Actually, in this case, mostly found.
Three items dredged up yesterday afternoon.
First…a flashback to being in the JPOs at Kahala Elementary School. At least we always just referred to ourselves as JPOs (Junior Police Officers), not Junior Traffic Police as the card indicates.
I have sort of indistinct memories of being marched around and being sent off to “compete” with other schools marching in some kind of drill formation. I don’t think I did very well at that “just obey orders” stuff, even then. I have more distinct memories of how the guys felt when a “girl” (or was it two girls?) was put in charge. Ouch! There was a lot of quiet resentment, as I recall. Grade school boys in 1958 weren’t ready for feminism. How far we’ve come, I hope.
I wish I could remember the name(s). If I look at one of my old class pictures, it will probably come back to me. Or maybe not.
Then, still on a police theme, there was a copy of a June 24, 1965 memo from Lt. Colonel E.W. Corcoran, commander of the Hawaiian Armed Services Police, concerning the employment of military personnel as security guards at Matson terminals. The off-duty military personnel were brought in by Burns Detective Agency, replacing unionized civilian guards represented by the ILWU. The situation apparently led to a labor dispute with the ILWU and a complaint to the military.
Corcoran reports that he met with a Mr. Hitchcock, Burns’ manager, who said the agency employed about 200 guards, half of them military personnel. It was “agreed” that at midnight of the same day, “he would remove all military personnel from the disputed area.”
Just a small glimpse into labor relations during that period.
Finally, I dug out a yellowed newspaper clipping, a “Prep Parade” column by longtime Star-Bulletin sports writer, Bill Kwon. It dates from the Spring of 1965. The second part of the column comments on the first “Class B” State Basketball Tournament, won by what was then University High School. I was co-captain of the team, although in retrospect I don’t think I was ever a very good basketball player. The last paragraph of Kwon’s column mentions me, although I think he stretched the facts to describe me as “one of the UH stars.”
I recall that we used to read Bill Kwon’s reporting religiously during basketball season, getting info on teams we would be playing. How weird it was to find myself as one of Kwon’s co-workers at the Star-Bulletin 30 years later! Round and round.
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During my JPO days, which were a bit more recent than yours, we had a girls squad and a boys squad, which alternated weeks.
We joined because every year there would be a great picnic thrown for the JPOs, during school. We’d leave class right after morning recess, get bused to a park for the picnic, and get bused back just in time to for afterschool duty.
I was a JPO, too. We had girls in JPOs. The head of our detail was a girl. I was kinda sweet on her. Not sure if it was the uniform or the power that made her so attractive!
Other kids called us “Japanese Popcorn Operators.”
One of our duties was to raise the flag before school and haul it down at the end of the day. And, if it started to rain, one of us would be assigned to run and take it down. Flag etiquette was drilled into us. Later, as a Boy Scout, the lesson was reinforced.
Today, when I see “conservatives” fly the flag 24 hours, rain or shine, it still rubs me wrong.
Hmmmm. I had forgotten (repressed?) all that time practicing the ritual folding of the flag the proper way.
I had flag duty too, until I got reassigned to bugling.