MY FAVORITE PHOTO: Pearl and Pepper

I've taken at least 10,000 photos throughout my life, maybe even 100,000.  The one I most value is this 1963 shot of Pearl and Pepper at our backyard in Kiluaea, Kauai:

To set the stage, I had the year before graduated from Stanford in June, found myself working as a sugar engineer at Hutchinson Sugar Company in Naalehu (Big Island of Hawaii), bought a Triumph TR-3 and met Pearl in September.  We got married in December, and I soon found myself in basic training at Schofield Barracks in the Army Reserve.  I returned to join the famed 442.  In the meantime, someone gave her a 6-week puppy she named Pepper.

We were sent by C. Brewer to Kilauea, Kauai, where I was Pepper's trainer.  Something about German Shepherds, they listen more to the "boss," me, than who nurtures their beginning and feeds them, Pearl.  He was so smart that he could open the faucet to drink water.  Unfortunately, we could not train him to turn it off.  We loaned him to a family at the Kilauea Light House with a female German Shepherd.  Not sure what happened.

But why is that photo so memorable?  For one, in the background is Slippery Slide from the 1958 South Pacific, my favorite film.  In the pool below is where France Nuyen and John Kerr swam, to subsequently be serenaded by Bloody Mary with Happy Talk.  Remarkably, Pearl and France looked like twins, and they were born in the same year.  Pepper grew to 140 pounds.  

At the Kilauea Sugar Company, executives came and went all the time.  There were so many farewell parties that the standard supermarket buy was a case of Hiram Walker Ten High Bourbon....because it was the cheapest alcohol.  You can still find bottle for less than $10.  One of these gatherings was three blocks away from our home.  Pearl and I drove there.  At the end, I couldn't find my slippers.  Pepper had followed our car and took them home.

The plantation owned our cottage and grounds.  Visitors came by all the time to swim in the pond.  Once, Tommy Sands, Nancy Sinatra and their friends showed up.  See that waterfall?  During floods, the stream rose at least five feet higher and flowed without any waterfall.

Kilauea was where I won a sunflower growing contest.  Here is Pearl with one that grew to 16 feet and produced a sunflower (seed portion) with a circumference of around 53 inches.  I baked it, added salt, and used it as the centerpiece of our pu-pu table.

There were various beaches, like Anini, where we collected sea shells and those glass balls from Japan.  Hanalei Bay, where South Pacific was filmed, was a short drive away, and fishing was fun.  Pineapple was free because a plantation had closed down.

The largest oio (bonefish) and aweoweo can be found on the northern shores of Kauai.  This one was almost eleven pounds, but was caught nearer to Oahu.









The Kilauea News had an article of our presence, and an old man came up to me one day and said he knew my grandfather.  Read all about this encounter.

In short, Kenjiro (I am Kenji, so was named after him) came to Kilauea from somewhere in the USA, going there from Utashinai to learn something in the 1890's.  Must have something to do with energy or tunnels, for he became in charge of building the 3 MW Wainiha Powerhouse in 1906. More than a century later I finally visited that site and saw that essentially the same system was still generating 3 MW.

In addition to all those plantation parties, our social life centered at the Coco Palms, a fancy hotel not far from Kilauea.  Bunny Brown and his Hilo Hawaiians were among a host of others who came to entertain.  Elvis' Blue Hawaii was filmed here in 1961.

We only spent a year in Kilauea, but that period was most memorable.  Plus, I found my local roots.

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