Butch, Sharkcountry is Harry Alama graduated Kamehameha '76, Oneula is Bernie Alama, Kamehameha '74. We lived in Leeward Estates on the same street as David Ontai and Rex Thompson. David’s dad and my dad were a year apart at KS, and were close friends. Dad bought the house brand new about 1960. Before moving to Ewa Beach we lived along Diamond Head at Ft. Ruger military housing.
Bernhardt Gustave “Sonny” Cordes is my Grandmother’s younger brother. My grandmother’s brother in-law Tommy Chong worked for Samuel Damon as did Jackie Roxsburg.
Sonny Cordes’ wife worked for an attorney in Honolulu and was able to acquire land and (leases for land) in the case if Ewa Beach. The houses were built by Uncle Tommy, Jackie, Grandpa, and other relatives. Sonny worked for Aloha Motors he was almost always with his close friend Jimmy “Freckles” Spencer.
The house between the Roxsburg house and the Ewa Plantation park was owned by Kui Ching who was the owner of Tire Recap service in Honolulu. I’m not sure if he got the lease because of his association with uncle Sonny, but his wife was also related to my dad. I’m also not sure if he was related to Harry and Francis Ching, who were old time Ewa Beach residents. Francis Ching had the lot where the Okamuras lived.
Speaking of Tire Recap, remember Lippy Espinda? He would do those TV shows and they’d have the tire recap commercials. Lippy’s grandson is my classmate who is also Harriet Roxburg’s son, and Jackie Roxburg’s grandson. So there must have been a connection between Lippy, the Roxburgs and uncle Kui. Eh Lippy started da Shaka sign.
The story I heard was that Jackie ended up selling his house and lot to uncle Kui who turned it over to Ted Farm and made a nice chunk of change without doing a thing. In the later 60’s we’d all be at the beach almost every weekend and uncle Kui would make a huge wok of chow fun for lunch. We’d have fresh caught fish to pan fry and an assortment of other goodies, but uncle Kui’s chow fun was da bomb.
After uncle Kui passed away my dad’s aunt rented the house to Alfred Ah Loo. The Ah Loos had several kids, the eldest Alfie and Lono were just a bit younger than Kevin and Kyle Farm. We all grew up playing in down on the beach at SC. Alfred and my dad’s aunt got into a squabble about the rent and Al went to Campbell Estate and they forced my aunt to sell the house and lease to him.
I saw one of Al’s kids several years ago and he said Al passed away on the Big Island. After leaving the beach they were homeless for a while, then ended up in Mokuleia. I think that son’s name is Henry, he comes out to SC once in a while.
Almost all of my Ewa Beach surfing was done between Seawall and the Cove, then at Officer’s Beach. I surfed at lots once in a while with Timmy Foo up until about 9th grade. We had another friend Peter Oliveira, who I sold that Isaac Tanaka board to, who also surfed Lots side a lot. Neil Delaforce would go down there and surf with us too. His older brother David had a surfboard. This was all back before they built Ewa Estates and Kulana Village, when Campbell HS still a small school. We’d cut through the baseball field, then the old football field, then through the Catholic school/church on North road, then go along the canal and come out by Parrish Drive and make our way down to Lots. We always stopped at Jimmy Ha store because he hardly ever had anything in there. Always wondered if it was a real store. He’d start yelling at us and that would be the fun part, then we’d go surf and end up at the bakery to wash pans.
I remember the first time I heard Silva Store. It was about '65 and we just moved back. Our neighbors had gone down there and they told us about it. The was a “Silver” store down by the train tracks. That’s what I remember them saying. I thought wow a “Silver” store. I thought they meant Silver. I can’t remember ever going in there.
For us it was easier to surf SC because the beach houses were there, and we could wash off and change. When auntie Girlie lived in the Cordes house, we spent a lot of time down there. She was our grandmother’s sister and she raised us as her own grandkids. She had moved back from Molokai where she lived for a long time. They eventually started bringing all kinds of animals and it was like a small farm. They had 2 goats, several geese, ducks and other animals. Alfred had a cow, and pigs, and uncle Ted had a horse.
There’s a lot of other families, cousins of mine that spent time at the Cordes house. Most are other Cordes family members. Uncle Sonny was one of 10 kids.
There’s another post here called Shark Country with a lot of this stuff.
Aloha for now… Harry