Raising grandchildren in this day and age is difficult!  Don’t hit or spank them is the general belief NOW!  When they were little, 2 years or 3, we used to spank their hand or give a wack on  the butt.  But you can’t do this anymore without people looking at you like you are abusing the child.

One day when my grandson was 7 years old, I sat him down and had a heart to heart talk.  He was being naughty refusing to do homework and throwing tantrums, lies, screaming, crying and etc.  First I told him that he was very smart.  This was to get his attention.  Then I explained that his brain has 2 answers,  on the left side of him was a bad outcome and on the right was good.  Listening to the bad, which was, don’t do homework, watch TV, play and waste time. Or to listen to the good side, which is,do homework quickly not waste any time, finish, then play, relax, watch TV and not have to worry the next day, his work was done! Now, which was better having fun for the moment only and then all the while knowing that his homework was not done and suffering through the night till the next morning or JUST doing the work, finishing it and have a free and clear mind for the rest of day, free to do whatever.

To reconfirm, I stressed that he could lie all he wanted to, but his BRAIN would always know the truth and in the end, by choosing the good thing to do he’d be very very happy, instead of being sad, crying, and very very unhappy cause things were so hard and difficult for him.

With this, I’ve witnessed him using his brains more, to get good results and being very happy as a child growing up.

Every time I go to NACOS class, there is a slight fear that I might have forgotten something I’ve learned.  Only to be followed at the end of class with: a wonderful feeling in my heart, a clear head which was once filled with a cloud, and  a lift to my body… like I can finally breath and fly.

It’s funny how a little accomplishment can achieve so much happiness!

HAVE A GOOOD YEAR!!!!

Karen White

I’ve always gone to summer school or summer fun during the summer. But this one time, I begged my mother,  if I could stay home and  play with the neighborhood children. I think I was about 7 or 8 years old. My mother agreed and left me home with a list of 10  chores to do everyday, to keep me busy and out of trouble. She gave me 50 cents allowance to spend.

We lived at the end of a lane, and there was a corner store at it’s beginning.  Every morning I would take a short walk to the  store and take my time choosing what I could buy with my 50 cents.  I usually bought only 3 comics, Chinese seeds, candies and a coke. There were so many comics to choose from, Little Lulu, Archie and his gang, Casper the friendly ghost,Lil Lotto, Superman, Chip and Dale chipmunks, Dennis the menace, Beetle Bailey, Richie Rich, that I ended up with stacks of them in my closet.  It was a lot of fun deciding everyday which one to buy and it took time trying to remember if I had already bought it the other day.  There was so much candies and seeds to choose from.  Some of my favorites were, mango seed ( dry or wet),Li Hing  Mui(dry, wet, salty, seedless,sweet), crack seed, cherry seed, preserved plum(big green and round), tootsie roll, bubble gum, juice sticks, liqurice, red vines, chocolate covered raisins,malted balls and tablets in a bottle, Jujubees, Tomo Ame with a free toy(kokeshi doll), Cracker Jacks with it’s little prize in the box, animal cookies, Big Hunk, Look candy bar, lolli pops, crazy corn nuts, assorted ice cream bars, milk duds, candy dots on a roll of paper, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and etc.  There were so many flavors of bottle soda to choose from, like creme, vanilla, lime, strawberry, Dr.Pepper, Green River, grape and etc .

When I got home after that, I would turn on the TV and watch movies and cartoons and enjoy all the snacks I had just bought and then later read all the comics.  I did that everyday and enjoyed not going to school, but the fun lasted only for a short while!  All my friends were busy with summer fun and classes so I was left with no one to play with in the neighborhood.

Some of the chores I was assigned to do then were, wash the clothes by hand and hang them out to dry, starch and iron them, clean and wax the floors, clean the toilets, do the dishes , clean and defrost the refrigerator and icebox, dust and polish the furniture, polish the silverware and fix the beds, straighten the pillows on the couch, cook the rice, wash the screens, scrub the shower and the curtain, and etc. Just an hour before my mother would come home, I’d rush around trying to finish all the chores that I was assigned to do in that short time.  I got yelled at a lot for doing such a bad job of cleaning.

After just a month and a half of all this playing and enjoying myself, I went to my mother and cried and cried. I was so, so sad, lonely, and unhappy with staying at home,  that I vowed never to spend a Summer vacation home ever again and begged to go to school or summer fun just like the rest of the other children.

There after, I attended summer schools, or summer fun, or YMCA and was a jr. leader,and latter on I worked at the Pineapple Cannery during summers. For….       ” my summers “were never dull or  boring, evermore!  In fact, neither has my LIFE!

Mariner’s Ridge is in Hawaii Kai.  There is a trail at the end of the road between the houses.  Most of the locals only know of this since it is not a publicly known trail.  But it has a very beautiful view of Koko Head Crater and the other side of the ridge which is Waimanalo.

When we go there, we allow at least 2 1/2 hours,(1 1/2 up, 1/2 rest or lunch and 1/2 down.  We like to bring musubi, fried chicken  and tsukemono.  We also bring semi frozen drinks and ice cubes in our backpack to keep our backs cool as we hike, it melts and we can drink ice cold water.

It is a pretty easy hike except for the last part up to the ridge gets a little steep and slippery because of the pine needles that are on the ground.  We took my cousin’s grandmother  from Japan up there. And I was surprised cause she didn’t tire and kept up with us , I was out of breath.  Once on top, you’re looking down the very steep mountain range  on the other side.  The air is fresh and a little thin because of the elevation.

I used to take up visitors to have a nice view from on top, quite different from looking at the city below, more forest, nice tall Pine trees, wild guavas and flowers.  It’s been about 5 years since I’ve been there, and  have many fond memories of taking family and friends up there.

I recall, when I was little, going on a tour of the WARD estate, a big 2 story house with a large swamp land around it, off of King Street.  This area was filled in with coral and built up to what is called Ala Moana area.  There were a lot of catfish in the swamp and tall overgrown grass.  You couldn’t walk in that area, Ala Moana was all water and mud.

Back then people would shop at Downtown and it was very much like Ala Moana Center except it was all flat, 2 story wooden structures.  Sears, Hackfeild’s(formerly Liberty House, now Macy’s) were the popular store to go to.  Kress’s was the popular discount store, right across from what is now Long’s Dugs Downtown.  The highest building back then was the Aloha Tower, which stands a midget in comparison to the very tall buildings in Downtown now.

The roads were often dirt and there were trolley cars attached to electrical wires above and ran on rails that transported people instead of buses.

Wherever the main stops were, Kaimuki, McCully, Moiliili, little towns sprung up with little stores(like ABC or 7-11), and good eating restaurants or okazuya’s.

Moiliili had Diamond Bakery, Kapahulu had Love’s Bakery and Leonard’s Bakery (home of the Malasadas), and McCully had King’s Bakery, Liliha has Liliha Bakery( still very popular for Coco Puffs).

Remembering these places, brings back many fun and enjoyable memories of good eats and shopping.

My early childhood was spent with my grandmother who watched me, while my parents were at work.  I don’t know who was watching who, because I always observed how busy my grandmother was with the usual daily chores.

Like for instance, folding all the heavy futons that was slept on the night before.  Piling all that and blankets next, with sheets and pillows on top, into one nice stack balanced on top of a storage trunk.  Only to jump and climb onto when she wasn’t looking and play or pretend that I was the princess and the pea (Children’s story).  Then have her scold me cause the stack was a mess and lob sided.

I also liked watching her make tsukemono.  She’d washed and seasoned the vegetables and poured her liquid concoction over them in a large pyrex bowl.  Then she would put a round flat disc like stone on top to squish down the veggies and then a large weight on top to exhert more pressure. She stored it underneath the sink in the cupboard.   And after a few days it was cured and sour enough to eat.

She swept and mopped the floors daily, and washed clothes by hand in a big bucket in a cement wash tub.  There was a graded wooden board that she would rub the clothes on to get it cleaner and a bar of soap to apply to the dirtier spots.  Then hang the clothes out on the line to dry.  The sheets were the most fun to play hide and seek with, just as long as we didn’t get caught by my grandmother for dirtying them as we ran through the isles, chasing each other.

In the late afternoon, she was always busy in the kitchen prepping the vegetables and meat to cook for dinner.  My duty was to take all the condiments out from the refrigerator, like the takuwan, iriko, tsukemono and left over rice to be used for chasuke.  Also any other left over food from the last meals.  There was a lot of treasures to find in there and I had lots of fun asking her what was this or that.  Sometimes I found dried Kaki, or figs, and sometimes her stash of Lahaina Nasu which was pickeld and sliced in a bottle with karase, these things I was allowed to just taste a little as a treat. Watching my grandmother taught me many things about how life was for her and I got to see this through her window, watching her.

A long time ago, when my mother was in her teens, she was a rascal and always wanted to play with her brothers but they didn’t want her to because she was a girl.

One day,  she overheard them making plans to go fishing the next day, so she decided to follow them.  With buckets to put the fish in, her brothers started off very early in the morning.  My mother made sure that they didn’t see her following them, cause they would tell her to go straight home.  They hiked into the hills and when they were too far to send her home alone she joined up with them to their dismay.  Mountains on the left and right of them met into a valley where a small pond was just full of small Koi fish about 4 inches long.  So they spread their legs and began to catch the fish with their hands.  Then using their T- shirts, began scooping the fish into their buckets.  This was so much fun and they got so so dirty that in spite of all the buckets of fish they caught, their mom was so mad because they were so muddy and filthy from this expedition.

The next time they went back to look for the pond, They found out that it was actually a  reservoir that had dried up to a pond because of a drought.  And after a big rain  it tuned back into a  lake.  Evidently the bigger fish were smart enough to swim downstream but the littles ones stayed until it was too late for them to get away and they were trapped in the little pond.

This story was told over and over again in the village in Maui, how lucky The Goto kids were to have caught so much fish and how they gave it away to their friends to have, and how much fun it was to have caught so much fish but never to happen again.

Just a thought……..
I look at the past and see great giant boulders  and rough terrain full of thorns,
but when I turn around……..I suddenly see……..a soft and fluffy pathway laying before me,  lined with fragrant flowers and butterflies.

This is a GREAT SIGN!!

Here’s wishing to all of you,
Comfort, Gentleness, and a flowing of wonderful events to come!

Have a Happy New Year!

Karen

日系食料品店でのおはなしです。 私は、 だいたい、1週間に一度、マルカイマーケットに行きます。この店は、会員制の日系食料品店です。最近、 ここでの買い物が、以前にも増して、楽しくなりました。というのは、根気よく続けてきた日本語学習が効果をあげてきたからです。

食品パッケージに表示されている調理法や成分表を見た時、 何が書いてあるのかわかるようになりました。以前は、ラーメンの袋を手に取って、説明書きを読もうとしても、結局、作り方のイラストを眺めるだけでした。そして、イラスト通りに作れば、きっと、おいしく出来上がるに違いないと期待するだけでした。

今では、 説明書きの中に、 他に色々、 おいしくなる作り方が書いてあることもわかりました。 又、成分表を見る楽しみも出来ました。 というのは、 私の大好きな鰹のだしや、しその薬味が入っているかどうか確認することが出来るからです。

さらに、 店内で年配の日本人女性客を引き止めて、この商品は何ですかとか、調理法を聞く必要もなくなりました。 実は、店内で日本の食材の商品説明の出来る販売員を見つけるのは、年配の日本人女性客を見つけることより、もっと難しいことでした。

そんな訳で、マルカイでの買い物が、 大変、楽しく、又、楽になりました。日本語を学んでいること、カタカナと同様に、漢字も学んでいることに感謝です。

Halloween happens on October 31st.  It is a custom for the children to dress up in costume and go”trick o’ treating” through the neighborhood.  They knock on doors and yell trick o’ treat.  The person that lives there, opens the door and gives them some candies.  But for the adults, they dress in costumes and go to parties or parade down Waikiki from one end near the zoo to the beginning of Waikiki.  This parading is so much fun to see.  The costumes are homemade and very original and sometimes very very scary.  The people act out there characters and are so realistic.  Every year we used to walk up and down Kalakaua just to see the costumes and enjoy the Halloween festivities.  It usually starts around 7:00pm till around 10:oopm.  Many houses in the residential areas decorate the front of their houses with ghosts, spiders, jack’o lanterns ( pumpkins carved with scary faces), witches or even sit on the front porch in costume with a basket of candies and suddenly move and scare the children who thought it was just a prop.  Halloween time is a lot of fun for all!