Posted by Robert Ebanez on February 15, 2009 at 8:00am
This Filipino boy straight off the ship from Manila to the shores of Hawaii nei and on to Ka'u. His father worked for Ka'u sugar company and his mom did odds and ends stuff to keep their family together. Hymie was a kahu for his younger siblings. They could open up their own school since they had plenty kids...plenty kids....Uncle and auntie had a productive baby factory over the last 10 years...as the Filipino blood...wait i'm Filipino too....He really wanted to hang out with me and Cyril Lopez and go surfing or do nothing...you know, nothing...nah I was always doing something, since my middle name was Kolohe....what we didn't want to do, we had Hymie do it for us....hey...chain of command...that is how we get things done...smart huh....This braddah would do anything to hang out with us...i mean anything.. when we went holo holo we took Hymie with us ..We had our own private servant..... I felt like a King...We went holo holo by Kawa in 1973 and made Hymie carry all the heavy gear to our fishing spot. It was nice to have your own butler. We would catch the fish and Hymie would take the hook off the fish for us. We were Kings...the deal was Cy and I would take some fish and Hymie would keep the rest...At Kawa we found this nice fishing spot on a ledge with a 5 foot drop to the sea...we got there about 9pm so finding this spot was like an adventure at night,since we really didn't know where the heck we were...we climbed down a bluff to get to this spot...I was tired carry my fishing pole, so you can imagine how braddah Hymie felt carrying the rest of our gear. This spot was awesome, we must have filled almost two coolers of fish...hey holo holo in those days was the bomb.....not like today on Oahu ,my kids catch aina....no mo fish...better off go foodland buy the fish..What? Am I right? or Am I wrong? See....no mo fish here.....When we were leaving to go home,climbing up the bluff,we heard this huge wave crashing behind us,we turned around and saw the spot we were fishing earlier was covered by the ocean...Awesome brah...it 's like a secret spot, that is a dangerous place to be, at the wrong time of the day.When Cy and I dropped off Hymie, all his siblings came out to see their older brother. We saw the smiles on their faces, knowing they now have food on the table because of Hymie....We told Hymie, hold on to the coolers, we come back tomorrow and take you camping and teach yu how to surf.We said, keep all the fish braddah you earned it. He was surprised that we did that and then we left.We could see it in his face how proud he was providing food for his family and the happy faces of his little brothers and sisters who look up to their big brother from Manila. That is what life is all about, care and love.Yeah?We are warriors brah, we take care people that earn our respect....I finish this story latta.........I gotta go meet my mo'opuna's at Pearl Ridge this morning...I no like be late again...bumbuy i get scolding from my ex.....Bobby E_____________________________________________________________Feb 16 7;00 pmContinue....................I had to wait for Cyril to pau work. He picked me up first,then Hymie and we all left Pahala to camp at our surf spot. My mom always worried about me going surfing. She always said don't turn your back on the ocean. Which made sense.We got to our surf spot and noticed another surfer's car parked there. It was Don Sakata and Mike Derasin, my classmates sleeping in the car. We told them we were going to camp on the beach and they could come with us. Since the moon was almost full we could see the trail,and we had flash lights too.One can get lost easily, walking at night at an unfamiliar location. Couple times before, we thought we were on the trail, but ended in an enclosed Heaiu so,we had to back track.We got there about 9 pm and set up camp. No tents. Just hope no rain. The fire place is the key to keep us warm. So gathering fire wood is important. So we had our little surfer's party, then we got hungry,but we neva had anything to eat.Cyril said his mom put food in his back pack. As we sat in a circle waiting to be fed, Cyril busted out this can cookies, you know the kind for Christmas in the can, we started clapping with excitement for the cookies.When he opened the can cookies we were shocked to see no cookies......But his mom made musubi's...It was magic....we were laughing....kinda dumb yeah....he he...magic..musubi's....from cookies..So, we were full from dinner and making our beds around the camp fire,but the fire needed more wood. Most of the wood here are drift wood and they burn faster than the hard woods. So somebody had to get fire wood in the cold.Our butler Hymie said he will get it for us, we did volunteer to help him,but that was his job to him. he he So, Hymie left alone to get fire wood.in the cold of the night.We were in our sleeping bags for about 30 minutes waiting for Hymie. We wondered,what happened to him, cause the fire was dying out and we were getting cold. We were saying to each other, he must have gone to the forest to find wood and we were laughing and giggling. oh the things we said about Hymie while he was gone..just like a frat House...talking do do and having fun.....Then, I saw something like a canoe moving towards us on the beach. It was Hymie carrying this freakin large log balanced on his head. No joke brah...On his head. and yet he bent down to pick up more fire wood to stack on his head. Now Hymie weights no more than 115lbs.....Amazing...just like in the circus...We couldn't stop laughing for several minutes....Shooooots This Circus show was free...that's even betta..he heHymie said that is how they carry the wood from the forest in the Philipines..on their head..amazing...So he threw that large log onto the fire place, along with the other wood he gathered.It turned into a freakin Bon Fire!I thought the fire dept was going to come....We ended up sleeping far away from the Bon fire because of the heat...Crazy Bulter......______________________________________________continue Feb 17, 2009 10:21pmIn the morning before the sun was up we were waxing our boards and getting ready to hit the water. I was telling Hymie to relax and center his body all the time,don't stiffen your body, cause you will be out of balance. We all gave him advice as he caught the closed out waves and was having fun in the water. I knew then this kid would be okay .As he progressed, he had to take his licks too. You learn very quickly on what to do ,and what not to do, in surfing. We all pay our dues..By 9am, this place gets choppy and blown out ,at times it can get a freak wave come rolling in. So.it is always fun watching these guys get creamed by the freak wave. That's how they learn.Hymie, said he was going to show us how to fish. His fishing poles were in his bag. I said how you when fit all those fishing poles in your small bag? He reaches into his small bag and pulls out a bunch of chop sticks...about 75 chop sticks with fishing lines and hook on each chop stick.I said, you gotta be joking.....you expect us to catch fish with those chop sticks ..we going starve brah....We ate all the magic musubi's last night...so this is not funny..cause we all were freakin hungry....We went to the fresh water pond and stuck each chop stick with bait into the muddy edge of the pond and when we finished setting each pole, we check the first pole and bingo a small fish with the big head was hooked. We caught alot to feed all of us that morning.Then we had to leave cause Cy had to work. magic musubi's from cookies, Hymie's Circus show with chop sticks.......we had fun....Where ever you are Hymie, take care braddah....my butler...he heBobby E
I hope other people read my writings and have an understanding of life back then and figure a way to preserve the beauty of our islands and its people today. One reader asked me yesterday, if I was a writer and I said no Im not.
I just write this because of my passion for life in the islands and to show someone the love I have for everything living and to pay my respects to the people before us that loved us. It is a very simple formula for man to embrace the concept of love from their ancestors who we never met on earth, unless u no...he he..yu meet them face to face on earth...Do you think that your dad and my mom are watching over us? the answer is yes. Do you think their parents are watching over us...again the asnswer is yes ...because why...they love their ohana! and the chain continues back in one's family. make sense?
Life is what we make of it and people will continue to do whatever they do,but somethings are Pono and some things are not. People can be selfish,greedy, jerks...etc... this will not change . it's that when we have justice and equal rights then maybe man will not have these types of illness....yeah?
Nevertheless,I really believe that what goes around comes around.
Braddah Bobbie,
I love listening to your stories about growing up in Ka'u. It reminds me of my hana butta days spending summers on Kaua'i w/ our hanai ohana. The sixties and seventies, those 2 decades hold priceless memories for me. We spent many nights camping under the stars, catching sand crabs, and building bonfires. My brothers would go torching on the reefs of Anini w/ my Dad and Uncle guys or crabbing up the river. We always had plenty fish to eat in those days. Uncle knew all the moi holes in the ahupua'a and my Dad was his bag boy. He had the hardest job, could barely carry the bag it was so full. Mahalo for sharing another adventure of your boyhood in Ka'u. It is ALMOST as good as being there.
Aloha no.
Comments
I hope other people read my writings and have an understanding of life back then and figure a way to preserve the beauty of our islands and its people today. One reader asked me yesterday, if I was a writer and I said no Im not.
I just write this because of my passion for life in the islands and to show someone the love I have for everything living and to pay my respects to the people before us that loved us. It is a very simple formula for man to embrace the concept of love from their ancestors who we never met on earth, unless u no...he he..yu meet them face to face on earth...Do you think that your dad and my mom are watching over us? the answer is yes. Do you think their parents are watching over us...again the asnswer is yes ...because why...they love their ohana! and the chain continues back in one's family. make sense?
Life is what we make of it and people will continue to do whatever they do,but somethings are Pono and some things are not. People can be selfish,greedy, jerks...etc... this will not change . it's that when we have justice and equal rights then maybe man will not have these types of illness....yeah?
Nevertheless,I really believe that what goes around comes around.
Love you Mili and ohana
God Bless
Bobby E
I love listening to your stories about growing up in Ka'u. It reminds me of my hana butta days spending summers on Kaua'i w/ our hanai ohana. The sixties and seventies, those 2 decades hold priceless memories for me. We spent many nights camping under the stars, catching sand crabs, and building bonfires. My brothers would go torching on the reefs of Anini w/ my Dad and Uncle guys or crabbing up the river. We always had plenty fish to eat in those days. Uncle knew all the moi holes in the ahupua'a and my Dad was his bag boy. He had the hardest job, could barely carry the bag it was so full. Mahalo for sharing another adventure of your boyhood in Ka'u. It is ALMOST as good as being there.
Aloha no.