Wilder Road
We
got off the main highway on Kaumana Drive and turned onto Wilder Drive about
two miles from Hilo. There we saw the house that we lived in all those years
ago. Considering it is the same age as the house I live in today, it was newly
renovated.
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| our house in 1979 |
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| The house today |
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| Marc in front of house |
When
we lived in our house, there were sacred “ti” plants on the four corners, to
keep the evil spirits out.
We had a small, untidy hedge
consisting of poinsettia plants facing the road. The front yard was
predominantly black lava rocks with various piles of lava representing
mountains, rivers, etc.
We had “hapu’u” or tree ferns
were about the yard, with Ed planting a row of them on the right side of the
house and various small climbing orchids growing on it.
The backyard was a shallow
layer of dirt planted in grass, over lava. Frogs loved to hide in
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| Marc on top of the pile of dirt while we made a back yard |
the pockets
of water in the backyard, and I recall turning on the back-patio light one
night and watched the frogs jump in the yard. It wasn’t an ideal backyard to
play football in, so Ed ordered a huge pile of dirt, leveled it out planted
grass that made a real back yard.
The
inside of the house had a dining room, three bedrooms, a kitchen, and two
bathrooms. The master bedroom had in addition to an attaching bathroom, a
dressing room with a mirror and a seat to sit and do your makeup. I loved the
dressing room and when Ed and I finally retired from the military and built our
home in Centerville, Ed remodeled the house and made me a dressing room (with a
seat) as part of my bedroom.
Our subdivision was the
last built on the side of the mountain and there was only jungle across the
street from us. Marc and the other kids used to play in the jungle. I would go
and yell, and they would hear me and come out. They were very familiar with the
dangers of the jungle (bobby-trapped marijuana fields) and knew not to go near
them.
Hilo
Hilo,
itself hadn’t changed much. Walking along downtown I was reminded that we were
all
in tsunami territory. There was a terrible tsunami in 1946 that totally
wiped out Hilo and Lau pahoehoe (which we’ll go to next). One of the reasons
for being hit so hard was the bay in Hilo. It channeled the wave to become
narrower and higher. I recalled years ago when we lived in Hawaii, we were in
the downtown bay area (which does not have a lot of buildings) and the
tsunami-warning horns blared. I didn’t know what to do and the kids kept
running around. A uniformed man came and told us that in was just a warning,
but if it had been real, we’d all have died because we didn’t head for high
land.
We ate at a place called
“Lucy’s Taqueria” and had Mexican food. I had the hugest burrito I’ve ever
seen. We went to a market and bought a coconut which we split open and had some
coconut water.
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| Aiden, Diana & Jason under banyan tree. |
On
our way to Liliuokalani Park, we drove on Banyan Drive and saw lots of huge
banyan trees. I
recalled how in the summer when we lived in Hawaii, The Hilo Community Players
(performing since 1938) always had a play in the park. I especially remember
the year they
did “Midsummer’s Dream” under
the Banyan Trees and it really was a treat. We took the kids, too—no wonder our
kids are theater crazy!
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