North Shore Nostalgia … Good Old Days Remember When …

… There were no traffic lights from Wahiawa to Kahuku? No traffic either. Can remember driving down the hill from Wahiawa to Haleiwa Town middle of the night without meeting another car either way. No mo’.

… Sugar cane growing right through Haleiwa? And those cane-haul trucks on the cane-haul road. They had right-of-way every time.

… Country Donuts? Best pastries on the North Shore … no, best on Oahu. Now, best is Ted’s Bakery. Go try ’em.
… The ‘Dawn Patrol’ buddies calling from town … ‘How’s the surf?’ ‘Overhead and clean.’ Meet for breakfast at Haleiwa Café, surf until scrambling to work or until sunset, whichever came first.

… Four guys or wahine could rent a place on the beach affordably? OK, maybe eight guys. And if you had the money, beachfront prices were a quartermillion. But be careful … maybe for a leasehold lot. Big bite comes later.

… Parking at Ehukai any time and finding a spot in the lineup. Richard Sterman remembers parking on Kam on the Kahuku side of Waimea and scrambling down the hill to surf. No cops then … or if there were, hey, they surfed too.

… The Sugar Bar in the old Bank of Hawaii building in Waialua. North Shore funk, filling up at shift change at the sugar mill.

… No line at Matsumoto’s Shave Ice … because Aoki’s was open next door. Now Kathy and Mike have opened Aoki’s again across the street. How’s come no one knows that? Come on, cross Kam Highway, shorten the line!

… The old Haleiwa Hotel, still standing in the early‘50s, on the site of the first Protestant church on the North Shore, a big thatched hut. The Seaview Inn inherited the site (ono Chicken Hekka and fishermen playing ukulele and singing) which became Charthouse which became Aloha Joe’s which became Haleiwa Joe’s.

… Miura Store in Haleiwa Town … any kine’ tailoring and board shorts for ten bucks.

… Jumping off Rainbow Bridge and Jump Rock at Waimea Bay as rites of passage. Still the same today. So … you got some old-time memories? Geeveum (tomjacobs@prodigy.net). Who knows … if I get enough, maybe another talk-story.