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By 1985 the pineapple industry was in a slump and the land was sold to David Murdock. By 1992 it was obvious another industry had to be developed on the island and Castle and Cooke, Inc. were brought in to evaluate the situation. Tourism was to be the new economic work. Today, with two large resorts and a host of supporting businesses, Lanai and Lanai City have made the transition from agriculture to tourism. Most of the island's 3,000 residents live in quaint Lanai City.
My experience living on such a small Island I or should I say “We” as a family did not grow up with a silver spoon in our mouths. Coming from such a small deserted Island. Back in my grandparents days it was like living in a 1930’s western film. What you saw in those films if you watched them are what you got in my grandparents time in the really early days of Lana’ I life.
Lana’I is a Hawaiian Island and my Grandfather was 100% Hawaiian, and Grandmother was half Hawaiian and half Korean. There were no such things as a social security number I do not think. It was way before 1959 when Hawaii became a part of the United States of America. And then in the 1960’s Koreans, Japanese, and Filipino’s started being ship over by boats and of course they were immigrants somehow they were being put to work and was able to retrieve a social security number. Since I can remember as a youngster I recall only seeing the type of work by men and women even at such a young age. Their jobs were picking pineapples in field’s couple miles away from our home. I remember waking up to my mom getting ready for work in her not so good uniform which was any old pants, and T-shirt.
My uncles also had the same job(S) as I remembered it as well. And the pay was very low the hourly salary back then in the 1930’s to the 1980’s I would say about $2.31 or less. They used to have the transportation picking them up about four O clock in the morning. I remembered seeing this big old truck with ply wood on the sides to keep them from falling off, and everybody just stands and bunched up. “If you missed that ride you would have to walk to work” which was miles away my mom used to tell us.
The living there was very slow and not so easy going. Just to put food on the table was hard. Every cent counts when working a very low paying job so hunting was not just an option but it was a must if you wanted to feed your family and keep from starving. My grandparents had ten children of their own and along the years their children had children. And housing whatever children that did not leave my grandparents house yet plus their children it was a tough ride.
So going out and hunting for deer, wild pigs, goat, and other wild animals to bring home to the table was needed. Even if you had to haul the meat on your back or on horses to bring the meat back to your home. There was no transportation other than that because people just could not afford cars or trucks in those days.
Cleaning a hunted animal was the worst for me because I just could not stand there with a shredded up tea leaf (A Hawaiian Plant) and chasing away fly’s while my uncles and auntie’s, and my mother skin the dead animal. Watching them skin and gut, and major clean a dead animal I knew it was to put food on the table to feed all of us family members.
Fishing in the oceans was another way for putting food on the table. My grandfather and uncles used to throw a net that was made by hand in an unique detailed designed to capture anything they could. If they caught a fish that was too small for eating and or other marine life species that was not edible was thrown back in to be harvested later when it gets to an appropriate size for eating.
While the men fished in the ocean the women walked the rocks close to the ocean side searching for sea urchins, little snails called ‘Papipi’, and Opihi that lived on rocks near the ocean where the water would splash heavy. That was food for years as a child along with poi a taro plant that was mashed until it was like a think purple pudding.
Maintaining the house and around your home was a lot of work at the time as a kid. It doesn’t seem like such a big thing now that I am older. But maintaining you home was that all the boys did the yard works like pulling weeds, and raking the leave from Mango and Guava trees. And the girls would do the inside house cleaning which was cleaning the kitchen washing and wiping the dishes and sweeping and mopping the floors. Bathroom and living room also, but in my grandfather eyes was no matter if you were a boy or a girl you did both sides of the cleaning.
A lot of grownups were very strict about life and respecting your elders, and respecting your culture. Just like my grandfather especially when he said “do your chores and do not play around or I am going to grab a stick and give you all lickens which he meant spankings or discipline. And he was not kidding to if you got caught fooling around instead of doing your chores you got a discipline as well as all of us for letting one foolish around.
I guess since we all had to get disciplined even if only one had goofed off was a way of teaching us to never let anyone in your family be un-focused in life.
This leads me to talking about education while growing up in the Islands. You had to go to school every single day of your school life. If you had to miss a day or two it better be because you caught the flu or the chicken pox. Because if you missed any days of school other than being sick you was sure to get disciplined from grandpa and in his version of spanking.
Those who did not attend school because you were sick or for other reasons you could not go out and hang out with your friends. And for those who did attend classes had to come home and do your home work and then chores. But that was not a guarantee that you could go hang out with your friends or other leisure activity after school.
Growing up church was also a must have in our family. Every Sunday you were woken up early to get ready with your nicest clean Sunday clothes, and nicely groomed hair. And we all would walk to church together and what was good about church was we lived right behind the local Hawaiian church.
Even though I hated church and not wanting to go me and my cousins used to all complain to one another of how church is so boring, but knew that if you did not go to church the Lord will point his finger down at you. So I did not want Jesus to point his finger at me.
But Sunday school has had a great and good affect on us. We always knew the right from the wrong our parent has also taught as the good as well. Couple decades flew past in the years. There is some family member that is not here with us today, but those that are left remain in church. And some might not attend every Sunday but we never forgot our teachings from our grandparents, uncles and aunties, our minister of church, and from one another. Till this day Hawaiian people remain humble.
Mahalo, Faithfolau... this was a fascinating read.
I have a great deal of respect for the kama'aina and the rich history of the past. I now live in the Volcano area, which 100 years ago was predominantly inhabited by people of Japanese heritage. Many of the older houses here were small, because they were mostly vegetable farmers and people who worked the sugar cane plantations, so they did not have a lot of money. There was also a small industry harvesting the fuzz from hapu'u ferns for stuffing pillows and mattresses. And Japanese plums from this area were once world famous, but the increased emissions from the volcano in the last 30 years gradually killed off that industry, and the orchid farmers had to move under cover.
I love stories of the old ways. Please come talk story some more! I had the opportunity recently to hear one beautiful Aunty tell how in old times the grandparents were responsible for teaching the keiki traditions and culture. The parents were just too busy!
One correction... I'm pretty sure you were swatting flies with ti leaves, not tea leaves.
I know this may sound kind of weird, but I can't wait to live life like in the old days all over again. Some of my family members still live like that on Lana'I. But I'm talking about, no need electricty to eat and cook your food. I live to be free.
Oh my! Yes I ment Ti leaves. Thanks, sorry I wrote that long intro, and got me typing fast.
I actually miss living the old ways of the old days, it seems so free.
I'm actually doing that myself, creating my own, updated version of the old ways as much as I can... living off the grid in small, simple circumstances; growing big gardens; etc.
Funny, I was thinking about a joke (I think) Cyril Pahinui tells... "When I was growing up we didn't have electricity. Everything ran on kerosene. My first geetar was run on kerosene."
Only now it's solar. With wireless internet and phone. And state of the art water purification.
But I move a lot slower than I did on the mainland. Hawai'i time is the BEST!
Thank you so much for your story. I enjoyed hearing about the old ways. It does seem like a much simpler way of life. Your story of church reminded me of when I was a youngster being drug off to church every Sunday, by my grandmother. Church was not an option, it was a must! My aunty and I would complain constantly about how boring it was, and even got disciplined for giggling through the sermon. Oh my! I look back on it now and am so thankful for my grandmother making us go to church. I cherish those memories. Those were the days. I'm afraid our youth today don't have that. I suppose it's up to us to keep instilling this type of life in the youth of today, even in the midst of our modern technological way of life. Keep telling your story, it is one to be cherished.
Thanks for reading my story growning up on Lana'I, Hawaii.
I cherish those memories especially when those in that memory of lifetime are not here today. That is the reason why I wrote that in my book "STONE HONOR."
Kids today will complain about going to church, because they don't really understand the harvest they can gain from the Lord. I enjoy hearing about the Lord, I get real emotional when the pastor is
preaching that gospel, I crave to worship him, and sometimes I might just drop a salt tear, because I'm so greatfull for the things that he has made me go through in life to find the secrets in life.
A child asked me, " why is church only once a week?" I said, "because some people lose there self along the way during the week, so church on sundays bring the lost lamb back to the herd."
A critic once read my book and left a respectable review, I really did appreciate it. I told my story about Lana'I as you read above, and she called that 'poverty living.' She was an upclass women from the mainland, she didn't know Hawaiians back then lived like that not because it's poverty, it's a way of our life, especially back in the days.
As for modern technology, it is good and wonderfull to use the benefits of cooking my dinner, and writing my book, and writing articles, and visiting forums. But if one day technology fails, atleast we know how to survive without it. STONED HONOR SPECIAL EDITION by FAITH FOLAU in Biographies & Memoirs
What I want to know is how did all the okolehau get into the pineapples on Lanai? A bunch of us from Oahu would sail over to black Manele bay in the late summer on a bunch of little sailboats (six to eight of them anywhere from twenty some odd to fifty feet long) and everyone (it seemed most of Lanai City would drop past the harbor) would end up over at white Manele bay having a big bonfire and folks would bring us these pineapples full of okolehau. Generally sometime after all the stars came out someone would get the big idea about catching the turkeys which would raid the trashcans so they'd wander off (with some of those pineapples) to go catch the turkeys. Never did get any roasted turkey but we never seemed to run out of those pineapples laced with okolehau, either. They built that hotel at white Manele now and it's not the same at all.
As for modern technology, it is good and wonderfull to use the benefits of cooking my dinner, and writing my book, and writing articles, and visiting forums. But if one day technology fails, atleast we know how to survive without it.
What I want to know is how did all the okolehau get into the pineapples on Lanai? A bunch of us from Oahu would sail over to black Manele bay in the late summer on a bunch of little sailboats (six to eight of them anywhere from twenty some odd to fifty feet long) and everyone (it seemed most of Lanai City would drop past the harbor) would end up over at white Manele bay having a big bonfire and folks would bring us these pineapples full of okolehau. Generally sometime after all the stars came out someone would get the big idea about catching the turkeys which would raid the trashcans so they'd wander off (with some of those pineapples) to go catch the turkeys. Never did get any roasted turkey but we never seemed to run out of those pineapples laced with okolehau, either. They built that hotel at white Manele now and it's not the same at all.
I tried to google "okolehau," and I didnt find what that is. LOL surley I'm only 31 years old this year, and I don't know what you are talking about.
The beaches did change when the hotels had been built, but nothing harmfull to anyone.
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I would love to read your book.
