Simply Corn

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            Simply Corn
Everything can, and does grow here in Hawaii. And very few species are native. Corn is one of those plants that was brought here.

I recently went up to the North Shore at the top of our island of Oahu, with my friend Ray in  his jeep. We stopped, and I bought some sweet corn. This is called Kuhuku corn and the ears are small,six to eight inches long, and a cob no bigger than your thumb.   Six trimmed ears in a gallon bag for $10.00. Very expensive, and these were tough. I was very upset. I remember back in the 1970's when I was farming for market. I received $2.00 wholesale for a burlap bag (gunny sack) of five dozen. I soon got wise and went retail and was paid $2.00 a dozen. That was more like it. Here in Honolulu a single ear of corn can cost 89cents an ear! I should also note that the orientals and Hawaiians trim the top of each ear and it  dries out. Oh well.

I once grew acres of sweet corn. If you could bring sweet corn to market by the 4th of July you could really make some money. This did not happen often due to the changing Michigan weather. Also, bags of sweet corn in a loaded truck can heat. So you pick it late and leave early for market.

Just for the hell of it I grew some Incan corn which is colored red,blue and yellow. It is often used for fall decorations. I also planted some Indian popcorn, small blue colored ears. I also planted some Zulu maize from South Africa. Ears half the length of your arm, with each kernel the size of a thumb nail, and as round as a hand grenade. This was not sweet corn, but was meant to be ground for meal.

In the 19th century farmers would select some of their best ears of field corn to be used for planting in the spring. The ears would be stuck of spikes of an iron rod, made by a blacksmith, and hung up high away from rats. When spring came, the corn would be  put through a hand-cranked sheller which tore the corn from the cob, and the kernels would fall in a basket or box. The clean cob would come out the other end. This was all open pollinated corn. You can't do this with today's hybrid corn.

Corn meal is often ground on a stone slab with another stone, or the kernels are pounded. This is still done in some parts of the world. I bought a Molina hand mill, which is used throughout South America. It looks just like a hand cranked food mill except it has burrs that come together and grind the kernels as they are fed into the top of the mill. It produces fine corn meal and when used with wheat, fine flour too. The mill was taken to an elementary class and the kids ground some corn, and then made muffins. A big hit!

I could go on and write about corn planters and how they work, hunger signs in corn plants etc. But I doubt that city people are much interested this stuff. Anyway, this is enough for now.

      Aloha
      Grant
   

Come Onna My House

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          Come Onna My House
My house is bigger than your house. My house stands 38 stories high, in a  graceful gentle S-shape. There is a large lanai for each of the 407 units, total population of which can accommodate some 900 residents. The building is one of the very few which has one side open to the elements. Sunshine, rain or whatever. Enclosed  hallways always remind me of a "Motel Six."

Below my home is a shallow pond, referred to as a lake. Once, the lake was stocked with a number of Koi, the Asian carp which has so many colors. But, they were accidentally killed when attempts to control algae were made. We had a pair of swans too, but they have passed away. But, we do have a quantity of wild ducks. They arrive, lay eggs, rear their ducklings, and drive some people living on the lower floors simply crazy. Quack, quack, quack. We are not bothered as we live on the 30th floor.

There is a small tea house in the center of the lake for those who wish to use it. Trees and flowers are nicely sited around the lake. There is also a high concrete wall and a iron fence to enclose the property. To see how beautiful our home is, look it us on the internet.

My wife Tonto, thought that getting me to move into a condo would be difficult. But not so, as I don't miss shoveling snow, ice -frozen paper boxes, heating and cooling bills, and all the rest. I don't have to drag garbage cans out to the street, and the morning paper is found just outside our door.

Inside our home, once you pass the guard shack, and through the key door there is the manager's office. The lobby is furnished with chairs, and a door leading to the garden lake.

Walking down a few steps you find the library, maintenance shop, mail boxes. and locker rooms. Up on the right is a waterfall with some koi in a pond. Also, a couple of palm trees.

Every apartment has a large closet locker for suitcases, golf clubs etc. There are also assigned parking spaces.

As you continue ahead there are elevators on both sides of the hall. The elevators on the left run only up to the 20th floor,those on the right run up to the penthouses.

The 407 apartments range in size from a one bedroom, a two bedroom,a three bedroom, and of course three floors of penthouses. For each bedroom there is a bath. Some residents choose to install air-conditioning, while others use ceiling fans, and an always open door to the lanai.

Some special features besides our library are the swimming pool, tennis court, recreation area for parties, squash court, puttingu green and driving net, fitness center, saunas for both sexes, and an exercise area for dogs. We are one of the "pet friendly" condos. And so, we have a large number of dogs or all sizes, a few cats, and I know of one rabbit.

Famous people have made the Waipuna their home. Julia Child once lived here. Also the late Senator Dan Inouye lived in one of the penthouse suites. Currently there are t.v. personalities,owners of local restaurants, etc. We are now seeing Japanese families, and other ethnic groups with children.

We have a small group of men, and one woman who work very hard to maintain our home. Most of them are Filipino.

We can rest easy at night because the building has guards who control the gate, entry door, and patrol the halls at night.

With all that I have said, surely you must ask about problems in condo living. The main problem is the lack of storage space. There is always too much stuff. You will find under beds, beach chairs and canned goods. When all of our food comes to us on large pallets, and some things are hard to get, you buy more than you can use. This leads to a storage problem. And, many of us are collectors of stuff.

Problems? Sure, with some 900 people living here, you would expect it. One of the big problems concerns the trash room on each floor. There is a trash chute for bagged garbage, a large barrel for cans and bottles, and a box for newspapers. And, on  the door is a large sign telling people to take large cardboard boxes etc. down to the dumpsters on the main floor. Do all people do this? No, they are too lazy to comply,and simply leave them in the trashroom when no one is looking. Inside the trashroom itself are directions given in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, where to put each item of trash. Is it done? Are you kidding? People sometimes are just plain lazy.

A couple of other problems relate to our lanais. People who smoke throw their butts over the side, only to sometimes land on the lanai below. Carpets have been burned as well as stuffed chairs. And, there is the problem of people making a fuss on their lanai after 10 p.m., which is the time to quiet down so people can sleep.

Two other major problems are people who drive in the parking garage too fast, and without their lights on. There are signs everywhere. And the second is about tailgating. This is when a resident allows someone to follow them into the building. You must have a key, or phone from outside and the host resident lets the guest in. This is a secure building.

Other than these few mentioned problems,life in this building is very good.I will never again pick up a snow shovel.  
           Aloha
           Grant

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

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       A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I just read a most interesting book "When Books Went to War" by Molly Nuptial Manning. It tells how paperback books were printed small-size for U.S. servicemen during the war. I have written about this earlier on my blog. What really interested me most was why "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,"by Betty Smith, was the most popular sought after book.  I had seen the hard cover edition many times, but never read it. I just finished the book in a new paper limited edition. And, I think I now know why it was so popular.

The book details life as it was lived in the tenements of Brooklyn just before World War I. The characters you get to know are very poor Irish immigrants. They were often hungry.  When the servicemen read this, many of them were living the the depths of the Great Depression . They too had known hunger.

The characters in the book realized that the way up and out of the tenements was to get an education. The service men during WWII were as a whole, poorly educated. Many never graduated from the eighth grade, much less high school or college.  There was such a strong desire to become better educated by the characters in the book. Those G.I.s could identify. They had been prevented from advancing their education for the very same reasons, poverty and opportunity.

After the war many G.I.s eagerly embraced the first G.I. Bill of Rights, which made it possible for them to go to school at government expense. I know this as a fact,  because my father was one of those men, and he earned a college degree. Also, two G.Is who rented two rooms in our house, were also attending college.

The buildings of the college in our small town had burned sometime during the war. But no matter, as classes were conducted in military barracks. I always thought how ironic it was for these men who had lived in barracks, to now attending classes in similar barracks. My mother was proud to have been one of the teachers.

I think the theme of the book could be "Hope through education." It worked for the heroine in the book, it worked for the G.I.s then, and for those of Korea and Vietnam. It also worked for my MA degree. And it continues to do so with current veterans.

      Aloha
      Grant

Thoughts About World War I

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      Thoughts About World War I
I have been reading a lot about WWI lately, and have learned much more than I had known previously. For instance, did you know that during WWI,Britain was drafting men from ages 18 to 40, and then the required number rose from age 15 to 50! And by 1918, half of the British infantry was under age 19! A British soldier in the trenches of France would often only last six weeks before being killed or wounded.A  million young men died, and  Britain was left with a million widows  without men to marry. I remember when I was in the Navy stationed in Panama, a ship full of women from England arrived to transit the canal. They were all going  to Australia or New Zealand to find husbands. This was after WWII. Both wars had stolen their chances to wed and have children.  

I heard today on the radio that it was the anniversary birthday of Mickey Spillane, the crime novel writer. How well I remember him. His first crime novel came out in 1947, and caused a sensation. The title of the  paperback novel was "I the Jury," and had a cover showing a young woman in act of disrobing. My father had a copy of the book and I read it too. I will always remember the final scene when Mike Hammer shoots the girl in the stomach. She ask him" Why?," and he replies "It was easy." Some critics said his books were garbage, but Micky Spillane said that they were "good garbage." He also said that his books were the "chewing gum" of American literature.

But getting back to the subject of the"Great War," Two great books to come out of that war I think, are "Goodby to All That," by Robert Graves, and Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front." I had my students read Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms," but I doubt that they could grasp what it was all about. I think that the final scene where Catherine dies, and he walks out into the rain, is one of his best. Students of the war should read the poetry of the war, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sasson,  John McCrae, Robert Service and others. There is a lot to be learned from reading them.

There is a public radio request show here in Honolulu on Sunday morning. Some guy always requests the Kipling poem "Mandalay," as sung by Kenneth McKeller. Fine poem by Kipling, I memorized it in high school. But though the song is good, it omits the part in the poem where a Briitsh soldier talks about how he is treated back in England,and  though he walks with fifty housemaids, beefy faced and grubby, he has a girl back East in a sweeter greener land. A severely edited song, and it is driving me crazy, Cannot the record be broken or lost?

     Aloha
     Grant

Primo Popcorn

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          Primo Popcorn
An article in today's paper caught my eye, and I would like to share it with you. Primo is a long-time Hawaiian beer, but this has nothing to do with beer. A man here named Rylen Sato has created a frozen popcorn treat called Primo Popcorn. The popcorn is flash-frozen at minus 321.07 degrees Fahrenheit.The frozen popcorn treat is called 77K-on. It melts in your mouth and the vapor that comes out of your mouth and nose makes you look like a dragon. It will make its public debut this weekend. The popcorn comes in different flavors and costs $3.00 for a cup, and $5.00 for chocolate and flavors. I think this guy will soon become a millionaire. Probably the idea will soon reach the mainland.

Reading this article I was suddenly reminded of a summer job I once had, and it had to do with cold treats.

The local dairy in our town had a three-wheel bicycle with a large ice chest in front, and a seat in the rear. The chest would be supplied with popsicles,ice-cream bars, fudge bars and flat slabs of dry ice to keep everything from melting . I knew when the local factory had lunch, and it  was always good for several sales. I hung around the town swimming pool for many sales. At the end of a hot summer day, I would have sold about $11.00 worth of cold treats. My share was probably less than two dollars. I liked Orange coated ice cream bars. They must have cost ten cents, as pop sickles were five cents and could be broken in half and shared with a friend. A cool summer job. My paper route only paid me $5.00 a week. This job must have come to an end with the arrival of Dairy Queen.

      Aloha
      Grant