The date: December 31, 1969. New Year’s Eve.

We spent the evening at my parents’ place in Kahala. At least that’s what the photo record shows.

There are two mango trees in the back yard in Kahala. One, a white Bombay Pirie, was planted when my sister, Bonnie, was born. The other, a wonderful haden mango, was planted when I came along.

In the top photo, I’m hanging small strings of firecrackers on Bonnie’s pirie to be set off as midnight approached.

In the middle photo, Meda is hanging firecrackers on my tree.

Although the trees are much smaller than they are today, you can recognize them by distinctive shapes or patterns of branches. I wouldn’t have though this would be possible, in light of the more than four intervening decades, but I could immediately tell one from the other in the old photos.

I’ve added another photo, below, to show what the trees looked like in early 2013. In this photo, the pirie is on the right.

Finally, here’s one that goes back to the beginning of the trees. If I’m not mistaken, this was Bonnie’s pirie mango soon after it was planted in the Spring of 1943. That’s my mother’s dog, Kiki, making herself at home. In the background are the trees and bushes that first gave way to wartime farms, and before all were cleared out for more homes along Makaiwa Street and beyond.