Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 1, 1 January 2009 — Creating our own Frankenstein(s) series: When the going gets tough -- attitude is everything [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Creating our own Frankenstein(s) series: When the going gets tough -- attitude is everything

Upon leaving Kansas in the mid'70s I eame back to Hilo with a pregnant Caroline and our two little ones. We lived for about a month with my in-

laws until it heeame too mueh to handle, especially when working as a security guard for practically nothing - and not being able to put my share of food on the table. We packed up with the clothes on our backs and moved in the Pepe'ekeo apartments. It was an easy move, since we had nothing to move. That Christmas was nothing to behold, I got my kids a plastic kitty bank and a lecture from me on how to make a savings. Whatever slugs I could find went into their kitty bank - how

shame? Fuckily their grandparents eame through and showered them with gifts. With that I went to the heaeh, had a few beers and cried like a big baby - how shame, wot a man - wot a loser? After a few weeks I got a job at Mauna Kea Sugar as a hand fertilizer spreader humping 50-pound sacks through the mud - I sank, Filipinos laughed - that didn't work. I applied as a fertilizer flagman waving in the hiplane to zero in on me and empty his load of Paraquat - that only aggravated my rashes from the Agent Orange that I got in 'Nam - that didn't work either. Then eame the Rock Man position at Hilo Coast Processing Co. To avoid damage to the shredder blades, I had to pull, drag and carry boulder and rocks, engines, iron roofs, cars, trees, dead pigs and other crap that eame from the

harvesting fields - dis I could handle. Having sleepless nights and nightmares from my war experiences, I changed shifts with others who hated the graveyard or swing shifts - now my daytime was free, and I escaped trauma for a time. Fooking for more ways to put food on the table, I realized that a lot of the old sugar camps were beginning to close due to termites and the expansion of eane fields. Folks were then moving into the Kula'imano subdivision just helow my apartment. I also realized that a lot of them were buying new furnishings for their new homes rather than bringing their old stuffs. I made my way to these camps and found that families were leaving behind their cultures - tansu (kimono dresser), kyodan (Iapanese women vanity mirror), food safes, handmade tables made from Koa and Norfolk

pine, solid oak dressers, high-back wicker couches and chairs, '60s style chrome and vinyl kitchen tables, old vases, tea sets, old Singer treadle sewing machines - this was the gold mine that I had been looking for - now being abandoned. The Plantation's rule was when moving in to the new home no termite-infested furniture was allowed - one man's trash, now another man's treasure. With that, I used what little money I had and offered something for what they were going to abandon - that was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do because what little bit I gave was going to be worth more when I

applied my woodworking skills and finished it - it would be "ma-va-lous." And as for Caroline, as most wives, her skepticisms grew - that is, until I began furnishing our apartment with these "refurbished plantation antiques" - then it was lovey-dovey all the time. I needed space (not from her) for more treasure. This is where my third job eame in. The resident manager asked if I could be the groundskeeper since the plaee was going all to hash. We struck a deal with good pay and a large storage space next to the Faundromat that I could use See EN0CENCI0 on page 13

NĀ PAPALE - MANY HATS

By Jimmy F. "Jeiiū'' Enneenein

[?]

EN0CENCI0

CūntinuEd fram page lū as a woodworking shop. Being a young eouple with kids, we were in an area where young families were growing, unbeknownst to everyone that in little more than a decade the plantations would eollapse - and so would most of their livelihood. For me and Caroline, we were lucky during that second phase of our lives (the first phase as newlyweds in the Army on the mainland). Though a disappointing start when coming home and building from nothing, we built something fostered on hopes and dreams, sweat and hard work, and earnest prayer - a partnership with Akua and meeting the right folks. What I'm sharing with you is not to boast, but to serve you a slice of attitude. Tough times will always be with us, as mueh as the good times. It was tough then, it's tough now - so what are you gonna do about k? Well, you could sit wkh your thumb up your arse, or have your head up there and wait for mommy and daddy to pull you out, or social services, or you could steal, beg or borrow (not that we've ever used any of these methods). But to sit and wait for something to happen is like sitting on the commode when eonstipated and all you get is 'rhoids

- not pretty and certainly not very comforting. This is creating your very own Frankenstein - when you sit, do nothing and expect some miracle to happen. Stop building your Frankenstein ! Get eaeh and every family nieniber to pkeh in during these trying times. Forget the plastic world you live in and look past it to those things that really matter, like the basics of having healthy homegrown food on the table, roof over our wives' and kids' heads, modest clothes to wear. Make do with what get - hey brahda, you may need to get rid of that big tonka truck you driving for looks but not for haulin' - if you haul, den make sense. And a small word of advice when coping with these stressors - stay away from using aleohol and drugs, and certainly refrain from selling it to compensate ineome; you'll lose everything. Stay away from the strip joints. If you need any of these things to relieve the pressure, share an 0'Douls with your wife (remember she's under a lot of pressure too). When the going gets tough, the tough get going - attitude is everything. Jeno Enoeeneio writes about the many hats he wears. This is the second in an ongoing series that examines what people ean do to avoid creating their own Frankensteins, or monsters. Contact him at poiniman _Jeno@msn.com. ^