Long Story Short Series: Niu Valley

We had been living in Moana Valley on Woodlawn Dr. in a house that was rented. I remember the living room and the outside gazebo where my brother and sister had me take a drag on a cigarette. They told me to inhale deeply, it burned the hell out of my lungs and probably stopped me from ever smoking. Of course they had a good laugh. In 1955 the house in Niu Valley was being built and we were one of the earliest families to move out to the area. It was still farmland and pig farms back in the Valley. The famous cow Lanimoo was at the dairy were Niu Valley shopping center would one day be built. I started kindergarten at Aina Haina Elementary and proceeded thru 6th grade before moving on to Niu Valley Intermediate. In those days you didn’t wear shoes in Elementary school. I can remember looking forward to moving on to Intermediate school and getting my first pair of shoes. I just hated dirt between my toes and dirty feet. The first pair of shoes was a big deal, we went to the shoe store and I had to have black and white oxfords. Mighty Cool! 

I loved playing Cowboys and Indians in those early days. I of course identified with the Indians. We could run wild in the Cane fields and climb the hill side and shoot my  bow and arrows along with BB guns and 22 caliber rifles. We could walk the streets with our weapons of choice. Playing Army was a lot of fun and Pork Chop Hill was our game. My friend's father was in the army reserve and he had towns of equipment we could use. He also flew a helicopter and would land in the field by Halekamani St. We could see and hear in coming and would take off like a shot to watch it land. Imagine all of us dressed in our makeshift army outfits running thru the Valley fields like little mad men. The gang at that time was Dennis Young, Roy Marchessi, Don Mike Gillis, Dana Ishibashi, David Lim, David Cook, Pat Culimber. Don Mike was the oldest and biggest. He was scary!

Other games we played were, marbles,king of the hill, dodgeball, big time wrestling, home run derby, we rode our bikes and skateboarded.