Every now and then, I stop to share stories or questions readers give me.

Wade Shirkey suggested I write about the Lurline, and other Matson White Ships. Do any of my readers have stories about being aboard any of these vessels?

Several streets in Wilhelmina Rise are named for the ships, including the Sierra, Matsonia, Manulani, Mariposa, Monterey and Lurline. These ships helped build our tourism industry, beginning in the 1920s.

Another reader asked where Chaco’s (or Chako’s) steakhouse was located. She also wanted to know which former eateries were at the current Chef Mavro site.

I’m looking into the "gingerbread" houses at the end of Kalakaua Avenue (and a few other places on Oahu). These were mostly built in the 1920s in Olde English Tudor or French Norman style. Do any of my readers know anything about them?

In researching the Mid-Pacific Carnival, which I wrote about May 8, I found an article on pa’u riders which, surprising to me, said that pa’u is the skirt they wear. I’d like to know more about this, if any of my readers were connected to pa’u riding.

Former Honolulu Advertiser Managing Editor Ed Wall wrote to tell that he had happy memories of Buck Buchwach and Aku, which I wrote about last month.

"You probably know that among Buck’s varied activities, he discovered Heloise out in Foster Village and led her into national fame."

Heloise Bowles Cruse was born in Fort Worth, Texas. Her newspaper column, "Hints from Heloise," began in the Honolulu Advertiser and was syndicated to more than 600 newspapers worldwide. She was the first to advise housewives on domestic challenges.

I didn’t know that Buck Buchwach discovered her.

"Aku’s news accounts predated Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert by a generation," Wall says. "Just one example: Lyndon Johnson’s presidential campaign featured a slogan, ‘All the way with LBJ.’

"When a senior White House official was arrested in a bus station men’s room, Aku concluded his news report: ‘either way with LBJ.’

"I don’t know anybody else who could have gotten away with that kind of news-as-entertainment in the 1960s. I’ve somehow become 90 years old," Wall concludes, "and that makes memories more fun."

Fred C. Kerr, from Puyallup, Wash., is researching his wife’s Chinese side of the family.

"My wife’s maternal grandfather, Chun Chow Lock, operated three businesses in Honolulu during his lifetime (1894-1950)." They were:

» Pacific Lumber Company (1938) at 251 North Queen St. and Iwilei Road.

» King Shoe Company (1937) at King and Bethel streets, and

» Fook Yuen (1930) jewelers and watch repairers, located at 1021 Nuuanu Ave.

Do any of my readers remember these stores?

"In contrast, I have much information on a store in Koloa, Kauai, operated by my wife’s paternal grandfather, Wong John Awa," Kerr says. "The store was known as J. W. Awa Store and it primarily served sugar plantation workers in Koloa, Kauai, during his lifetime (1873-1970).

"It was located in the Kahalewai Building in Old Koloa Town on Kauai. That building now bears a sign that talks about the general store, saying in part, ‘the people of Koloa remember him as a storekeeper who had everything imaginable in his shop, which was such a total jumble of goods that only Awa could find anything.’

"Wong gave out 5- and 25-cent tokens that were used as currency in his store. I understand that this was commonplace with stores during this time period, but have little actual information about the practice."

Do any of my readers remember stores giving out such tokens?

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.