Trick or Treat

 
      More Letters From Paradise
          Trick or Treat
Halloween is a very big deal here in Hawaii. It's maybe more important than Christmas, what with our Asian population. Many of our friends make it a point to walk down Kalakaua Ave. just to look at all the crazy people. Stores here are filled with costumes and all the other stuff. In our condo, residents donate candy which is handed out to the kids by the guards in the front of the building.

Thinking back to the events of Halloween in my past, this is the way it was: It was only the second time you were sure to get candy, the other being Christmas. First you armed yourself with a large bag or gunny sack, and a bar of soap. The "Fels Naptha" laundry brand was favored because it was a large bar. The use of canning wax was not used because we knew it was much harder to remove from window glass. Costumes cost money so a ten cent mask such as the Lone Ranger wore was fine. Larger masks costing not much more were worn, but as they were constructed of gauze, they would get wet around your mouth. There were many hobos that night. Costume problem easily solved.

You began your hunt was early as possible so as to cover as much of the town before it grew too late. People handed out the usual candy, but sometimes home made popcorn balls and apples.

The evening found all the store windows covered with soap, and as there were some outside toilets, they were pushed over.
One time an outhouse was moved to the center of town and placed under the stop light.
None of us had to fear of needles in our candy, or the purity of popcorn balls.

       Aloha
       Grant
 

Mai Times

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  Mai Times "aka Mr. Fuzzy" Vol.1 no.3?

Vet Perplexed  p.3
Stool sample required.
Mai Tai's was green.
Later traced to pepper
eaten off kitchen floor.

No Place to Hide  story p. 2
Space under bed now
blocked with stuff.

New Stuffed Pet p.10
Both skunks and
Armadillo have
been destroyed.
The Groundhog is
now featured item.

Progress Made p.5
Teena has worked
with Mai Tai so
that he stands,
sits, heels, and
shakes right paw.

 Current Problem
Mai Tai barks every
time a person walks
past our door.

Feature Story
When doing floor
exercises person is
treated to face lick,
crotch sniffed,snuggle,
and riding leg while
trying to lift dog.

Brush Off p.7
When Teena brushes
Mai Tai he ends up
looking like a cloud
with an attitude.

      Aloha
      Grant

A Very Old Game

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          A Very Old Game
I had walked past this small building in Ala Moana Beach Park, surrounded by a low brick wall, many times. I never took much notice of it. There was a sign on the building which read "Hawaii Lawn Bowls Club." I thought that it was another example of Pidgeon English. I had seen others: "No climb tree," and "No vote no grumble." Probably a bunch of Hawaiians who get together to play ball on grass. How very wrong I was.

The Hawaii Lawn Bowls began in 1939, when some servicemen from Australia, and missing their game, created the present court. They dug the length of the court and filled it with crushed coral. That way the lawn on the top would drain quickly and dry out. The court they built is still in use today. The club members are visited often by people from Australia and New Zealand,where lawn bowls is a very popular game.

The game is said to have originated in either Scotland or England. The oldest site still in use is Southampton, England 1299 A.D.

Bowling with a ball against pins can be traced as far back as the Egyptians. But lawn bowling is very different. The story told is that the Duke of Suffolk was bowling with wood balls, and his boll split. He took a knob from wood stairwell and used it instead. The side with the knob caused the knob to roll with a curve.

Today each bowl is less rounded on one side which results in the bowl being "biased" in one direction due to the extra weight on one side. The bias of a correctly rolled bowl ensures that it follows a slightly curved path, as it rolls which accelerates as it comes to a halt.

If you were not asleep in World History class, you may remember that in 1588, when King Philip II of Spain sent his great Armada of ships to invade England, Sir Francis Drake, was notified while he was bowling. He is said to have remarked, "Let us complete our game, and finish them off later."

The sport of lawn bowling was brought to America by the British.There were several lawn bowling clubs in Boston. George Washington was such an avid fan, that he had a lawn bowling court built. But alas, today there are trees planted where the old court once was.

Simply put, lawn bowling differs from ten pins and other forms of bowling on grass. Not only are the bowls used  different, but the object of lawn bowling is not to knock down a bunch of standing pins, but to try a get a correctly rolled bowl, as close as possible, to a small white ball which is called the "Jack."

Lawn bowls today are a far cry from the stair knob used by the Duke of Suffolk. They are not weighted. Their shape is formed by a composition material under great pressure in molds. They are sold in sets of four. Each player uses four bowls.

Lawn bowling can be played by anybody. People with physical disabilities, including people with wheel chairs, enjoy the game.  I  now know what those letters on the club house mean, because I am now a proud member.

      Aloha
      Grant

Grandmother's Elephant

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       Grandmother's Elephant
This is my attempt to re-create a conversation we had with a woman from Thailand.
"My grandmother had an elephant." "Did the elephant work in the jungle hauling out Teak logs?" "No, he was just a pet." What was his name?" "We just called him "Big." "What did you do with him?" "He carried us to school everyday." "There was a large basket tied on his back, enough for three children, sometimes five." "Did the elephant kneel down for you to get aboard?" "No, there was a stand where we climbed on." "Was it a long ride to school?" "It was about a mile, but we had to cross a river." "We were all naked and carried our clothes so that they wouldn't get wet." "Then we would dress after we crossed the river." "When my father saw that I was beginning to develop breasts, he told me to keep my clothes on, even if they did get wet."

"What was school like?" "You only went to school for four years." "We didn't have any paper or pens." "The teacher had a large blackboard, and we each had a slate tablet and a piece of chalk." "We couldn't take any notes home, everything had to be memorized."

"Were there any other elephants in your village?" "No, only "Big." "There were only twenty-five people in my village, no running water or electricity." "We washed in the river, but we got our drinking water from a pond that was fed by a stream." Everybody washed their clothes there too." No one ever got sick." "My grandmother is ninety-three, and she has had six children at home, and only once, was she ever in a hospital."

"We worked very hard planting and harvesting rice." "When  it got dark, we went to bed.""These kids today don't know what it is to work." (She showed me her bent finger) "That is from pulling rice."

The next time you remember riding a bus to school, imagine going there on an elephant!
I thought readers would find this interesting.

      Aloha
      Grant

Things People Have Told Me

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      Things People Have Told Me
When we (Army) told the village elder that that they would drill some wells for water, so that his people would not have to walk twenty miles for water, he refused saying"What then would I have them do?"

We were talking about airline travel. The woman speaking was from Germany, and is about my age. She said" I never go flying anymore." Every so often when I hear the sound of airplane engines, I am reminded of planes, bombs going off, buildings falling." "I saw a lot of bad things, dead people."

Vehicle inspection. " I'm sorry but I can't let you pass because you have rust holes in one fender." "What does that have to do with the safety of my car?" "Well, you see if some kid sticks his finger in those holes he might get cut." "What if I taped them over with some Duct-Tape, would that pass?" "Yes it would."

       Aloha
       Grant

Bubble Bubble

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           Bubble Bubble
In my previous entry concerning getting a sailboat ready for winter in Michigan, I forgot to mention a couple of things.

First we seldom see lightning here in Honolulu, so no problem for sailboats with tall masts. These large boats have their masts stepped to their keels, so lightning is no problem. The boat is grounded. Not so for sailboats whose masts are stepped to the top of the boat's cabin. If struck by lightning there is no ground, all electrical stuff is fried and even worse. The solution to the problem is very easy. You buy a set of auto battery jumper cables. You clamp one end of the cable to one of the shrouds that hold up the mast, and throw the other end over the side into the water. The boat is then founded. We had a lot of lightning where we lived, and I never had any electronics fried.

Another interesting fact about getting a sailboat ready for winter is to leave the boat in the water. In order to do this you must lay a rubber hose with holes in it down on the bottom of the water under the boat. The hose is connected to an air compressor. Ice will not form in moving water. Bubbles from the hose keeps the water moving around the boat, preventing the formation of ice. It looks strange to see all the empty docks covered with snow, and a couple of sailboats floating free in a puddle of water,surrounded by snow covered ice.

An electric heater tries to beat back the cold below, but frost still gathers on the port hole glass and bulkheads. Kind of chilly.
Sailors I knew who chose to bubble their boats only slept below, wrapped in thick bedding. They didn't spend any time there during the daytime. For them it was quickly up in the morning, and a mad dash to the clubhouse for a shave and a shower. This was not for everyone, but it was cheaper than having to have your boat raised, and then put back into the water in the spring.

       Aloha
       Grant      

A Very Old Story

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         A Very Old Story
If you had been one of my students years ago, you would have heard me relate the plot of an ancient Greek play. Just to get it out of my head, here it is again for the final time.

The play is "Oedipus the King". It was written sometime during the5th century B.C. by Sophocles. Oedipus (e-duh-puss) is a play in which Oedipus is fated to kill his father, and marry his mother. Here then is my telling of this most famous play.

The play begins when a prophecy comes to the king and queen of the city of Thebes,King Laius  Laius (lie-use) and his wife Queen Jocasta. They are told that a son born to them will grow up to kill his father, and marry his mother! And later Queen Jocasta gives birth to a baby boy. Not wanting the prophecy to come true, King Laius has the baby's ankles pinned together.(The name Oedipus in Greek means "swollen feet.) He  gives gives the baby to a shepherd, to be taken up into the mountains and left to die.
The shepherd couldn't do such a terrible thing. So he gave the baby to a shepherd from another city called Sparta.

The shepherd gives the baby to the king and queen of Sparta. So Oedipus grows up as a prince, but he was often taunted by others about his low birth. Oedipus travels to Delphi to consult the Oracle about his birth. ( Delphi was the place where female priests would inhale the smoke from burning Laurel leaves  and get high, while answering questions.) (The Greeks thought that Delphi was the center of the world, and it is a beautiful place.)  The answer Oedipus receives is that it is his fate to kill his father and marry his mother! This shocking event must not happen. Oedipus, not wanting to kill his father and marry his mother, decides to leave Sparta. So, where does he decide to go? To Thebes.

On his journey to Thebes Oedipus meets a man in a chariot who orders Oedipus to get out of the way. Oedipus, a royal prince is not one to be ordered about by anyone. A fight takes place, and Oedipus kills the man. (People watching the play know that the man Oedipus has killed was his own father, but Oedipus is unaware that the first part of the prophecy has come true.)

Oedipus arrives in Thebes to find the city in mourning. It seems that someone has killed their king. And if that was not enough, now there is a monster called a Sphinx just outside the city that  kills travelers. The offer is made to the man who is able to rid them of this monster, will be wed to the widow Queen Jocasta. This is a very good prospect for an out of work prince.

So Oedipus goes to see the Sphinx. She asks him the same question she asks of all travelers. And if the answer is wrong she kills them. The question she asks Oedipus is "What goes on fours at morning bright, two at noon, and three at night?" The answer Oedipus gives is "Man, who as a child goes about on all fours, and as a man he stands upright, and in old age goes about using a cane." The answer is correct and so monster throws herself into the sea.

Oedipus is married to Jocasta. (He does not know that it has all come true.) The man in the chariot was his father,and he has married his mother. They have a child. But now after a few years a great plague takes place in the city. Now King Oedipus sends to the Oracle at Delphi a question,  'What should he do to rid the city of the plague?"

The answer he receives is that the city is harboring the one who killed king Laius. When the killer is found and banished from the city, the plague will end.

As a good ruler Oedipus decides that he will find the man who killed Laius. The kingdom is searched from end to end. At last a shepherd was found,and is brought before King Oedipus. He learns that a child born to Jocasta and Laius was given to this man to take up into the mountains. He tells Oedipus that he gave the baby to a shepherd from Sparta. Oedipus at last knows the truth. He has killed his real father and married in shame, his mother. The shepherd tells Oedipus that he was born the most unfortunate of men. Jocasta upon learning that she is married to her son, kills herself. Oedipus coming upon her body, takes the large pins on her dress and plunges them into his eyes. The play ends with the now blind Oedipus being led from Thebes by his daughter Antigone (an-tig-ah-knee), and the plague is lifted.

Poor Oedipus, given a cruel fate which he is unable to do anything about it. The play is about his discovery who he really is. Also,incest was just as terrible a crime back then as it is today. If this is the first time your have heard this story, I hope you have enjoyed it.  

      Aloha
      Grant