Category Archives: Vintage Hawaii

Petland announces it is in the process of closing

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Bad news.

Petland, longtime independent pet store in Kahala, is closing, according to a story in Pacific Business News.

PBN quotes Richard Matsui, son of store owner Ken Matsui.

“In my lifetime, the shifts that I saw was they survived Walmart coming into town,” Matsui said. “They survived Petsmart coming to town. Petco coming to town. But I think it’s a real question about whether or not we would survive in the era of Amazon having that big warehouse opening up. My understanding is that Amazon’s going to start offering same-day delivery. So, you’re going to have this player that’s going to have a convenience level that can’t be beat — same-day delivery to your door — at a cost structure that’s just fundamentally different than any local business here.”

I vividly recall my father’s small restaurant supply business confronting the earlier business upheaval after Costco opened its first store in Honolulu. This was probably somewhere around 1995 or so, a few years before he finally retired at age 85.

Several years before, he had given us a set of good quality plastic chairs to set out on our back deck in Kaaawa. These were commercial quality, better than the plastic chairs normally found in discount stores. This were items he pulled from his Honolulu Restaurant Supply Company inventory, as process he repeated on many holidays.

At some point, to explain the impact of the “big box” stores, he said customers were now able to buy the same chairs at Costco for a lower price than he was offered by the manufacturer after many years as an authorized dealer. It was becoming harder and harder to escape the shadow of Costco and the other national retailers. He retired just a few years later after finishing “one last big job,” which was a complete renovation of the kitchens at what was then the Hotel Hana Maui.

We’re going to miss the convenience of Petland in Kahala, and the benefit of buying from a locally-owned small business.

It’s also personal. If I’m not mistaken, we brought home our first cat, a tiny gray kitten tiger, from Petland’s predecessor, Birdland, in Ala Moana Center in 1969. Meda and I had been married for less than a month, and just returned to Honolulu to enter graduate school. That kitten grew into a great cat. She lived to the age of 19, and died not long after we moved to Kaaawa in the summer of 1988.

A short run up the street

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I came across this old clipping yesterday while looking for something else. I guess that’s often the way it works.

The story appeared in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on January 7, 1947, and credits my mother, referred to in the style of the the time as “Mrs. John Lind of 934 Kealaolu Ave,” with providing a description that led to the arrest of a 15-year old boy for a series of burglaries in our neighborhood, including the house right next door, one around the corner on Farmers Road, and another way up at the far end of Kealaolu Ave.

Just click on the clipping to read a larger version.

But the newspaper article fails to tell the rest of the story.

It correctly notes that the young burglar was coming into the house through a door from the shower that opened to the yard on the side of the house, which was common in those days so that you could come home from the beach and go right into the shower.

But the reason my mother was able to give a good description is that when he ran, she ran after him, chasing him up the street to Farmers Road, about 1/4 mile, which took long enough for her to remember the details of his appearance.

She was 33 at the time, mother of a three-year old, and I was “coming soon” later that year.

The story of her daring dash was told and retold numerous times at parties or family gatherings, much to her pleasure.

Except for being identified only as the wife of John Lind, a practice which she frequently criticized, she was quietly pleased about the notice.

A Christmas letter describes island life after 3 years of WWII

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This is a follow-up to my post on Sunday of a Christmas letter from December 1942 by UH Professor Carey D. Miller.

Two years later, in December 1944, Miller sent a similar letter updating friends on conditions in Hawaii after three years of war, most of that time spent under martial law.

This post first appeared here in 2008.

With so many jobs lost, dreams deferred, and savings evaporated by the financial meltdown, wars continuing on several fronts, and uncertainty so prevalent, it’s useful to look back for perspective.

In December 1944, University of Hawaii Professor Carey D. Miller sat down and wrote a Christmas letter to friends conveying thoughts for the Christmas season.

“That much hoped-for-end-of-the-war seems to be receeding, though the general situation is more favorable than last year,” she began.

The explained that after finding herself annoyed about several small things, “I tried to be a cheerful Job-ana and think of all the things I had to be thankful for.”

And this became the theme of her Christmas letter.

Among the things Miller expressed thanks for:

• “…a good job and sufficient health and energy to carry on.”

• “…a comfortable home of our own. The housing situation is so acute in Honolulu that we feel almost guilty to have a spare room, even though it is frequently used by newcomers and visitors.”

• “…space to raise most of our own fruits and vegetables which give us a better diet and means jut that much less food to be shipped in.”

• “…the (household) help that we have….A girl from one of the other Islands who is attending business school is with us for the second year. She prepares the evening meal and washes the dishes. Her repertoire is limited, but she really does very well.”

• “And we have a yard man!”

• “…it has not been necessary to restore the black out. We can now turn on any kind of lights anywhere, any time! (Except, of course, during an air raid alarm).”

• “…I am thankful for good musical programs whether from regular records or rebroadcasts of such programs as the N.B.C. symphony concerts.”

• “…the event which will evoke the greatest thankfulness will be the end of the war.”

A Christmas letter written in December 1944 by University of Hawaii Professor Carey D. Miller by Ian Lind on Scribd

What was it like in Hawaii after Dec. 7th? Read on.

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If you enjoyed my mother’s letter describing the events of December 7, 1941, in real time, here’s a sequel.

In December 1942, the late University of Hawaii Professor Carey D. Miller sent a Christmas letter to friends around the world in which she described in personal terms the impact of the war on life in Honolulu after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

During my mother’s years as a student at the University of Hawaii (1931-1935), Dr. Miller was her mentor, and the two became good friends. After graduating, my mother worked in Miller’s Home Economics Department for about 7 years, and the two became close friends. After Miller’s death, my mother served as the executor of her estate, and I found this and other holiday letters among my mom’s papers.

Miller’s letter is full of interesting observations.

For example, the war may have created the taste for guava juice and guava jelly.

Miller, a world famous nutritionist, recorded: September 1942: “No one knows if we shall continue to have orange juice, so we are urging everyone to utilize the guavas for juice and juicy pulp for drinks, and for jams, marmalades and jellies.”

And the university graduation ceremony was different in 1942.

June 1942: “Academic procession all in cap and gown carrying gas masks. I wonder how many times that will happen.”

In any case, it’s a fascinating glimpse into wartime life in Hawaii.

A Christmas letter written in December 1942 by University of Hawaii Professor Carey D. Miller by Ian Lind on Scribd