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Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959, but some people are slow to get the memo. They think everyone here lives in grass shacks, dances the hula and plays ukulele. I asked my readers to send examples from their experience.
Peter Daspit told me: “In the 1990s I was in the Navy and working at a Pentagon office on international military issues.
“We received a phone call from a congressman’s office, asking what visa was required for the congressman to visit Hawaii, and how to get one.
“Never underestimate ignorance.”
Foreigners
“When I graduated from UH in 1974,” Barbara Jurkens told me, “my folks gave me an unlimited Greyhound ticket to use during a celebratory trip to the mainland.
“I flew from Honolulu to Los Angeles, then rode up to Utah, over to Arkansas, back through Texas to San Diego, and ended back in Los Angeles before flying home.
“The whole Greyhound portion cost $50 because Greyhound was trying to encourage ‘foreigners’ to use their service. ‘U.S. residents’ paid $150 for the same ticket.”
Coming home
Richard Wallis said, “I was active duty in the Navy in the late 1980s, stationed on a ship out of Norfolk, Va. It was a very long way from home on the Big Island.
“When it came time to choose my next duty station, I elected to ‘come home’ to Hawaii.
“When I was going through the pre-transfer protocol, I had to get a medical clearance to be assigned to Hawaii. I can only assume it’s because of its tropical environment or something.
“The doctor on my ship told me I had to get a whole battery of tests. I asked him what would happen if I failed any.
“He told me I wouldn’t be allowed to transfer to Hawaii, or probably any other tropical or Asian station. Alternatively, I could also get out of the Navy.
“I said, ‘I guess I could go home then.’ ‘Yes,’ was his response.
“I then just pointed at my ‘home of record’ on my medical sheet showing my Hawaii address. He then proceeded to just check off all the boxes, stamp and signed the form, and essentially told me to ‘get out of here.’ I still smile thinking about it.”
Statehood Recognition Award
Dave Donnelly had a Statehood Recognition Award in his Honolulu Star-Bulletin column for people who did not recognize that Hawaii was a state.
It ran from 1974 to 2003. He said it was his version of the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award (created by TV’s “Laugh-In”). Here are some of the awards he printed:
>> The Air Force suggested Wendell Hopkins of Kaneohe open a bank account in the United States in order to receive his retirement checks more quickly “because your retirement pay checks are mailed to an address in a foreign country.”
>> In 1976, American Express scolded Hawaii resident Jim Buhler, who sent them a check for $5. It would cost too much to process the check, they said, and would he henceforth pay his account with U.S. funds drawn on U.S. banks? The offending check was drawn on Bank of Hawaii!
>> In 1974, TWA said it flew to Hawaii 154 times a week from the U.S.
>> He gave one to Frank Fasi for referring to “all 48 states.” Donnelly wondered which two he was omitting.
Monkeys and grass shacks
Some people don’t know much about life in the islands.
Rosalind Young said, “At around age 8-9, I was very excited to have a pen pal who lived in Canada. My mother and I found her request in the Star-Bulletin in the 1950s, so I wrote to introduce myself.
“Mary Carmichael, a girl about a year older, asked me to send her a monkey and a coconut. She thought that monkeys were out loose in the trees and that we lived in grass shacks.
“I recall feeling insulted at first, but managed to write a reply that clarified how ‘civilized’ Honolulu was at the time. We enjoyed a few years of very nice letters back and forth between Hawaii and Canada.”
Gilbert Nakama wrote, “When I was in the seventh grade at Pearl City Highland Elementary School in the 1960s, a girl came from the mainland into our class. After a few weeks she told me that she thought she was going to be embarrassed because she could not find a grass skirt to wear to class!”
Edwyna Spiegel said, “When I landed in 1966 in the islands, my grandmother Ruth called and asked if we have flush toilets in Honolulu. She thought I was going to live in the wild, I suppose.”
Real Hawaiians
“We lived in California when I was in junior high school,” Carol Sakai-Feiteira wrote.
“One of my memories is being asked by adults, and kids my own age, how we learned English and whether we lived in grass shacks, did the hula and wore grass skirts. I danced a few hula numbers and played the ukulele a little for them.
“My younger sister and I were asked to pose for photos in the Great Smoky Mountains and run around a tree in Yosemite because people wanted to show their family and friends ‘real Hawaiians.’
“This was even though we told them that we were Japanese Americans who lived in Hawaii.”
Where is Hawaii?
David Callies said, “During a research and study trip to England about 20 years ago, I gave several talks and presentations and was asked about Hawaii several times:
“How did I like living in the West Indies? And which was the best ferry service from California to Honolulu: Los Angeles or Catalina Island?
“Hawaii is usually placed as an inset on many maps of the United States,” and some apparently didn’t know we’re actually 2,500 miles from California.
Bottled water
Wendy Tolleson said she went to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville between 1993 and 1997.
“An older man who was well educated and had traveled to Europe asked me, if he should travel to Hawaii, should he bring bottled water!
“And what kind of exchange rate we had with the dollar versus our money.
“I reminded him that Hawaii was a part of the U.S. and that we used the American dollar because we were an American state. And that Honolulu was (and here I got my dig in) a modern city, larger than Knoxville, with way more interesting things to do!”
John Votsis says, “I was reminded of a letter the Hawaii Visitors Bureau received in the late 1970s from a professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University. He wanted to know if we used U.S. currency here as he was escorting students on a ‘learning’ trip to the islands.
“I guess the fact that we became the state of Hawaii about a dozen years prior wasn’t part of his curriculum!”
Pineapples grow on trees
Randy Hiraki, told me, “While in the sixth grade at Kapalama Elementary around 1959, I was one of several students to take part in a phone conference with California students.
“In those days, long-distance calls were super expensive, so it was a big thing. These are the things I remember being asked: 1) Do you live in grass shacks? 2) Do pineapples grow on trees? 3) Being complimented on speaking ‘good English.’”
Do you have a story about how people “back in the states” misunderstand Hawaii? If so, drop me a line.
Next week we’ll flip the script and look at gaffes locals made while visiting the mainland.
Have a comment, question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
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