it myself. Around 10 minutes later the iron and ironing board was delivered to my room."
It all seems a metaphor for something larger, though I’ll leave it to others to find their own interpretation — and I’m sure Cayetano’s political opponents have their own stories of industriousness, practicality and frugality. But the image of a political leader carefully ironing out the creases of $1 bills is hard to top.
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Reach Lee Cataluna at lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
