Me in front of the Chee Jan Store. I'm 14 years of age.
Growing up in Wailuku, Maui during the 40's and the 50's.
Growing up in Wailuku, Maui during the 40's and the 50's.
Before I begin my story I want to say, "Thank You Lopaka (my son) for buying me the"My Life" CD as a Christmas gift in 1999. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have done this autobiography."
So I hope you can find what I have to say interesting. It's been exciting for me to recall all of these memories. Of course, there is much, much more than I've typed about here, but I think you'll get a pretty good idea of what kind of a life I've had so far.
I think a good place to start is by telling you a little about my Grandparents on my Mothers side, the Portugese side. My Mothers name is Lucy Pacheo Lee. My grandparents came to Hawaii from Portugal. My Grandfathers name is Manual Pacheo. I don't know my Grandmothers first name. They lived in Sprecksville, Maui. It was a place in the middle of the sugar cane fields, that was called Camp One. They lived across the street from the Camp One store. They both were immigrants who came to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantation. My Grandfather drove the train in the sugar fields. Grandpa used to walk about a mile from his house, to the beach, to go spear fishing. As a teenager I remember riding the bus from Wailuku to Sprecksville. It must be about 25 miles one way. I think this was during the years between 1945 and 1949. I remember what the plantation house looked like and remember playing in Camp One with my friend, Herbert Moniz. My Uncle Lawrence Cabral and my Auntie Eva Cabral lived in the back of Camp One. My Grandparents had a big house, with a large yard. My Grandfather used to make his own wine. I always saw a large wooden barrel laying on it's side in his back yard that contained his wine. I was in their home one evening during a very heavy rain shower and the roof leaked so badly that we had to put a lot of pots and pans on the floor to catch all the water.
My Grandparents on my Fathers side, the Lee side, where the Chinese blood came from, are immigrants from China, who also came to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantation. I didn't know Grandfather Lee because he died when I was very young. Dad said that Grandpa Lee was a cook for the Maryknoll Brothers at Saint Anthony High School in Wailuku, Maui. Grandma Lee remarried and moved to Honolulu. We used to visit her whenever we came to Honolulu. She was a small, slim lady who had a loud voice.
My father, Robert Ah Yen Lee, was born on Feb. 17, 1907 and died on New Years eve, Dec. 31, 1988 at Hale Makua, a nursing home. He lived to be 81 years old. Dad was divorced, his last job was as a Bookkeeper for Haleakala Moving and Storage in Kahului, Maui. We lived at 313 Kalua Drive in Wailuku, Maui. Dad was born in Waikapu and only went up to the 8th grade which at that time was the highest grade. He took correspondence courses in bookkeeping which was his career. He also was an automobile salesman, worked for the US Government at N.A.S.K.A., this was a large Navy base in Kahului, Maui. That airfield is now the Kahului Airport. The main airport for the island of Maui. Mom said that Dad also owned a women's dress shop. Dad smoked Camels, loved to play golf, play cards, drink with his golf partners, go surf casting and once ended up in the hospital with ulcers. He only had vision in one eye.
My mother, Lucy Pacheo Lee, is Portugese. She was born in Sprecksville which is called Camp One. All of the plantation camps are now non-existent. There are no plantation camps anymore. They have all been moved to a central location and are not called plantation camps anymore. Most of the sugar mills in Hawaii have been closed. My mother was raised by her Uncle who lived in Kailua, Maui. Kailua is located on the way to Hana, Maui. Mom was a switchboard operator who worked for Hawaiian Telephone Co. She worked as a switchboard operator in Kula, Maui. Back in those days when you made a telephone call from one side of Maui to the other side, it was considered a long distance call and you had to go thru a switchboard operator who connected wires with metal probes on the end of the wire and she put those wires into holes on a board to make the long distance connection for you. Mom was the telephone operator for many years at the Pineapple Cannery in Kahului, Maui. She had a home in Kula, Maui and drove all the way to Lahiana when she was working at a hotel there after she retired from Maui Pine. It must have been about 40 miles one way. Mom took excellent care of us, was a good housekeeper and could whip up some ono delicious meals and desserts.
I was born on Feb. 7, 1936 at the Malulani Hospital. I think the building is still there. It's just below Saint Anthony High School. I think it's now used as an old people's home. We lived at 313 Kalua Drive in Wailuku. It was a beautiful neighborhood when I was growing up there. I had some wonderful childhood playmates and we always had many happy experiences playing in the neighborhood. The best thing that I had when I was a kid was my bicycle. I rode my bicycle all over the neighborhood. I even rode it to school a few times and made good use of my bike delivering newspapers. I delivered the Honolulu Star Bulletin, the Advertiser on Sundays, and the Maui News twice a week at night using my trusted and ever faithful bicycle. I used to sell the Star Bulletin sitting in front of the Bank of Hawaii building in Wailuku. The Star Bulletin used to sell for 8 cents. We kept 2 cents for us as profit for each newspaper. I always had a lot of money and could buy all the candy and ice cream that I wanted from the Chee Jan store that was just across the street from our home. Alvin Chee's father owned the store. I used to go over to the store at night and talk story with Ahwing (Alvin's chinese name) until the store closed at 8 o'clock each night.
Growing up in Wailuku, Maui during the 40's and the 50's.
There is an irrigation ditch across the street from our house. We once closed the wooden gate that lets the water flow thru the ditch. This caused the water to back up and flooded the Chee's backyard. The cops came, so we ran and hid in the closet. We were in big trouble and scared. Being little kids we didn't realize what would happen when we closed the water gate.
We made skate boards from the old style roller skates that had steel wheels. You could sit down on the skate board and steer it with your legs. To ride our skate boards we went to the Iao Elementary School, just below the Wailuku Armory Building. We went back to that same school at night, to ride our bicycles. The school cafeteria people never locked the cafeteria door at night and we helped ourselves to the cups of ice cream that lay invitingly inside the large freezer. Ho yes !!! That was the good old days. We could go anywhere we wanted to and just about do anything that we wanted to do.
My friend, Ransom Wong forgot to put his car in gear and put the parking brakes on when he parked on our steep driveway and his car started rolling backwards down the driveway. We couldn't stop the car and it crashed into the Chee's backyard fence. We flooded the Chee's yard and now we ruined their fence. It's a wonder Mr. Chee Jan still let me buy goodies from his store.
The best bicycle trips that we took was going all the way up to Iao Valley and coasting all the way back downhill to Wailuku. That really was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful senic straight road inside the valley surrounded on each side by steep green colored mountains. We once camped overnight in the valley. Even now when we take trips to Maui, we still enjoy spending some time inside Iao Valley.
We hiked up to the mountains located above Wailuku Heights, taking the short cuts thru the sugar cane fields. The area in the lower part of the mountains are overgrown with pine trees which carpeted the ground with it's long. thin needles which was just perfect for sliding and rolling on. I forgot to bring my Mom's small frying pan back home and had to go back up there again all by myself to get it. It was really spooky hearing the wind whistling thru the trees.
My father took us for a hike inside Iao Valley, into one of the smaller valleys off of the main road, about half a mile on the left side before the end of the road. We caught fresh water shrimp in the stream and climbed a little waterfall using some rope.
I almost drowned twice in the Iao Valley river. Before I learned how to swim I walked into this swimming hole. There was a steep drop and I was suddenly under water. Luckily I could turn around and walk back out swimming breast stroke under the water. The other time I was swimming under a small waterfall and got caught in the twirling current under the waterfall and couldn't get out. Luckily my friend Ransom Wong knew what was going on and he pulled me out by my raised arm.
The earliest memories that I have was when I was in kindergarten. We had to unroll mats on the floor so that we could take a nap in the afternoon. I also remember when I was in the 4th grade and I had to stay after school to be tutored in math by my classmate Mary Chock. I could never figure out math. I also had to stay after school in the 5th grade and got into a rock fight with my classmate Stanley Cabebe. I was hiding behind a hibiscus bush and Stanley threw a rock, it went right thru the hibiscus bush and grazed to top of my head. It mad a cut in my scalp and blood was flowing down the front of my face.
One day while running down our driveway to go the the Chee Jan store, I entered the street without looking for any traffic and ran into Mr. Joe Fretias's car. It's a good thing he was a slow driver. I had a cut on the backside of my head and went to school for a few days with a bandage wrapped around my head.
Our neighbor who lived below us had built a small wash house for his rental unit. It had a soft roof. One day I climbed up on to the roof, my foot went right thru the roof causing me to fall and hit my fore head on the concrete walkway about 10 feet below.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon we went for a picnic at the Kakaako Waterfront Park. As I got to the bottom of the concrete stairs to go into the ocean for a swim, my feet flew out from under me. I fell over backwards and hit the back of my head very had on the concrete. I must have a very hard head or I'm lucky I didn't get seriously hurt in all of my head injuries.
At the start of my Junior year while in high school, I made the mistake of transferring to Baldwin High School. While there I learned how to cut class and smoke in the bathroom. I'm glad I saw my error and decieded to transfer back to Saint Anthony High School for my final senior year.
During my senior year in high school I was selected to the court for the Aloha Week pageant, was promoted to Master Sergeant in ROTC. I used to march a lower class around the school campus. I ran the half mile distance on the track team and will never forget a track meet at Lahiana. I was the last runner coming around the final lap of the race when the race official standing on the side fired a starters gun to indicate the last and final lap of the race. The sound of the gun startled me and I guess got my adrenaline pumped up and flowing thru my body that gave me an extra boost of engery and I started passing everyone ahead of me and won the race. Later on the bus, the track coach congratulated me and shook my hand. I received a school athletic letter for participating in track.
Growing up in Wailuku, Maui during the 40's and the 50's
My first girlfriend was Luana Ledward. It all started when me and some of the neighborhood kids went for a night time ride in Mr. Kagawa's jeep. The jeep didn't have any back seat, so we all had to sit on the floor of the jeep facing each other. Luana sat across from me and we were touching each others feet. It was called playing footsy. Luana was half hawaiian and half haole. We used to meet during the night at the school grounds where we sat on top of some tables and smooched until 8 o'clock at night when the county siren would wail and I would jump on my bicycle and head back home.
When I was in high school I joined the Army National Guard. I walked to the weekly drills every Wednesday night at the National Guard Armory, located two blocks below our home. In the summer season, we all flew to the island of Oahu and went to Schofield Barracks for two weeks of training. We slept in large tents that was called Tent City. I was in the machine gun platoon. It was a lot of fun playing army games and making a lot of new friends.
On the weekends I went out with Ahwing and his friends who were all much older than I. Some of their nick names were Boston and Mountain. We made our rounds to different bars on the island, drank beer and had a lot of fun. I even went into a few night clubs with them. One night while we were going to Lahiana to go to the Banyon Inn, I threw up in Boston's car. We always ended the night by going to the Hale Lava Drive Inn to get something to eat. It was the most popular drive inn on the island and even had car hops. You ordered food from your car, the car hop would hookup a metal tray to the outside of your car door and return later to put your food on the tray. We always ate inside the drive inn. My favorite late night meal was a grilled cheese sandwich and a chocolate coke.
I graduated from Saint Anthony High School in 1955 and joined the US Air Force along with two of my classmates, Ronnie Daniels and Joe Cooper. We sailed by ship for seven days across the Pacific ocean bound for San Francisco for basic training at Parks Air Force Base in California. After basic training I stayed with my Uncle Nick Martin and Auntie Helen who lived in Hayward and then went by train to Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming for teletype school. I experienced my first winter season there. I was the barracks chief and had my own private room at the far end of the barracks. Because of the inadequate heating system, my room never had enough heat throughout the winter. I always slept fully clothed with my boots and parka on every night.
After graduation from teletype school, I was selected to attend Crypto School at Scott Air Force Base located near St. Louis, Missouri. We were taught how to use the machines that transmitted teletype messages into secret code.
After Crypto School I went overseas to Europe and was stationed at Semback Air Force Base in Germany for three years, where I had a wonderful time enjoying drinking the German beer and traveling all over Europe. We worked shift work and during our days-off the entire crew would charter a bus and take trips to Paris and to the Worlds Fair in Brussels, Belgium. I went to Paris three times while stationed in Germany. I also got to visit Rome and Copenhagen. It was great. I would take my vacation, catch the bus into Kaiserslautern, go to the train station and buy a ticket to anywhere that I wanted to go. I once traveled to Amsterdam all by myself where I met some guys who were in the Army. They had a car and were staying at the same hotel that I was staying. They invited me along for a trip all the way to Paris. We were low on gas one very early morning and slept in the car to wait until the gas stationed opened for business. I remember coming back from my vacations without any money left in my pocket.
I stayed in the Air Force for four years and never once did go back home. During the late 50's we never even used to call home on the telephone. Writing letters was the usual way of communicating with your loved ones back home.
In 1959, when my three year tour in Germany was over, I returned to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii to get discharged.
I was sure happy to get back home after being away for four long years. There wern't many jobs on Maui, so I went to Honolulu. I lived at the old Nuuanu YMCA on Fort Street. It isn't there anymore. This was before Fort Street Mall was built. The first job that I got was working for Hawaiian Telephone Co., only about a half mile from the YMCA. I worked there for a year as a messenger, driving around a stick shift volkswagen beetle, my route took me to Kalihi, Kaimuki, Ala Moana, then returned to downtown to the main telephone building. I was a good job. I enjoyed it. I used to make $1.25 an hour. This was in 1960.
I met my wife Rosie when she was working at the Spenceliff Cafeteria which was located one block above the Ala Moana Shopping Center. I rented a small studio cottage in the back of my landladies house on Poki St. It is located on block west of Punahou School. Since I was a bachelor I used to eat my dinners where Rosie worked and the employees at the restaurant used to invite me to sit on the same table with them when they were having their meals. This was in 1964.
We got married at the Sacred Hearts Church on Wilder Ave. which is across the street from Punahou School. We got married on May 22, 1965 and had the wedding reception at the ILWU Union Hall located across the street from the Ala Moana Hotel. Our first apartment was on Kahakai Dr. Rosie and I spent out honeymoon on Kauai at the Kauai Surf Hotel. A beautiful hotel in a beautiful location. Our next apartment was in the back of the Washington Intermediate School. Our next move was into a tall condominium building on Dole St. that we bought. It's located across the street from the fire station. We lived on the 7th floor. It was a very nice place with a beautiful view of Manoa Valley. We moved to Mililani Town on April 11, 1974. It was a long drive to Diamond Head Crater to go to work but once I got used to it I didn't mind the drive. It's 23 miles one way but because I worked shift work and started at 6:30 AM, the traffic wasn't backed up yet. I used to take Lopaka to work at Paradise Bakery, his first job, and picked him up after work. I was lucky because most of the time I didn't have to work the midnight shift. I used to swap my mid shift with Ed Maeoka and work his day shift. The change was really tough because I worked until 10:30 PM and had to go back to work at 6:30 AM the next day. I always felt tried and run down every week. I was luck that I could retire at age 55. I was a Flight Data Aid, GS-7, for the FAA.
That's it, this is the end. Of course there is a lot more that what is recorded here, but I think I have enough. I hope it wasn't too boring. If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me by clicking the mailbox.
This web site is dedicated to Brudda William Opu Kahele.
A hui hou, malama pono.