One of my favorite bes places as a hanabuddah kid was a place dat I was not supposed to go to. It was a hideout, campground, playground, and even a learning centa. It was not a pretty place but it had one beeg putt in my life. Da place was jus like magic. It had some beeg trees, Kiawe and Banyan and even a coconut tree and plenty koa bushes to hide in,oh yeah, had plenty honohono grass, too.. Us guys in the naybahood knew it as "Old Glory". It was just a small pond by the side of Farrington Highway, in Waiau, overgrown wit weeds and home to frogs, crawfish, snails, mudhens, Paltats, Punghee and whatever else had in da tall swampy bushes. If you just passed by you even wouldn't notice it unless you went off the road and actually fell insai it.
Wen I firss move into the naybahood there was only a few houses and so I was free to go anyplace dat I wanted to explore. One day while, tromping trew the tall grass by dah wattah cress patch, my good fren Johnny and me discovered or rather had fall into "Old Glory". We didn't name it then but whenever we wanted to swim it was fo shua dat datt was the place we was going to go. Dea was plenty swimming places like Pump 6, Hawaiian Electric, Dead Man Tree, Pump 7, 18 Bridge and so on .Whenever we went swimming, da firss question was ,whea we goin and we would tink in awa heds."Old Faithful" of coss. Yeah, dat was in awa heds but wat come out da mout was "Old Glory". Az was da code word we used. So we had keep dat name till dis day. Eh, no laff eh, we was only country keeds.
The wattah was springfed from the watercress patch just above "Old Glory" and it was sweet to the taste, cool, clear and so inviting . We grew up to love dis place and became very protective of it. We wud go beef anybody who went swim there without us. Eh, one time had a big noise up on the road so I went up dea naked to go see wat was going on, an guess wat, I had stand dea by da side of da road watching President Truman drove by in dis beeg ca, wit a whole bunch of HPD cops and MPs, on his way to Schofield. Da guys neva believe me wen I tole dam dat. But I know wat I had see!
We had good fun ova dea. We neva had bathing suits so we go swim bare ass. As wat da beeg boys use to say. You eva play masta in da wattah? Good fun, man. Wen you firss go in, da wattah real clea but den evrybody go in, the wattah get all brown and no can see the bottom. Den you can hide in da tall grass and nobody can fine you until the wattah come clea again. We used to play until uwa skin was all wrinkle like da ol ladies. Sometimes, we play so long dat da Japanee man, who own da watahcress patck below "Old Glory" wud come and chase us away becuz his wattah was all brown and pilau looking. But we wud come back wen he went away.
You know wat, wen we bored of swimming we wud go eat mangos sumplase or plums, da purple kine or get clams from Pearl Harbor and at da same time drive the Navy cops pupule. We wud pick clams until uwa pants all full wit clams while someone else watched for da Navy cops in dere gray jeeps. You see, had one high cyclone fence between us, da cops and da oil drums dat dey were gudding. Dey couldn't get us cuz nava had road where we was juss railroad tracks. He wud be yelling at us dat we cudn't take clams but we just walk away eating the clams raw and giving heem da stink eye. Wat a life, eating clams and wattah cress. Sumtimes we wud bring mayonayse and shoyu,. for da wattah cress. I can taste it now.
Wen we get back to "Old Glory", we always make fiya for cook da clams. Hoooh, some ono, boy! As why had get plenty clam shells ova dea. You know sumting, we always had matches for make da fiya. Good fun making fiya. We use to challenge each uddah to see who cud make fiya the fastest using only one spak. Sumtime the fiya so beeg dat all the hea on awa legs all burn up. Wen you look at your leg, all da hea all ashes. As why, I tell my wife, I no mo hea on my legs.
There are many warm memories with "Old Glory" and when I go home I always go by there to breathe and listen for the old sounds and smells of small keed time. Zippy's stand there now and nowadays it's saimin or hawaiian plate lunch and not clams and watercress.
About Author
Renato "Richard" Costales is originally from Pearl City, Oahu. He spent part of his youth in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. He now lives in Petaluma, California. He graduated from Waipahu High School ('57).
Been on the mainland too long and miss the islands too much. Hope to return to Maui in three years. I look forward to more Hanabuddah stories. Brings back great memories.
