ewa beach late 60's

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

Onelua, your pictures didn't post.  Could you please try again.  Thanks, M

Tommy & Crew

i know there were some hard feelings back then and maybe still are today, but the reason my uncle sonny took the house back from the phillips was to let his older sister wilhemina stay there. You see my grandmother was the oldest child in her family who are from lualualei homestead where my great grandfather was a blackseed watermelon farmer and kind of famous for that. My grandfather was also one of the oldest boys in his family KS class of 1911 and as such he financially took care of most of my grandmother’s siblings putting them through school and such. My grandmother’s sister Wilhelmina or Girlie as everyone called her was a school teacher on molokai and lived there for many years even after her husband died. Her husband’s last name is Heu.

Aunty Girlie was a real tom boy growing up on a farm and living out on molokai and having like 5 sons and a daughter. My grandma and her tom boy sister used slap uncle sonny and his younger brothers around to keep them inline because they were all rascals and loved to drink get drunk and fight with each other. I actually saw the two sisters do this when i was a youngster when my two granduncles sonny and willie got into a drunken fight at my cousins wedding reception in waianae in the early 60’s. So in truth my grand uncles were both scared of and respected their older sisters who watched over them all the time.

So when my grand aunt came down with severe asthma her younger brother offerred her his beach place to live out the rest of her life in better health. And she moved in with her daughter Mabel and Mabel’s boyfriend a haole guy named John both worked for Hawaiian Airlines. I know allot of the local surfers didn’t like John because he was kind of cocky. Truth was neither did we. But our grand aunt became a subsitute for our own grandmother who lived on the mainland and we became her grand children and her students She loved kids and teaching nd she taught us allot about what is good in us…

Uncle Sonny used to come down on weekends wih Freckles so he could get drunk and play cards away from his wife and daughter. My dad used to have to go down to open up the place to air it out before his uncle and Freckles showed up all blasted.to crash over the weekend. But that all stopped once Aunty Girlie moved in.

There was allot of drugs and vandalism back then. That’s why they got the goat. Not only did it mow what little weeds that grew it acted as an alarm for intruders who used to sneak in from Haubush Park at night to steal things for drugs.

We are several years behind Butch and Tommy and as groms they were our hero’s. Tommy was one mean baseball player and Dale Okamura, my brother and I used to love to watch him play and scare all his opponents. Butchie, Dickie Delong, Isaac Tanaka and all the surfline boys along with my calabash cousin kimo farm(deceased)where our surf heros. They always had the best equipment and charged the hardest when “first break” used to go off. We’d sit on the shoulder trying to drop in as they took the drop and came around the corner backhand on 10-20’ barreling faces. Kimo Farm always had the latest Brewers with his Punahou connections. And we even were there when they had the first surf contest out at Shark Country. I remember that’s when I first saw Rell and her sister Anela and they were so beautiful. We would never even venture down to johns or sandtracks, or coves as the waves right in front were always enough for us. and surfing was really something you got to do after chores or fishing or crabbing or watching the boat as the parent went diving for lobster or menpachi.

I think my grand aunt got along with the surfers, she used to take them fresh fruit and drinks sometimes. In fact I remember her telling us about the time “caveman” hurt himself body surfing into the rocks to get his board and she took care of him. After that she said he always watched out for her and the beach house. Someone should ask caveman if they see him if he remembers that. I just remember this massive badass looking guy with a bolo head and the tatoo “caveman” he said he did with a bic pen.

There was also a hippy looking haole boy always completely stoned out his mind that would come down to the beach for a swim wearing just a leather pouch covering his olo olos and my uncles laughingly would call him jungleman. They didn’y like him swimming because they thought his “eel” would scare all the fish away…

The one thing living on the beach teaches you about the ocean and waves is patience. Shark Country is a fickle place, most of the times the surf in Ewa Beach its not good especially with the tradewinds and all but when it’s golden its golden. Sometimes the waves would come in sequence just to allow you enough time to paddle back out again before the next set would come in or there would be so many waves in a set you could catch more than one wave in a set. But the only way to get good shark country is to be there when she decides its time. And only Joey Gaynor has that privilage now. Having that patience and being able to surf in any kind of conditions prepared allot of ewa beach boys and girls to surf other breaks especially the northshore. Each generation produces another set of outstanding surfers. Its funny cause everytime i brought down classmats and family the surf was always lousy and they bitched about how terrible it was. My kauai classmate’s was coined the phrase “neva in ewa again”, even my cousin Brian Hamilton got burned when he came down to show us his skills as an up and coming professional. I would compare big shark country/first break like a left Alii, a total hot dog ripping kind of wave with a mean inside double up. Lots was like a barrel a frame heaven with its shallow sand bottom and tubes galore. In the winter with the wrap, seawalls and sand tracks would act like the best point breaks in the world just break forever with barrels after barrels perfect for fishes and HP longboards But its rare to see those days anymore its mostly in memories for most of us…

I remember surfing big shark country and watching a liitle Keanu Asing paddle out with his dad Tommy coaching him from shore. Ithink he was only in elementary school at the time.I smile when i think of that but then i remenber my classmate Robbie Husic in elementary school and the time he died before graduating high school.

Good read! and good discription of living and surfing in Ewa Beach. Being a haole with mostly local frineds in those days I can relate.

Howzit SC. Do you know where Ron Arioli is? If so, pls give him heads up on this. Jimmy Oxley recent had some sort of medical proceedure done. Mel B said he may not make it. Hope that's turns out to not be true.

 

I talked to Steve Kendall a couple of days ago. His health is not too great, but he said he's coming with brother Mike. He's lives out in the boonies outside of Puna in a shack with no electric, well, he has a generator. I visited him out there about 6, 7 years ago. He called me up and told me he was going to die, so I flew to Kona, rented a car, and drove all the way to his house in Puna. When I got the he was waiting for me with a 12 pack of beer. I told him "Eh Kendall, I though you was dying?" He said "everyone's dying brah! Now that I got you out here, let's have a beer and go surfing!". That's Kendall. :-)

Yeah uncle Sonny kinda used my dad to fix the house. It was bussup when we started going down there and he and John Goble (auntie Girlie’s son in law) and my dad’s younger brother did a lot of fixing up so auntie Girlie could live there full time. I think it was at least a year before she actually moved in. The place didn’t have hot water when we first started going there. We used to leave 5 gallon buckets in the sun all day then wash up before sun went down too far. When auntie Girlie moved in they put in a home made gas water heater. It was just a torch pointed at a bunch of coils that the water would run through.

It was right there on the beach fronting Ted Farm’s house where we learned how to swim, surf, catch fish and crab, and pick limu. We didn’t venture out very far in the water for a while, then when we got good enough we surfed Haubush and the spot between Haubush and Shark Country. Then when we got got better, we finally started surfing SC. Back then you didn’t go out if you weren’t good enough because the older guys would give you a bad time. Guys were still riding old style long boards, but that was the time when short boards were taking over. Randy Kier used to give us a bad time.

Sometimes my uncles would go out and we all surfed together. Uncle Bill and uncle Marcus were both excellent old time watermen with roots surfing Waikiki. Even uncle Ted would surf back then, and auntie Honey (Mrs. Farm) too. She surfed with us all the time.

Corey Aleviado was a great surfer at such a young age. He was always surfing with us too. I wonder what ever happened to him.

Mike, I can stop by David’s house and let him know. Ron went a little crazy a while back. Not sure if he’s OK or not. I think David was taking care of his daughter, but they must be all grown up now. I last saw David a couple of years ago.

Going to try to stop by the Waianae BK shop and let Scott Kauihou’s wife know about it too. Scott, David, Joey Gaynor and I are all classmates at EB Elem. I run into Joey’s sister Vicky once in a while. The last time I saw her she was still looking very good. She used to give us free ice cream cones from Tasty Freeze. I think she was Jim Greene’s girl friend. It was either her or Debbie.

I should call Jimmy’s mom and see what’s up. I saw her about a month ago and told her about this reunion and if Jimmy said anything, but she didn’t know anything. We only see Jimmy about once a year. The last several years have been hard on the Oxleys. My father in law (Jimmy’s uncle) passed away in 2008, then Michael passed away, then uncle Jim passed away, then Mary’s husband passed away. All this in about a 2 year span. 

Jimmy had a stomach problem about a decade back and almost died. I hope he is OK.

Aloha, Harry

Mike,

Who are the guys that hang out at the diamondhead side of haubush park these days.

They pretty much own that side of the park.

There’s taka, glenn rayno, and mike. (they both live across dave ontai’s family house),randall, rodney nakasato, bert, bulla, big destry

Craig (owner russk alamoana) and his brother are regulars too

I used to surf with alan sakai when i surfed regularly and he stayed away from that group as they pretty much party all weekend. I heard they currently represent the surfers in ewa beach.

They call themselves the haubush surf club.

Also being a biker you must know eli langley my old eb elementary classmate, as well the dias family.

Someone should invite the mitsiyasu’s as they were a big part of eb. Myron’s my classmate and we used to surf with jon when he still surfed. Myra was your folks age and their cousin was a shopping center fixture picking up cans and bottles.

Howzit Harry,

I saw Kimo Kauihou at my brother Dan's memorial last August, and I'm sure he knows what's going on in September, but no harm reminding him. I lost touch with Imua and Paul Pa'aina and family long time ago. Not sure how to reach him, but will put some feelers out there. I wrote Steve Nakagawa. He's in mainland, but might make it. I heard Frankie passed away. RIP. Also Danny Maclaferty and the James brothers know about it and may be tyhere. If you can reach Jim Greene, great. Yes, he used to date Vikki. Vikki also dated Nate Moody. I got a hold of Kevin Palmerton; he'll likely be there. Hopefully he'll contact Ernst Akana, George Ku'u, and a few other of the Kam guys that surfed Ewa Beach. I'll try and reach Randy Keer and Steve Keer. I heard Steve is on Maui building houses. Not sure about Randy. Last I hear Ricky was in Seattle area. Jeff Raposa still around. Anyway, a lot of guys to try and reach. If you know some numbers of the gang, appreciate contacting them. Goony/Craig Hanagami is planning to come out from mainland too.

I'll write Mel about Jimmy. Any info appreciated. He sent me a funny e-mail a couple of months ago. Same ole Jimmy! Really hope to catch up with him.

Aloha, Mike

Will be great to see Gooney again. Hope Mikey V can come too. George Ku has a website so it will be easy to reach him.

Anyone know how get a hold of Brutus or David and Jon Bacalso? The Bacalso family was always out at Shark Country.

Yeah, Jimmy is always fun to be with. I hope he can come too. I’ll check with him.

You guys remember the Kaiwi family? Kimo and Randall used to surf. Kimo and I were friends. I think Randall was running the Post Office at EB.

Aloha , Alama Boys. There was no  hard  feeling  towards  sonny cordes  he  didn’t  take  the  shack  away  from  us. it  was  my  dad’s  fault. my  oldman  wen  dig. my  parents  got  divorced . But  U  know  something ?  my  fada  had  the  first  opportunity  to  pick  up  the  $ 25.00  a  yr  least  from  the  Roxburg’s  b-4  they  cutout. i  always  remember  asking  him  why ?  His  answer  was  why  should  we  get  Roxburg’s  place  when  we  have  this  one. i  always  told  him  in  years  past  he  didn’t  want  to  pay  the  $25.00.  Aloha T.P.    ps-  the  guy  onamission  sound  like  he  is  Dr. Hennesee’s  son . 

Mike and Harry! Cal got the Kam guys they are his classmates, I’ll contact Jim Green, Brutus I belive still lives on Maui me and Nate get’em.

Cleigh

Mike and Harry! Cal got the Kam guys they are his classmates, I’ll contact Jim Green, Brutus I belive still lives on Maui me and Nate get’em.

Cleigh

Mike and Harry! Cal got the Kam guys they are his classmates, I’ll contact Jim Green, Brutus I belive still lives on Maui me and Nate get’em.

Cleigh

Wow Tommy. What a deal. Back then if we/our parents would have known.. We were offered the Thomson house next to Eaton's family home on Ewa Beach Road for $29,000.00 back in the 60s. We rented it for a couple of years. But my father thought the price was too high. My family ended up renting the 2 story yellow house 2 houses up from Tony Ferrera's, on the beach, $175.00 per month including utilities. The owners (Yoshioka) never raised the rent in 20 years. And they did buy 2 houses on one lot of the mauka side of EBR from old man Kalani and rented them out. They hired Arhuggers and Jake Gaynor to paint them and fix them up for rental. I think they paid $95,000 for both houses. That was in mid 70s. Ewa Beach was a bargin then. Nobody knew it would change. Hind site, 20 - 20.    

Hah, I remember Jake used to paint houses. Hard to believe he’s been gone for so long. I used to love watching him surf with his arms spread out like a seagul flying. He was one of the first guys I know who had a Dicky Delonge lightning bolt board.

You guys know George Fujimoto and his family? They lived by Ewa Beach Park. He and his brother worked at Chevron, but his brother retired a few years ago. George married my wife’s cousin.

There was also a nice lady who worked at the newspaper as a reporter who lived on EBR. I can’t remember her name, but when I was a new cameraman, we were talking and she told me where she lived. I think it was on the park side of EBR and on the ocean side.

My dad paid $16,000 for a new house in Leeward Estates. Being in the military and a not being an officer, that was a lot of money. The other thing was that my grandfather worked for the Army Corps of Engineers and built/rebuilt a lot of the harbors. He took dad to Hilo after the tidal wave and dad was blown away by the destruction. He would never buy a house in the tidal wave danger zone. All of the houses in Ewa Beach before Leeward Estates was built is in the danger zone.

Living on the beach has it’s rewards, but the damage from the salt air is a full time problem. Even the wood gets messed up if you don’t take care of it.

U  guys  talking  about  Jim  Greene  i  just  seen  him  couple  days  ago  @  Barbers Pt.  golf  course  where  he  was  practicing  for  tournament  starting  Thurs. 7-12-12   he  was  a  pro  @  1 time  but  took  back  his  amateur  status.  By  the  way  he  goes  by  the  name  " Kimo "  so  no  call  him  Jim  he  get  Nuha !  SO .    Aloha  T.P.

I hung out with the Pa'aina family for a while. Imua, Paulie, Trini, Ginnie-girl. There were a couple of others I think, younger, but I'm not sure. They moved out to Wainae close to Pokai Bay in the mid 70s. Small house, lots of family. Trini had at least 1 kid by then. Good people. Last time I saw Imua he was living on the north shore.  Good ole daze!

The lease rent for the beach lots at SC was $25 a month for a long time, and the lots are 1 acre. I think when Alfred Ah Loo and uncle Kui’s wife Ah Lan? got into the dispute Al mentioned that he was paying XXX dollars a month.  Francis Ching was also renting out his lot to 2 families, one was the Okamura family. Campbell got pissed. They ended up giving Al the lease to uncle Kui’s lot and they bumped the rent up for everyone. By the time Haseko took over the lease rent was $250 a month with a one month notice to evict. I don’t know what Haseko’s agreement is, but Vicky Gaynor was the VP of Community Affairs at Haseko, so Joey was lucky. Now Joey is the only one left, but the new Haseko PR person said they like having him there because someone is around to see what’s going on.

If you go down to Nanakuli, you’ll see a bunch of homes on the beach just after the Electric Power Plant. That’s where the Cordes family has beach front Hawaiian Homes land. My great grandfather cleared the land on the Maili side of the beach and built his house, but he never owned the land there. The Govt. kept pushing them back towards Maili then finally gave my great grandmother the beach lot. She was full blooded Hawaiian.

aloha Butch,  i met your son Christian at his cousin Lopaka’s home project…for those who don’t know Lopaka, he is the son of Craig Powell who use to live at Parish Drive back in the sixties…what was interesting to me is Ewa Beach lineage is still running deep… i first knew Lopaka from the boy scouts when my son was a scout…now Lopaka and his wife are good friends with my dauther and son in law…so that day there was a Perriera(spelling???), a Powell, and a Tanaka from the ole days…

i 've been telling Craig to check out sways and the reunion… maybe he needs more encourgment from his brother in law…

also met someong else with a link to you, Natalie Anderson was staying at my daughters for a couple weeks…i figured i better respond to you since you had a link to all these people… looking forward seeing you and all the rest of the gang…

aloha, ike