My friend Joan Sato was born in 1939 and grew up in Kahuku when it was a thriving sugar cane plantation town. She told me what her childhood was like.
“We lived in house No. 2,” Sato recalled. “The Torres lived on our left and the Sugais on our right. Today, Giovanni’s Shrimp truck occupies the property. If you go there, you can still see a portion of the Sugai’s concrete sidewalk which fronted their fishpond. Also, the Singapore plumeria tree that was in our front yard is still there.
“My dad, Takeo Sato, worked for the plantation for over 42 years. The sugar mill was diagonally across the street from our house, about a football field away.
“Dad drove a truck that transported the cane loader from the field, dumping the sugar cane into the ‘cane haul’ trucks that would then head back to the sugar mill for processing.
“The mill’s outflow to the ocean produced memorable fishing for dad and his co-workers. He went every day to the river mouth and caught a lot of fish.”
Sato said that her father used to be a smoker and beer drinker. “I never saw him drink water. In fact, he drank beer like it was water. It was the first thing he did when he got home from work, yet I never saw him drunk.”
Call to work
“I remember the whistle going off at 7 in the morning to announce the start of work, and at 3 in the afternoon for pau hana. Dad always took his lunch in a kaukau tin (a double-decker aluminum lunch pail packed in a blue denim bag).”
When it rained heavily, a man would drive around the neighborhood announcing in English and Ilocano on a loudspeaker that there was no work that day.
Every plantation worker had a metal tag with a number on it for identification. They were called “bango.” You had to show it to be paid. Her dad’s bango number was 2010.
Her mom, Natsuno, also went by the name Elsie. “She used to work at Kahuku Hospital as a utility person. On weekends after dinner she worked in a kitchen at the Irei Restaurant down the street. She usually came home before 2 a.m.”
Sato said that when she was a teenager, she could stay out past 1 a.m. with her friends, since her mom worked late and her dad was a heavy sleeper.
“I had two other brothers, Danny and Alvin, and a younger brother, Andrew. I was the official babysitter for Andrew, who was 10 years younger. I had to drag him around with me everywhere I went. He was the cutest kid with big double eyelids, not slanty like mine.
“Since Mom worked, I did the laundry for the entire family, which in those days was a wringer washer. I usually did about three loads, and the clothes had to be manually rinsed, put through the wringer and then hung on the clothesline with wooden clothespins.
“Being the only girl had its perks. I had my own room with a double bed while my three brothers shared the back bedroom. Actually, I shared the bedroom with a freezer. I had my own desk and a radio.
“Mom sewed a lot of my clothes, and for other people as well. She also used to order clothes for me from a catalog. The sewing room was enclosed on the right side of the porch, fronting my room.”
Snacks
“Two of my passions were cracked seed and li hing mui, which at the time cost a dime. Mom used to keep loose change in the kitchen drawer and never knew that I used to snitch nickels and dimes from her to buy seeds and candy. My favorite candy bar was Love Nest, and that cost a nickel.
“In my defense, I only took one coin at a time and not every day. It was a breeze, since she was sewing in the front of the house. In those days we locked the doors only at night.”
Sato attended Kahuku High and Elementary School, graduating in 1957. “I’ve known some of my classmates from kindergarten to my senior year. We still get together for reunions and other activities.
“When I was in high school, the girls wore dresses every day. No shorts, T-shirts or tank tops. Hoop skirts and crinolines (a stiff petticoat to hold out the skirt) were in fashion then. I wore not just one crinoline, but usually two or three at a time.
“The skirt length was down to the ankles. With me barely being 5 feet tall, it was tricky sitting down. I had to make sure the hoop didn’t rise up in front of my face!
“Kahuku was such a small town that I walked to and from school and went home for lunch. Rarely did I buy lunch from school. I went everywhere barefooted, even up to my senior year. I could walk barefooted anywhere in those days.
“The Oahu Railway trains were still in operation, and I used to balance myself on the steel tracks, imagining myself as a tightrope walker.
“In my neighborhood I was the only girl, so during elementary years I played football and baseball with the boys either across the street on the dusty road or in the neighbor’s backyard. If I didn’t feel like playing with the boys, I’d play with my paper dolls.
“During intermediate and high school, I spent most of my after-school time at the Buddhist church with the other Japanese school kids playing volleyball, baseball or other games. Those were some of the best times, playing with them.”
Transportation
Going to Honolulu was only for special occasions, Sato said. “If I had to go to town, I took Tada’s black taxi (Tadaichi Hayashibara owned the Kahuku Taxi company). They could seat seven passengers. That was the public transportation before TheBus came out to Kahuku.
“The Nuuanu Pali was a narrow, two-lane, winding road. It was some trip going to town for excursions on the school bus on that road. I couldn’t relax until we reached the Pali Lookout.
“I learned how to drive in my dad’s 1939 Plymouth. I was 17 when I went to the Kaneohe Police Station to get my driver’s license. At the time we had a ’48 black DeSoto, which looked like a taxi.
“In those days cars were really distinctive and all American. They each had their own particular shape and front grille. You could spot a Studebaker, Mercury or Ford a block away.
“Nowadays it’s hard to tell one model from another because they look so much alike and many of the brands don’t exist anymore.”
Music
“I loved music. In the early ’50s there was no rock ’n’ roll. It was the era of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Patti Page, Jo Stafford and my favorite singer, Joni James.
“KAHU used to be the top radio station. I would listen to the Hit Parade every Wednesday evening, and if I liked a particular song, I’d copy the lyrics. It would take me about three or four listenings to get it down. It was easy writing the lyrics because back then you could understand what they were singing.
“I also loved going to the movies, which cost 44 cents at the time. Popcorn and cokes were 10 cents each. I was really surprised when Tyrone Power’s death made the front-page headline. James Dean’s car crash in 1955 also sticks in my mind. He was one of my favorites and made the front page, too.”
Leaving Kahuku
“I married a year after high school to Herbert Miranda, who was four years older. We had a boy, Herbert, and a girl, Shari, three years apart. That marriage lasted 13 years. I remained single for 11 years before remarrying Ross Brown, which lasted 23 years.”
Sato earned a master’s degree in social work and worked full time for the state. She retired in 2003 and started volunteering at the Arizona Memorial. She delivered Meals on Wheels for fifteen years.
“In 2018 I developed ovarian cancer. My kids have treated me well and never neglected providing me with food and company.”
Joan Sato died in June. She was 84 and wrote her own eulogy, which I condensed here. It was read by her nephew, Derek Sato, at her memorial. I’ve never seen another do that.
She ended it by writing, “Kahuku to me is now a place of memories, and from time to time, the former residents I know gather to celebrate life’s events, such as this day. Thank you for your remembrance.”
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Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
