Category Archives: John Lind Collection

Documents, photos, and notes in the collection of my dad, John M. Lind, who turned 95 on Dec. 7, 2008.

Throwback Thursday: A dinner with my parents in 1969

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Here’s another photo from way back.

I’m pretty sure this special dinner was soon after Meda and I were married and returned to Honolulu to attend graduate school at UH. We’re sitting at the table in the tiny tiny nook of my parents’ old house in Kahala. Note the so woven lauhala mat covering the floor of the room. The table is set with my mother’s “fancy” glasses, that peak up into the camera’s view, and a tablecloth is in use, not a regular occurrence. Meda and my mother seem to be dressed up a bit, while my dad and I are pretty casual. It doesn’t look like Christmas, since there are no decorations in view.

I’m guessing that this could have been a late celebration of my birthday, delayed until we had arrived back in Honolulu in late August of 1969. If so, it would have been one of the first events in which Meda and I celebrated with my parents.

As usual, you can click on the photo to see a larger version.

Unknown event

Honolulu’s original railroad

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“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” said the lyrics of Joni Mitchell’s 1970 song, “Big Yellow Taxi.” It was written after her first trip to Hawaii, according to a Wikipedia entry about the song.

The thought certainly applies to Oahu’s original railroad, built by Ben Dillingham’s Oahu Railway & Land Co. Between 1898 and 1947, its narrow gauge trains ran from Iwilei out through Waipahu and Ewa, along the Leeward coast, then around Kaena Point to Waialua and as far as Kahuku. There was also a spur that ran from Pearl Harbor up to Wahiawa and Schofield.

The last train ran in 1947, and the tracks were slowly dismantled in subsequent years.

I just ran across an old pamphlet about OR&L, which featured this map of the rail line around Oahu.

Oahu's original railway

[text]That means this photo of a group picnicking along the railroad track in December 1946, probably out near Kaena Point, was near the end of the railroad’s historical run. That’s my father in the striped shirt on the right with my sister, Bonnie.

I discovered my sister had scanned this photo when I was trying to identify the location of another picnic several years earlier, also captured in one of my parents’ old photos. In this photo, a group is spread out in front of a gnarled old tree, with what appeared to be a railroad car visible in the background.

It’s too bad the foresight, and the capital, weren’t available to bring this 71 mile route into the modern age. It’s pretty amazing to look back and think of what might have been.

Finding connections

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Back in April 2013, I scanned and posted a scrapbook put together by the late UH Professor Carey D. Miller from the time of her arrival in Hawaii in 1922 through her travels around the islands during her first year.

I actually posted two entries, the first showing the scrapbook page-by-page, and then a follow-up with larger versions of the 62 tiny photographs that accompanied her tales.

Today I received a reply out of the blue, courtesy of the small world created by the internet and online searching. It’s from a California artist whose great aunt was of one of the women who traveled to Honolulu with Miller and stayed for a year before returning to the mainland.

Dear Ian Lind,

I cried out upon seeing these photos – I was so excited to find my Aunt Hallie Hyde with her friends Carrie and Ada in Hawaii.

Recently, I went back on ancestry to renew my subscription, and noticed that Hallie had taken a trip in 1922 on the ship Wilhemina. After not finding much on the ship, I decided to do a general search on Hawaii in 1922 and found your website and these wonderful photos. I tried to email, but letter came back.

Hallie was one of the few women in 1911 to receive her Master’s Degree in Home Economics in Illinois. Her father was a physician in Brookings, SD. Hallie was an artist as well. My father and I followed in her footsteps in this regard. I am so excited to see photos of my great Aunt Hallie! The last picture I had of her was from her days as a student at South Dakota State College….

Thank you so very much!!!!

I just never know whether any of the historical items I’ve posted will hit home with anyone, and it’s really nice to hear when it happens!

[text]Meantime, it’s Veterans Day, and four years since we scattered my dad’s ashes in the ocean out past the surf break at Ala Moana. Here’s part of what I wrote at the time.

Four canoes from the Waikiki Surf Club, including its legendary Koa racing canoe, Malia, escorted my father’s ashes out of Ala Wai Boat Harbor late yesterday afternoon as we scattered his ashes in the ocean that he loved. It was a very high honor bestowed on the club’s co-founder.

In this photo, Wally Froiseth, co-founder of the Waikiki Surf Club and a friend of my dad’s since 1939, says a simple, “Goodbye, John” as he tossed a final handful of flowers in the water….

It was quite a sendoff. A fine afternoon.

I took photos that day, playing the role of participant-observer, and former Star-Bulletin photographer turned videographer, Dean Sensui, captured it in video. The video is posted on YouTube. You can jump ahead to about the 22 minute mark, where the canoes gather in a rough circle as his ashes and lots of flowers were dropped into the sea.

See who attended the Waikiki Surf Club’s first Christmas party in 1948

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Dec 22, 1948 Here’s another bit of Waikiki history from December 1948, as the Waikiki Surf Club, a relative newcomer in the small world of organized surfing and paddling at the time, was making a big splash.

On Christmas day, the club sponsored what it dubbed the 1st Annual Diamond Head Race, and the competition was fierce as competitors paddled surfboards or long paddle boards from Waikiki to Diamond Head and back. The list of winners from that first race reads like a Who’s Who in the history of surfing. They appear in the photo from left to right.

Rabbit Kekai (#1), George Downing (#2), Robert Krewson (#3), Herbert Bessa (#4), Edward Whaley (#5), Wally Froiseth (#6), Dorian Paskowitz (#7), Frank Freitas (#8), Blue Makua (#9), Russ Takaki (#10).

But there was more going on.

[text]Three days before, on December 22, the club held its first Christmas Party. Earlier, I found a few photographs taken at the party in my dad’s collection of papers and photos. I’ve previously posted a batch of these pictures, including the ones here.

Then this week I ran across the handwritten sign-in sheets for the party. I love finding these remnants that make bring the past to life.

There were 102 men and 51 women on the list.

There are some who became legends. Blue Makua. Wally Froiseth. Bobbie Krewson. Rabbit. Dorian Paskowitz. Others were less well known outside of the community of watermen. Some you wonder about, signing in with names like Twinkle, or Brother. Some names are illegible. I noticed Francis Kennedy Jr., who went on to become chief negotiator for the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association and died in 2001 at the age of just 59. He must have been one of the kids at the party in 1948.

I hope some of you will look through the list and fill us in on those you recognize.

Just click on the page below to look through the whole list, which is divided into kane and wahine.

December 1948