Back in the Day on Maui

30 years ago …

GTE Mobilnet has introduced cellular telephone service to Maui with a $550,000 cellular site in Kula that will provide for reception in the Central Maui, Pukalani, Kula and Kihei areas.

GTE Mobilnet presented Mayor Hannibal Tavares with a cellular telephone for use by his office. The company set up the first neighbor island cellular telephone site on Kauai last August.

50 years ago …

A program to provide transportation for the elderly of Maui was inaugurated in ceremonies at the Maui Economic Opportunity. And all went well. Until the christening of the minibuses, that is.

As anxious cameramen waited with readied cameras, presidents of three Maui senior citizens clubs struggled with the task of breaking champagne bottles on the new vehicles. Frank Watanabe of Kahului was first, and after denting the bumper three or four times, he finally succeeded in smashing the bottle on the undercarriage of a bus. Then came Toyoki Emura of Wailuku, who thought it might be easier to strike the steel rim on a wheel. Six tries later he resorted to breaking the bottle on a protruding hinge. Toribio Tuzon of Puunene tried six times on the third bus and then gave up.

80 years ago …

Rivaling the beauty of butterfly wings or nature’s showiest flowers were the colors and pattern designs of the hundreds of kimonos worn at the armory when the Maui Japanese Civic Association held its milk fund benefit ball.

Myriad pale pink paper cherry blossoms hung from the ceiling of the hall, screening the lights and combining with pale blue Japanese lanterns to make a scene of great beauty. Kiawe trees, cleverly stripped of their own leaves and ornamented with clusters of bright pink blossoms, artfully simulated the real cherry blossom trees of old Japan.

After the coronation of Miss Imogene Bal as queen of the ball, a parade of ancient Japanese costumes was presented. Then hundreds of kimono-clad girls formed a huge circle which went completely around the armory hall and then began to march in circular formation. Three times they circled the floor before the judges could pick the most beautiful.

100 years ago …

Maui probably holds the record for the first arrests in the territory under the new prohibition law. Less than 24 hours after constitutional prohibition went into effect, police walked into a shack in the Quarry camp, Puunene, and caught Kim Chey Hon of Kahului red-handed in the act of making okolehao.

About five gallons of booze was found and seized together with the still and other paraphernalia.