Here are a couple more old papers that I round in the past couple of days. Click on either one to see a larger version.

Top: A copy of my parent’s offer to buy their home on Kealaolu Avenue. In November 1942, they put $100 down on the full purchase price of $6,000 for a small home on a lot leased from Bishop Estate.

They lived there until their deaths. My mom, who outlived my father by just over two years, lived in the same house for 70 years. And now we’ve moved into a remodeled version of the same house.

That’s probably an unusual degree of continuity in this day and age. And there’s another measure of continuity–the telephone number.

In 1942, Honolulu had 5 digit phone numbers. Ours was 78194, the number shown on the real estate form. That’s the phone number I grew up with, the one I had to remember when I went off to school.

It was years later that the phone company moved to seven-digit numbers. It required us to insert “3-4” after the first number. So “78194” became “734-8194”. And that is still our home phone number today.

Bottom:

The paperwork on my dad’s purchase of a new 1947 Chevy Aerosedan from Aloha Motors.

Total cost: $1,964.11.

It looks like he was doing well enough to pay for the car in just two payments, a larger amount down and the balance on delivery.

I don’t remember this car, which was purchased just before I was born. About the time of conception, if I count the months right.