At 15 we would go with friends to Kau Kau Korner, one of the many drive-Ins that had "carhops"...That was the place to meet others', hang with the boys and pretend to be grown up.
No one drank anything stronger than Coke. Most of us did smoke cigarettes. Who knew they would eventually be killing some of us.
Another HOTSPOT was Ilima Drive In. The draw was not the party atmosphere but the LIVE disc jockey and loud pop music..and we could go up to the window and dedicate songs over the loud speaker.
Coffee Houses were springing up too. Poetry readings, coffee and cigarettes.
At 16, I had to get a summer job. The first one was at Fort Street Liberty House Lingerie dept. which I absolutely hated and soon found another job selling Hawaiian clothing in Waikiki...which was so much more fun.
Waikiki was so fresh in the mornings when we opened up...the International Market Place was newly opened...we would wash down the sidewalks, hang the shirts and muumuus out for display...birds chirped along with steel guitar and the jungle music of Martin Denny flowing through the huge banyan tree and upstairs restaurants......all day, tourists and locals strolled through this shady marketplace of thatched roofs and fun shopping.
As the sun went down Don the Beachcomber's would open it's doors, stir up those Mai Tais and Don Ho would sing his first, "Tiny Bubbles"..
Friday, May 28, 2010
WAIKIKI 1953
When I was 12, we moved to a house on the slopes of Diamond Head. 3040 Hibiscus Drive.
It turned out to be such a fun neighborhood....There were so many kids...we played dodge ball on the street, hung out at night playing ukuleles and eventually spin the bottle.
Sometimes we would hitch a ride in the vegetable truck that went from neighborhood to neighborhood selling fresh farm veggies...the old Japanese man thought we were crazy. We would laugh thinking..what if he crashed and people would wonder what kind of vegetables we were.
Satuday was movie day at Waikiki Theatre...we would take the bus, buy our jujubees, popcorn and coke and see the new movie of the week...That theatre was amazing...it was adorned with fake coconut and banana trees on all sides... STARS & moving clouds on the ceiling, along with the tradtional maroon velvet curtains
Summers and Sundays we fled to the Outrigger Canoe Club, which at the time was between the Moana and Royal Hawaiian Hotels. We sunned, greased doen with baby oil and Iodine, checked out the boys and ate club's special, hamburgers and fries.
Waikiki was full of characters....."Dorkus" on the beach...a really overly tan man who was crippled with Polio, who always sat with his legs apart...in others words, a perve. There was the lady, whom we nicknamed "Bubbles", who walked Kalakaua in her leopard bathing suit with huge boobs and skinny legs. We must have watched her into her 70ies. She seemed pretty happy.
Of course there was Rabbit Kekai, Buffalo and all the beach boys. They would let us hitch rides on the catamarans when we begged long enough. I saw the Shah of Iran, Red Selton, Tony Curtis and other famous celebrities...they were safe in those days.
We wore Linn's 2-pc bathing suits (usually red or white or blue with stripes on the sides)...
Duke Kahanamoku drove a shiney white Jaguar with a gold surfer adorning the hood. He was often in Waikiki...a lot of times I would see him when I was walking my dog there...He was gorgeous.
It turned out to be such a fun neighborhood....There were so many kids...we played dodge ball on the street, hung out at night playing ukuleles and eventually spin the bottle.
Sometimes we would hitch a ride in the vegetable truck that went from neighborhood to neighborhood selling fresh farm veggies...the old Japanese man thought we were crazy. We would laugh thinking..what if he crashed and people would wonder what kind of vegetables we were.
Satuday was movie day at Waikiki Theatre...we would take the bus, buy our jujubees, popcorn and coke and see the new movie of the week...That theatre was amazing...it was adorned with fake coconut and banana trees on all sides... STARS & moving clouds on the ceiling, along with the tradtional maroon velvet curtains
Summers and Sundays we fled to the Outrigger Canoe Club, which at the time was between the Moana and Royal Hawaiian Hotels. We sunned, greased doen with baby oil and Iodine, checked out the boys and ate club's special, hamburgers and fries.
Waikiki was full of characters....."Dorkus" on the beach...a really overly tan man who was crippled with Polio, who always sat with his legs apart...in others words, a perve. There was the lady, whom we nicknamed "Bubbles", who walked Kalakaua in her leopard bathing suit with huge boobs and skinny legs. We must have watched her into her 70ies. She seemed pretty happy.
Of course there was Rabbit Kekai, Buffalo and all the beach boys. They would let us hitch rides on the catamarans when we begged long enough. I saw the Shah of Iran, Red Selton, Tony Curtis and other famous celebrities...they were safe in those days.
We wore Linn's 2-pc bathing suits (usually red or white or blue with stripes on the sides)...
Duke Kahanamoku drove a shiney white Jaguar with a gold surfer adorning the hood. He was often in Waikiki...a lot of times I would see him when I was walking my dog there...He was gorgeous.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
PUNAHOU SCHOOL
When I was 13, my parents' decided on Punahou school for me. After all, we knew Dr. Fox and elementary school was over..7th grade at Punahou, a school to become renown in 2009 when one of its students became President of the United States.
Punahou was wonderful. The campus was so beautiful with ancient trees, stone buildings from the 1800's, a lilly pond along with a huge track field framed with night blooming cereus covering lava rock walls that enclosed the entire campus. When those cereous were blooming, there was nothing more beautiful.
The classes were difficult...a lot of homework but nothing like what I had to do in the Philippines. My parents gave up a lot of pleasures for my education, but I think we all decided it was so well worth all of the struggles. They loved my boyfriend and his friends. They hung every piece of artwork I did on the living room wall. They were so very supportive. They were always available.
I wouldn't say I was in "the" popular group, but I was "friends" with all of them. Most of my classmates were from very wealthy families but I never really felt any inequality...That was what was so nice about Punahou. It was a conglomerate of students from all walks of life. Some were on scholarship, some were children of staff members that were there for free and some were from hugely wealthy families.
I always seemed to have a BEST FRIEND..not a group of friends. I was always friendly with those less accepted than myself.
My very first crush was a Filapino-Hawaiian football player, 2 years older than me. He was one of the star football players. We had such innocent fun. Football parties, proms, flower leis, holding hands. No one knew about drugs or felt the need for alcohol then...it just wasn't around. The only fear, in these days was the big "PG" Pregnancy..so if you were going to "do it" you'd better not get pregnant or even tell anyone. Abortion was not legal. Single motherhood was a socially unacceptable situation. Only going to a home and giving up baby, was the choice...so "intercourse" was a very big decison and boys had to have "rubbers"...are you kidding..birth control pills had not been invented!!! So...kisses were not French..they were "English"...what evah. My boyfriend and I were too afraid to "go all the way", as we called it.
Punahou was wonderful. The campus was so beautiful with ancient trees, stone buildings from the 1800's, a lilly pond along with a huge track field framed with night blooming cereus covering lava rock walls that enclosed the entire campus. When those cereous were blooming, there was nothing more beautiful.
The classes were difficult...a lot of homework but nothing like what I had to do in the Philippines. My parents gave up a lot of pleasures for my education, but I think we all decided it was so well worth all of the struggles. They loved my boyfriend and his friends. They hung every piece of artwork I did on the living room wall. They were so very supportive. They were always available.
I wouldn't say I was in "the" popular group, but I was "friends" with all of them. Most of my classmates were from very wealthy families but I never really felt any inequality...That was what was so nice about Punahou. It was a conglomerate of students from all walks of life. Some were on scholarship, some were children of staff members that were there for free and some were from hugely wealthy families.
I always seemed to have a BEST FRIEND..not a group of friends. I was always friendly with those less accepted than myself.
My very first crush was a Filapino-Hawaiian football player, 2 years older than me. He was one of the star football players. We had such innocent fun. Football parties, proms, flower leis, holding hands. No one knew about drugs or felt the need for alcohol then...it just wasn't around. The only fear, in these days was the big "PG" Pregnancy..so if you were going to "do it" you'd better not get pregnant or even tell anyone. Abortion was not legal. Single motherhood was a socially unacceptable situation. Only going to a home and giving up baby, was the choice...so "intercourse" was a very big decison and boys had to have "rubbers"...are you kidding..birth control pills had not been invented!!! So...kisses were not French..they were "English"...what evah. My boyfriend and I were too afraid to "go all the way", as we called it.
SAN FRANCISCO
We actually made it to San Francisco in 31 days. There had been storms and rough water but we all survived without much whining or fear.
The other passengers were a "white Russian" family with 3 little boys, and a single young woman and then just the two of us. We all ate with the crew and the boys and I played on the stair landings, all kinds of games...board games, pick up sticks and others.
I don't remember being bored or afraid. There was no pool or shuffleboard; no fancy dining area. Everything was very sturdy and compact. We must have slept a lot.
We landed in San Francisco, Daddy meeting us at the pier and we visited family in Santa Monica before we headed on to the Hawaiian Islands. Our family must have thought my parents were irresponsible yanking me around to all these scary places out in the middle of no where. We actually stayed with my mothers' parents long enough for me to join a girl scout troop but then it was off to the new school year,new school and new ISLAND.. I had left mid year of 4th grade and when I registered at the University Elementary School they put me in the 6th grade. (I was far advanced from my International School education)
Somehow I don't remember having much of an adjusment. I just did what my parents wished.
The other passengers were a "white Russian" family with 3 little boys, and a single young woman and then just the two of us. We all ate with the crew and the boys and I played on the stair landings, all kinds of games...board games, pick up sticks and others.
I don't remember being bored or afraid. There was no pool or shuffleboard; no fancy dining area. Everything was very sturdy and compact. We must have slept a lot.
We landed in San Francisco, Daddy meeting us at the pier and we visited family in Santa Monica before we headed on to the Hawaiian Islands. Our family must have thought my parents were irresponsible yanking me around to all these scary places out in the middle of no where. We actually stayed with my mothers' parents long enough for me to join a girl scout troop but then it was off to the new school year,new school and new ISLAND.. I had left mid year of 4th grade and when I registered at the University Elementary School they put me in the 6th grade. (I was far advanced from my International School education)
Somehow I don't remember having much of an adjusment. I just did what my parents wished.
SHANGHAI CHINA
When the President Madison pulled up to refuel in Shanghai China, all the little "junks" surrounded her... with their families, shouting and yelling and selling whatever they could...the main deal was selling their trinkets for cigarettes from the crew.
The first mate, one of our new friends, traded 3 packs of cigarettes for a set of hand carved camphor wood chests which I actually still have.
The scariest part was leaving the ship, hopping in to a taxi ( of which all its glass windows were boarded up and speeding away from all the ragged beggars)..The Chinese there were so very poor, just destitute..it was a terrible scene. They would try to break the windows of the taxis to grab anything they could.....
The first mate, one of our new friends, traded 3 packs of cigarettes for a set of hand carved camphor wood chests which I actually still have.
The scariest part was leaving the ship, hopping in to a taxi ( of which all its glass windows were boarded up and speeding away from all the ragged beggars)..The Chinese there were so very poor, just destitute..it was a terrible scene. They would try to break the windows of the taxis to grab anything they could.....
Saturday, May 22, 2010
NEW BEACH LIFE
I guess we moved to Waimanalo because Daddy's office was on the University of Hawaii's campus where he met many of the professors and staff. Through them, he met Dr. Fox, the President of Punahou School who happened to be renting out his beach house in Waimanalo. It was a tiny cottage perched right on the sand. You'd step out of the door and it was just pure white sand...........and we had the this gorgeous untouched white sand beach all to ourselves with views of Rabbit Island that was always frosted in white (from bird poop) It was a bird sanctuary but shaped like a "rabbit"...oh well.
Here we were. My parents were meeting a lot of people that lived in this interesting neighborhood. They partied. They danced. They drank. They laughed and we kids liked to spy on them through the bushes for a lot of giggles.
My mother gave dancing lessons to some of the kids, like the box step. We all made friends there and those same kids, taught me about Li Hing Moi and other local treats.
The beach was isolated as this, in '49, was considered far out in the country. There was no public transportation and a very winding road from the end of the main hwy which ended at Lunalilo Home Rd. After school we had to take a stretch limo taxi with other people that would meet us there and take us home the rest of the way.
Here we were. My parents were meeting a lot of people that lived in this interesting neighborhood. They partied. They danced. They drank. They laughed and we kids liked to spy on them through the bushes for a lot of giggles.
My mother gave dancing lessons to some of the kids, like the box step. We all made friends there and those same kids, taught me about Li Hing Moi and other local treats.
The beach was isolated as this, in '49, was considered far out in the country. There was no public transportation and a very winding road from the end of the main hwy which ended at Lunalilo Home Rd. After school we had to take a stretch limo taxi with other people that would meet us there and take us home the rest of the way.
SAYING OUR GOODBYES
........Honolulu still beckoned us. Daddy was given the transfer and we were to pack up our worldly goods and prepare for the next adventure..........Paradise of the Pacific.......Hula Girls, Surfing, China Town, sailors, white sand beaches and fresh food. Very exciting. Honolulu, the Island of Oahu, where the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor just 7 years earlier.
Daddy stayed to pack up and settled all the move of his job and our furnishings out of the pale brown quonset hut...
Saying good byes were not easy ... our personal staff...NingNing, Marta and Joe. They were like family. We had to leave Rosebud too...my spider monkey from Samar Island. Our friends weren't happy either. I said goodbye to Penny Clague, my best friend, Mitos and Maggie dela Riva, my friends from school. For my mother, it was "hello" to no more help in the kitchen, laundry or driving. I am sure she could foresee a lot of adjusting. There would be fears of being alone in a whole new world. Daddy would be at work, me in school and she without any servants.
The night arrived for Mama and I to leave the island of LUZON . We boarded the American Freighter, the President Madison, that would take us on a 31 day journey from Manila to San Francisco before we would then head off to Hawaii.
Daddy kissed us and waved goodbye. The ship blew its horn and slowly pulled out of its berth leaving all we knew behind and beginning another adventure of the unknown, just the two of us, my Mama and me.
Daddy stayed to pack up and settled all the move of his job and our furnishings out of the pale brown quonset hut...
Saying good byes were not easy ... our personal staff...NingNing, Marta and Joe. They were like family. We had to leave Rosebud too...my spider monkey from Samar Island. Our friends weren't happy either. I said goodbye to Penny Clague, my best friend, Mitos and Maggie dela Riva, my friends from school. For my mother, it was "hello" to no more help in the kitchen, laundry or driving. I am sure she could foresee a lot of adjusting. There would be fears of being alone in a whole new world. Daddy would be at work, me in school and she without any servants.
The night arrived for Mama and I to leave the island of LUZON . We boarded the American Freighter, the President Madison, that would take us on a 31 day journey from Manila to San Francisco before we would then head off to Hawaii.
Daddy kissed us and waved goodbye. The ship blew its horn and slowly pulled out of its berth leaving all we knew behind and beginning another adventure of the unknown, just the two of us, my Mama and me.
MY DADDY, my sweet Daddy
Daddy was always the center of attention...His co-workers loved him. His friends wanted to be in his company. He had a wonderful sense of humor. He loved the comic strip, POGO . He cut it out and sent it to me weekly when I was in college.
He adored fishing and that's actually why he decided to get a degree in "Fisheries"..
Fishing was his first passion. He was hired by the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service and off we went to the Philippine Islands...1946.
However, he soon found out that his job of Research would not be on a Research Vessel but in an office as he got so terribly seasick.
Daddy had been an athlete in college...playing football and baseball but still preferred to fish over everything else.
I never thought he was handsome...but now that I look back at his photos, he had great sex appeal like Humphery Bogart. My mother could have been a Lauen Bacall. They were a handsome couple.
Daddy smoked CAMELS. My mom, his mom and I took 8 hour shifts around the clock at Queens Hospital until he died of LUNG CANCER in 1959. I was 19. How I loved him.
He adored fishing and that's actually why he decided to get a degree in "Fisheries"..
Fishing was his first passion. He was hired by the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service and off we went to the Philippine Islands...1946.
However, he soon found out that his job of Research would not be on a Research Vessel but in an office as he got so terribly seasick.
Daddy had been an athlete in college...playing football and baseball but still preferred to fish over everything else.
I never thought he was handsome...but now that I look back at his photos, he had great sex appeal like Humphery Bogart. My mother could have been a Lauen Bacall. They were a handsome couple.
Daddy smoked CAMELS. My mom, his mom and I took 8 hour shifts around the clock at Queens Hospital until he died of LUNG CANCER in 1959. I was 19. How I loved him.
MY MOTHER
My mother always said that childbirth was so horrible and painful that she would never consider having more than one child. I think from that day of August 21, 1940, when I was born, she changed. Not only did this traumatize her forever, but she also had to SHARE her husband, her best friend.
I ended up being Daddy's girl, his princess. He adored me. I was never spanked. My Daddy and I went to movies, basketball games, played tennis barefooted.. Mama never wanted to go. He even shopped for my school clothes.
...but she did everything a "good "mother would do for her daughter but it was difficult for her. It didn't seem natural. She lacked confidence even though she was a beautiful woman and educated through junior college. She had no close friends that I remember. She buried herself into gardening. I never saw her read a book, take up any hobby or really laugh out loud. Looking back, I think she lived with depression most of her life. When I was 14, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 44.
I ended up being Daddy's girl, his princess. He adored me. I was never spanked. My Daddy and I went to movies, basketball games, played tennis barefooted.. Mama never wanted to go. He even shopped for my school clothes.
...but she did everything a "good "mother would do for her daughter but it was difficult for her. It didn't seem natural. She lacked confidence even though she was a beautiful woman and educated through junior college. She had no close friends that I remember. She buried herself into gardening. I never saw her read a book, take up any hobby or really laugh out loud. Looking back, I think she lived with depression most of her life. When I was 14, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 44.
Until Death Do We Part
Frances Marion Lewis was her name...born on February 4, 1912.
Harry Blaine Hinkle..born April 28, 1906.
They met because both their fathers worked at the University of Washington as maintanence personnel. They eloped in secrecy so that my Daddy could continue his studies at the university and graduate. Married persons were not allowed to enter the university.
My Mother was born in a log cabin in the Okanagan mountains Wa...poor farmers and cold winters.
Daddy was from Kentucky born when his mother was 16 years old.
Both their parents stayed together until death.
Grandpa Alonzo Hinkle and Anlie Rodgers
Grandpa Charlie Lewis and Marion Renee McIntyre.
AND THE SAME WENT FOR FRANCES AND HARRY.
Harry Blaine Hinkle..born April 28, 1906.
They met because both their fathers worked at the University of Washington as maintanence personnel. They eloped in secrecy so that my Daddy could continue his studies at the university and graduate. Married persons were not allowed to enter the university.
My Mother was born in a log cabin in the Okanagan mountains Wa...poor farmers and cold winters.
Daddy was from Kentucky born when his mother was 16 years old.
Both their parents stayed together until death.
Grandpa Alonzo Hinkle and Anlie Rodgers
Grandpa Charlie Lewis and Marion Renee McIntyre.
AND THE SAME WENT FOR FRANCES AND HARRY.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Hawaii Calls
.......every year, the government flew us to the U.S. to visit family and this was via the Hawaiian Islands. We would stay at either the Royal Hawaiian Hotel or the Moana. Every time we stepped off that Pan American plane, the scent of plumaria was overwhelming. The skies were filled with blankets of sparkling stars, Diamond Head Crater reigned...the ocean was turquoise, Waikiki Beach sand, powder white.
We lounged on the beach with movie stars and other famous faces.....my parents were in their 30ies.....and so in love...This became their annual Honeymoon Trip....watching Hawaii calls with Webley Edwards, the master of ceremonies, in swim suits under the banyan tree at the Moana Hotel and taking canoe rides with the Waikiki beach boys. The tradewinds kept the heat down to perfection and their nightly dreams were of moving permanently to Hawaii....
Daddy would soon put in his official plea for a transfer to the Honolulu Fish & Wildlife Service Office on the University of Hawaii Campus.
In 1949 , we stepped off that plane into the plumaria scented air, for the last time.
We lounged on the beach with movie stars and other famous faces.....my parents were in their 30ies.....and so in love...This became their annual Honeymoon Trip....watching Hawaii calls with Webley Edwards, the master of ceremonies, in swim suits under the banyan tree at the Moana Hotel and taking canoe rides with the Waikiki beach boys. The tradewinds kept the heat down to perfection and their nightly dreams were of moving permanently to Hawaii....
Daddy would soon put in his official plea for a transfer to the Honolulu Fish & Wildlife Service Office on the University of Hawaii Campus.
In 1949 , we stepped off that plane into the plumaria scented air, for the last time.
TYPHOONS AND TANGO
Typhoon Jean hit the island of Luzon with a roar of torrential rain and winds not to be believed...our tin roof blew off and thanks to the bathroom, we survived along with my doll, Sparkle Plenty. This was , again, just one more challenge of living as an expat in a foreign country so far away from home. ...and just as frightening as this was, there were the bonuses.
We shot the rapids down jungle rivers. We had three servants. The school was fantastic...it was the International School.
My parents were invited to the Presidents' home for cocktail & dance parties. The fire chief and his wife were there and all the women wore "gowns" I remember looking at all the beautiful gowns..especially when they were on my mother...she was so elegant with her hair in an "up sweep" with her slim body and Grace Kelly classic features. I remember the soft red plaid taffeta gown ..halter neckline and pleated bodice. As beautiful as she was, she was always a bit shy. On the other hand, Daddy was the suave, kind and humorous guy... a sought out dancer. He was a social animal. The women loved him, including me. On the other hand, my mother, as beautiful as she was, always chose to be in the background
She and my Daddy would dance...they all danced...the tango and the rumba and the samba..and when we eventually left the Philippines, my parents continued dancing to 40ies Big Bands and collected records..Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsay. I learned to dance to these also... to this day, 2010, I can break out and dance to anything...even alone...It is my passion.
We shot the rapids down jungle rivers. We had three servants. The school was fantastic...it was the International School.
My parents were invited to the Presidents' home for cocktail & dance parties. The fire chief and his wife were there and all the women wore "gowns" I remember looking at all the beautiful gowns..especially when they were on my mother...she was so elegant with her hair in an "up sweep" with her slim body and Grace Kelly classic features. I remember the soft red plaid taffeta gown ..halter neckline and pleated bodice. As beautiful as she was, she was always a bit shy. On the other hand, Daddy was the suave, kind and humorous guy... a sought out dancer. He was a social animal. The women loved him, including me. On the other hand, my mother, as beautiful as she was, always chose to be in the background
She and my Daddy would dance...they all danced...the tango and the rumba and the samba..and when we eventually left the Philippines, my parents continued dancing to 40ies Big Bands and collected records..Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsay. I learned to dance to these also... to this day, 2010, I can break out and dance to anything...even alone...It is my passion.
BOARD WALKS AND DDT
LUZON, OAHU, MAUI, BALI
PAN AMERICAN 3 day flight from San Francisco to the Philippines Islands..DDT spray, strange places boardwalks, mosquitoes, time bombs, rats, a parrot named Sammi, a monkey called RoseBud..I was 6 years old. We lived in a quonset hut in a govt compound, just after the war... guards, barbed wire,household help. Joe, our houseboy, NingNing and Marta, our maids.It was 1946. I went to the International School..we traveled back and forth to school in a"jeepney" which had a colored tin hooded back compartment with benches on each side and open air. It was typical with paint and catholic saint ornaments hanging from every side and the mirrors. We were checked at the compound gate for time bombs, just to make sure no enemy would have hidden one.
My mother and Daddy were having the time of their lives in this humid, tropical exotic new land, especially growing up in Seattle. My father received his degree in the Fisheries Program at the U of Washington. My parents had to elope and keep their marriage quiet in order for him to finish as in those days, you could not be married to go to college.
..this huge colorless compound was bare of foliage with exception of banana trees..It bordered the Philippine Sea, a bit murky, no beach there, just a concrete seawall that followed the main highway.
We played on board walks that wound through the compound, preventing us getting bitten by the explosion of rats that ran around under us.....
The double barbed wire fencing with armed guards were there to keep the "huks" out...(hukbalahuks) .. In the aftermath of the war.. these were the Japanese soldiers who had escaped & hid in the island jungles... in desperation they would come out to rob and look for food.
Our quonset hut ( military DRAB like all the rest) was one that bordered the fence. Many times we would hear gun shots.
The DDt truck would spray every afternoon to protect us from Malaria. We would run behind the truck following in the clouds of poison.
Charming? To a kid, it was just "life" and none of us gave any of it a second thought. Of course our parents were always there with a watchful eye. One time I was MIA and they had the military police looking for me everywhere. They found me, with our maid, Marta, in downtown Manila at a local movie theatre ( with signs bearing"check your firearms here") She was about a foot shorter than I at 8 years old... ( I must've stood out like you know what) but I was completely oblivious that we shouldn't be there. My parents were in shock and nearly crazy with fear. There were alot of tears that day of joy and relief.
PAN AMERICAN 3 day flight from San Francisco to the Philippines Islands..DDT spray, strange places boardwalks, mosquitoes, time bombs, rats, a parrot named Sammi, a monkey called RoseBud..I was 6 years old. We lived in a quonset hut in a govt compound, just after the war... guards, barbed wire,household help. Joe, our houseboy, NingNing and Marta, our maids.It was 1946. I went to the International School..we traveled back and forth to school in a"jeepney" which had a colored tin hooded back compartment with benches on each side and open air. It was typical with paint and catholic saint ornaments hanging from every side and the mirrors. We were checked at the compound gate for time bombs, just to make sure no enemy would have hidden one.
My mother and Daddy were having the time of their lives in this humid, tropical exotic new land, especially growing up in Seattle. My father received his degree in the Fisheries Program at the U of Washington. My parents had to elope and keep their marriage quiet in order for him to finish as in those days, you could not be married to go to college.
..this huge colorless compound was bare of foliage with exception of banana trees..It bordered the Philippine Sea, a bit murky, no beach there, just a concrete seawall that followed the main highway.
We played on board walks that wound through the compound, preventing us getting bitten by the explosion of rats that ran around under us.....
The double barbed wire fencing with armed guards were there to keep the "huks" out...(hukbalahuks) .. In the aftermath of the war.. these were the Japanese soldiers who had escaped & hid in the island jungles... in desperation they would come out to rob and look for food.
Our quonset hut ( military DRAB like all the rest) was one that bordered the fence. Many times we would hear gun shots.
The DDt truck would spray every afternoon to protect us from Malaria. We would run behind the truck following in the clouds of poison.
Charming? To a kid, it was just "life" and none of us gave any of it a second thought. Of course our parents were always there with a watchful eye. One time I was MIA and they had the military police looking for me everywhere. They found me, with our maid, Marta, in downtown Manila at a local movie theatre ( with signs bearing"check your firearms here") She was about a foot shorter than I at 8 years old... ( I must've stood out like you know what) but I was completely oblivious that we shouldn't be there. My parents were in shock and nearly crazy with fear. There were alot of tears that day of joy and relief.
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