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Recently, Eleanor Waterhouse suggested I ask my readers what it was like to grow up in Kailua, on the Windward side of Oahu.
David Yamashita responded. “It was like living on another planet compared to what Kailua is today. As kids, all of us got around on bikes or walked from our homes in Coconut Grove.”
Coconut Grove was developed as the Hawaiian Copra Co. in 1906 and stretched from about Maluniu Avenue to Kawainui Marsh on the west side of Kailua. Its 300 acres, planted with over 130,000 coconut trees, are now residential homes.
“Most of our parents worked,” Yamashita continued, “so during the summer we’d have the entire day to hang out in town, go for a hike, play ‘war’ in our yards or baseball in our street. This was of course, the pre- playdate period, an era when kids were free to wander and choose who they played with and where they went.”
A pile of bikes
“We’d ride our bikes to the theater, drop them in the pile with the other bikes, walk inside, watch the movie, then go outside, find our bike and ride home. Life was so simple.
“There was so much for kids to do in those days. A favorite was the 15-minute hike to the top of ‘water tank mountain,’ the rocky hill right behind Windward Boats.
“From the top we’d have a 360-degree view of Kailua, from the ocean to Olomana, and to the area that would later become Enchanted Lake. The tank is no longer there.”
Oneawa Street
Tony Saifuku said he also grew up in Kailua. “I was born in Kemoo Camp outside of Wahiawa in 1942, and we moved to Kailua in 1946.
“Our house was a building on Kuulei Road right next to the Kailua Tavern (now the Shell gas station). My father renovated the building and we lived upstairs.
“On the ground floor were commercial spaces, and there were office spaces on the second floor, in addition to our residence. My father was an electrician, and he opened a small appliance and lawn mower repair business in the back of the building.
“In those days you would replace a cord and fix appliances rather than buy a new one,” Saifuku said. “My mother took care of the front counter of Jim’s Fix-It, and Dad took care of the lawnmowers. Mother learned how to do some of the repair work and would meticulously clean the appliance before it was returned to the customer.
“Mom took care of the accounting and drove to town to pick up all the supplies needed for the repair shop. In addition to working in the shop, my father started to build boats to go fishing. One of the boats was 40 feet long and was built on a vacant lot on Kuulei Road. It was quite an event when the boat was moved and put into the water.
“My father bought a building on Oneawa Street on the other side of the Kailua Tavern and demolished the old building and erected a new one.
“One tenant was Reuben Smira, who owned the Kailua Jewelry Shop. The original building housed a small store that was owned by John Burns, the second governor of Hawaii. The store was run by his wife, who was in a wheelchair at that time.”
Kailua Elementary
“Our kindergarten class was held in the Kailua Community Center (now the site of Kailua Public Library),” Saifuku continued. “It was a wooden building, and I remember watching travel movies there. I entered first grade in 1947 and graduated from Kailua High School in 1960.
“All of the elementary school class pictures were taken in essentially the same spot each year. Our back was to Kuulei Road, and you could see the malt shop sign in the background.
“There were 39 students in my 1947 first grade picture. It is interesting to see students mature in the class photos each year and see more students wearing shoes as they got older.
“Kailua’s population growth took a giant leap from 1,500 in 1940 to 7,700 in 1950, then another giant leap to over 25,600 people in 1960.
“As a result of this population growth, Quonset huts were used for classrooms at Kailua Elementary School, and I remember split shifts in the first year at the new high school.”
Long drive
Bill Souza also remembered Kailua in the 1950s. “It took over an hour each way to get over the top, past the lookout and down to Kailua from downtown.
“We went through Maunawili and emerged where Castle Memorial Hospital is today (it was not there until 1963), onto Kailua Road and over a one-lane-each-way bridge.
“My maternal grandparents from Kalihi Kai bought a Coconut Grove house in a dead-end off Oneawa Street in 1949 for $8,000, $50 down. I spent many weekends and summer days at my grandparents’.”
Flooded
“Coconut Grove had lots of flooding during the rainy season. Most of the homes were built on piers, about 3 to 4 feet above ground, for that reason.
“I was spending a weekend there, circa 1950, and we had a deluge of rain that lasted for days. The floodwaters got so high they almost entered my grand- parents’ living room.
“We had to be rescued by a motorboat and taken to higher ground at Kailua Elementary School where I got shots in my okole to avoid an epidemic, as the floodwaters were heavily polluted.
“It was strange seeing an armada of rescue boats going up and down the flooded streets to fetch the residents.”
Coconut trees
Ed Slavish told me something interesting about the trees from Coconut Grove in Kailua. The military found an unusual use for them.
He said some of the coconut trees were cut and strapped on the front of landing craft during World War II. “The trees absorbed many of the enemy bullets, protecting the troops as they stormed beaches.”
Airport
Bub Hurd said he arrived in Kailua in the spring of 1957 with his parents and sister.
“We stayed at the Pali Palms hotel, where the office buildings stand today. Pinky’s Broiler, run by Charles “Pinky” Nolan, was located in the same area.” It later became a Yum Yum Tree and is now Nico’s.
“There was a skeet range by the eastern shore line before the last increments of houses were built.”
Hurd remembers the Kailua Sky Ranch airport, “which was located mauka of the gate to the Marine base. The runway was parallel to the base fence. There were authentic Piper Cubs for rent at $6 per hour.
“Planes would climb up from the grass runway and would fly over the skeet range. No one reported being shot at. The airport was plowed under in the 1960s to make way for the new Aikahi housing subdivision.”
Kailua Theater
“In the mid-1950s, Kailua Theater, where Goodyear is now, admitted kids to matinees for 20 cents,” Eleanor Waterhouse remembered. “The Three Stooges and a newsreel preceded all movies.
“There were two tiny sisters who always shared a seat, so the box office only charged them 10 cents each.”
Waterhouse also remembers the parade of cars that opened the Pali tunnels in 1957.
Rufus Dubois drove a 1901 Oldsmobile, and A.F. Atherton drove his 1923 Model “T” Ford roadster. Paul Newalu followed many other cars in a two-wheeled horse-drawn cart.
The opening of Pali and Likelike highways expedited travel from Honolulu and ushered in a new era for Windward Oahu.
Did you grow up in Kailua? If so, share your stories with me.
Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
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