When I was a small child between the ages of 2-3, both my parents used to work full-time, so they used to drop me off at my Grandma's (my Mom's mom) house in Palolo. My Mom's oldest sister lived with my Grandma and since my aunty also had to go to work, Grandma was responsible for watching me every day until either my Mom or Dad picked me up after work.
Going to Grandma's was always an experience. Every day, I followed her everywhere she went (except when she went to the toilet). Whether she was watching TV, or going in the yard to pull weeds, I was right by her side. Of course, when I took my afternoon nap, Grandma was on her own and I have no idea what she did while I was sleeping.
Since my parents would drop me off early in the morning, usually, when I got to Grandma's, she was having coffee. Unbeknownst to my parents for the longest time, Grandma used to give me a cup of coffee with cream and sugar in it. I didn't know coffee wasn't good for me. All I knew was that the coffee Grandma gave me tasted good ... like candy. What made drinking coffee even more fun was that my Grandma taught me to dip a slice of white bread into the coffee before eating it. This was my breakfast a lot of the time.
The highlight of my day at Grandma's every day was right after lunch when the Pupuman used to come up her street. For those of you who don't know who the Pupuman is, he is the one that drives the truck with the fold-up sides with his market-on-wheels. He had vegetables, eggs, and bread, the things everyone needed on a daily basis. Of course, for the kids, he also had a variety of candies. He would go around the neighborhoods and stop so the people that couldn't get to the market often would be able to buy things for themselves. To announce his arrival to your neighborhood, he would toot his horn with the same rhythmic combination every day. When we heard those distinctive tones, we knew the Pupuman was near.
My Grandma would go to see the Pupuman everyday, not because she always had to buy something, but because all the neighborhood women would gather there to talk story. They would spend time talking with each other and the Pupuman so they could catch up on the latest gossip.
Well, every now and then, when the Pupuman would come up my Grandma's street, she would take me out there and she would buy me a Tomoe Ame candy box. This is the candy that had the edible clear wrapping around the chewy sweet candy. Of course, that's not why everyone remembers Tomoe Ame candy. They remembered Tomoe Ame candy because of the toy that was inside the one end of the box. And for me, I would look forward to those days when my Grandma would buy me a Tomoe Ame.
I learned to eat different kinds of foods at Grandma's, but the ones I remember the most are green mangoes with shoyu and black pepper, plain mochi with shoyu and sugar, and kinako mochi. You see, there was a huge Hayden mango tree in the front yard of my Grandma's house and it gave a lot of fruit every year. My Grandma used to pick the green mangoes, cut a few up, and eat them with shoyu and black pepper. Since Grandma ate them that way, I ate them that way too.
Right after New Year's, Grandma would have a lot of mochi because they would pound mochi at her house and Grandma would have some to eat afterwards. She would either eat the plain mochi with shoyu and sugar or make kinako mochi and eat it that way. Again, since Grandma ate the mochi that way, so did I.
These things continued until I was 4, then I went to pre-school, so I didn't get to go to Grandma's during the day. I do remember that whenever I did go to my Grandma's after that, I still drank coffee with the bread, ate green mangoes, and ate mochi the way Grandma did.
My parents and my aunty did find out that my Grandma was giving me coffee, so that eventually stopped. But even though my Grandma couldn't give me coffee with cream and sugar anymore, I still remember the days when I used to sit at her kitchen table and dip my white bread in the coffee and enjoy the taste of the mushy bread and the coffee.
About Author
Leiton "Barney" Hashimoto was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He graduated from Iolani ('76) and University of Denver. In 1987 he moved to Gardena, California. Leiton is employed at Sempra Energy. He is an active board member of the Japanese American Optimist Club of Los Angeles, as well as the Nisei Week Japanese Festival.
