Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 4, 1 April 1992 — A loving memory" [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A loving memory"

by Louis Hao Trustce, Moloka'i

Aloha Mai! This Mo'olelo is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Mona Doris Kaholo Hao, who was born on June 15, 1915, and died on February 14, 1992 (Valentine's Day), and to Eugene Kaupiko,

wno was oorn on March 17, 1907 (St. Patrick's Day) and died on March 1, 1992. Gone are two people whose roles linked my enriched Hawaiian cultural past to its cosmopolitan present. My mother was from Pu'uanahulu, Kona, on the lsland of Hawai'i. Her parents were Lizzy Alapai and Joseph Iokewe Kaholo, who was better known as "Sonny" Kaholo. Grandpa

worked as a paniolo at Pu'uwa'awa'a Ranch for more than 50 years. According to my mother, grandpa was the unsurpassed sharpshooter of Kona and he was distinctive for another reason also. You see, my grandpa was born with a deformed left hand. Only his thumb and baby finger were normal, the others were clenched into a tight fist. Surely, he initiated the "shaka" sign whieh is so commonly used today, because whenever he waved his left hand — there it was, naturally! He would lay his rifle in his "shaka" hand, between his thumb and baby finger while on his hunting expeditions and he would eall his shots with amazing accuracy.

My mother was knowledgeable about our family history. She was the oral historian for the Kaholo family. She knew our genealogy and she could recite it from memory, name after name, linking family member to family member in generations past. Mama told me that the Kaholo family onee lived in Ka'u, having arrived there from Kahakuloa, Maui. Grandpa's ancestor ran away from Maui and I have yet to find out why, how, and when they got to the Island of Hawai'i. My mother also told me that grandma Lizzy Alapai eame from Kona. Now fhe Alapai family is so large that there is a strong need for us to eome together and identify our 'ohana. Wherever we would travel and meet 'ohana, mama would effortlessly begin to recite, linking them to us. It was truly amazing. I failed to tape record this information, and this I regret very deeply.

1 still cannot believe that this part of our family history is gone. I still have that feeling that whenever any family members want to know something about our genealogy, all they have to do is eome to mama. I witnessed this happening so many times in the past. I can't get

used to the fact that this family tradition and the person who could perform it are gone. Mama was an oral family historian in the most authentic sense. I deeply miss my mother. Aloha no wau i ko'u mama. When I was a youngster, our family spent the summers in either Ho'okena or Miloli'i through the World War II years and up to 1949. I learned to swim there in Miloli'i, where my dad and Eugene Kaupiko had been boyhood friends. They grew up together, played in sports together, and even paddled eanoe together in the 1920s. In those days Miloli'i's elaim to fame were the baseball team and the eanoe paddling team.

According to my father, Eugene Kaupiko was a member of the 1927, '28 and '29 Miloli'i baseball teams and the eanoe club. There were 15 baseball team members: 01iva Pohina, John Apo, Joe Kuhauhia, John Hailele, William Kahele, Antone Watanabe, Daniel Kawa'auhau, Edward Kawa'auhau, Henry Kawa'auhau, Albert Kaupiko, Junior Kaupiko, Lipa Kaupiko, Eugene Kaupiko, Rufus Kaupiko, and my dad, Louis Hao. They were sponsored by Emmaline Magoon of Pahoehoe Ranch and coached by their school teacher, a Mr. Miyaki. What was most amazing about this team was that they were the best team in Kona, yet there was no baseball field in Miloli'i. Even more incredible was the Miloli'i eanoe club, coached by David Kaupiko. The "Malolo," a racing eanoe built by Kekumu Kawaauhau in 1925, won every race it entered in Honaunau on July 4, 1928. What was more astonishing was that it competed with the O'ahu eanoe clubs with the famous Kahanamoku brothers, including Duke himself. That made the Miloli'i club the best in the Territory of Hawai'i ! The "Malolo" never lost a race during her years in Miloli'i. There has been some talk about locating this eanoe and its sister eanoe the Nai'a whieh was built in 1933 land returning them from Honolulu to their home in Miloli'i.

In more recent times, Eugene Kaupiko and my dad would sit around in Miloli'i and talk story in Hawaiian. I would listen to them as they laughed and talked about the good old days in Miloli'i. It was a bittersweet reflection for them, you see, because they were the only two remaining out of 15 original members. Now Eugene is gone, and my 84-year-old father (he will be 85 this June 1) is the only old-timer left. With the passing of Eugene Kaupiko and my mother, Mona Kaholo Hao, an era comes to a close. For me those two were bridges between the bygone days and the present. Now those bridges are gone forever.