The days of my youth in Damon Tract were the best times of my life. If you do not know where Damon Tract is, or were born after Hawaii became a state, you better talk with your parents or grandparents.

When I was real young, about 6 or 7 years old, my older bradas and friends did some real mean and naughty things. This group included my older bradas, my cousin Leo and our across the street friend, Tote. My older brada Marty was the ringleader, he was the type who did not say much. He did most of his talking with actual deeds. He would have his gang follow-up with the dirty works.

Devilish deeds always occurred when there was something special going on like parties or holidays. Like when my uncle Delmar got married or when our next door neighbors had their weekly chicken-fights in the back yard, and not to be forgotten, the Christmas holidays.

I like start with our Christmas episode. Our house was located on the main street (P Road) where the bus route was. Our house front and back yard was real big. Our back door neighbors would cut across our back yard to the front yard to catch the bus on P road.

One year I think it was 1950, my two bradas, Marty and Richard. and their friend Tote went set up our famous "Garage to breadfruit tree boobytrap".

The trap was very simple. They took some burlap ricebags and filled it with all kine of stuff. Things like my brada Marty's pigeon droppings (kaka), some duck and chicken feathers, small kine rocks, sand and dirt plus some few rotten eggs from our so-called unproductive ducks, and other contaminated materials which I cannot remember. The filled burlap bag or bags would be hoisted and positioned on the breadfruit tree branch in the middle of the path or trail near the garage. Dem guys knew how to use pulleys and heavy duty rope linked from the breadfruit tree to the main house that was about 40 yards away.

The idea was to use a spotter or lookout guy so that a signal could be given well in advance. Whenever a person was nearing the area and once in the kill zone, the bag would be dropped. I can still remember how wonderful this trap worked. We all were young and irresponsible and no care who we damaged. To us it was so funny. Me laughing so much my bradas, cousin Leo and Tote telling me to shut up. It seems like all the times we pulled this off, it only hit our old Filipino neighbors.They would cuss and swear in broken-kine Filipino while they tried to clean up after all the dirty "goodies" in the ricebag opened on them. My bradas had real good lickens, we had to give up with the trap.

Other mean and nasty deeds they often performed was like when there was a party going on in the neighborhood. My brada Marty along with his sidekick Tote would act like John Wayne. They would throw rotten duck eggs around the party area and watch with sheer delight all the screaming, disgusted people react.

We used to play with our other neighbor friends like Baby Francis and his brada who lived next door to Tote's family. My brada Marty and Tote would play with this little girl, her name was "Josy" and I think she was around my age (6 or 7) years old. She always like stay and play with the boys, and she no like go home. So, one time my brada them guys would have her dance for them and for her to take her clothes off. This went on for awhile until one time her mother caught my brada,Tote and the odda guys. She was real angry. She went and told our parents, my brada got real good-kine lickens again from our father.

The gang and some odda neighbor friends also played a game called, "Tree-tag". In the middle of our yard towards the back, we had this real big, old Tamarind tree with branches all over the roof. Whoever was "it" would have to tag or touch whomever they could in the tree. The rule of the game was that, you had to stay in the tree, no can touch the ground or anything. We would all climb like crazy to get away and the idea was to be the last one to be tagged. Tote would always win the game. He climbed and moved like a real monkey. Nobody could climb as fast or go to the top of the tree like he could, several times some of the guys would try to copy Tote, only to fall to the ground.

When times was slow and there was nothing to do in the afternoon, the older guys would hang around our back yard and play "peeping tom" to the house adjacent to our house and watch this real pretty girl in her room getting ready to take a shower or something.

There, however, was some less than mischievous things we did. Every Sunday morning, my two bradas and Tote would allow themselves a day of grace with the good Lord by changing their mischievous demeanor and don the Roman Catholic Alterboy outfit. They would serve Mass with the priest of St. Philamena Catholic Church on "T" road in Damon Tract.

To the best of my recollection Sundays was a holy day for us and we were required to maintain cleanliness and stay proper as dictated by our very strict parents.

Over the years, as I return to the islands, and fly into Honolulu International Airport, I can still remember the kolohe stuffs we did. I still see and hear the sounds of joy and laughter of the old Damon Tract where our house on 477 "P" road once stood.

Frank D. Ramirez, born at St. Francis Hospital, Honolulu. Attended St. Anthony's Catholic School. Moved to San Diego, CA. Graduated from Mar Vista High School, Imperial Beach, CA and San Diego State College. Was drafted into the US Army, attended Armor Branch Officer's Candidate School, received 2LT Commission, served tours in South Korea, & South Vietnam. Now working with the United States Postal Services in Suisun City, CA. Enjoys fishing, hiking, reading and playing golf. Has a lovely son with gifted abilities to go along with his BS degree in Digital Photography from Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara, CA.

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