Interesting Jobs... Cont.

Yesterday – 1:41pm / June 25th, 2010


At seventeen I moved to Hawaii with my mom Marilyn, step-father, Woody (yes he surfed), and my younger siblings. I was going to stay back in Tennessee because i had about a hundred people I called friend, and I had a great job doing ART...(Airbrushing T-shirts) and I was content. Then I realized that I was being offered a free vacation and that if I didn't like living in Hawaii, well one could always return, plus I wanted to be around my little brother and sister, who were only five and one year old, and I would miss them incredibly, if they were so far away. Having moved out at fifteen, I did not want to go backwards, back to living with parental "units" but I figured it would be temporary and it was. Soon I found myself living on a macadamia nut farm, with another young woman named Jennifer, and her baby Jessica in a "coffee shack" (with no rent expected) called "The Nut House" because it was actually on a mac nut farm, not a coffee farm...jumping ahead I lived on the Big Island for 17 years total, returning to "da mainland", at 34 years old with a slight pigeon accent and a new world of changes within, meaning I was a completely different person, from the girl who left home, in Tennessee.

The first employment in Hawaii, was anoffer to work the farm. Picking macadamia nuts was very simple work and I definitely loved it because there was no real boss. Able to decide when to work, which trees I wanted to pick, how many (90lb) bags to pick each day, and able to pick my days and take off work anytime i wanted was ideal. It was pretty wonderful work for a seventeen year old hippy chick. I did that for about 6 months I believe. I got up each day and would lie in the morning sun, on the lava rocks in the garden with coffee or tea and maybe a joint. Soon I'd go dress and gather up macadamia nuts from the ground under trees, usually three or four large sacks weighing 90ish pounds. These were worth seven dollars each, which was about seven dollars per hour, and sometimes a bit more. Then I would hit the bumpy coffee road and head down the mountain to Kealakekua Bay area, usually to Napo'opo'o Beach, ( the closest and my favorite place at the time), or to Kee'i beach nearby. I would usually begin my return home around sunset after three or four hours of swimming sunning, and frolicking in the waves. And some time chatting with folks and just hanging out with friends. THAT aspect, was what made the job so great. I would make 21 or 28 dollars by lunchtime and head off to the beach almost daily. In rainy season weather, of course, when eventually, that came along, things were a little different, and the mac nuts were seasonal after all.

During off season I needed other work, so I went out and found a job at Dept. of Agriculture / University of Hawaii (Extension unit) in Kealakekua. I was able to work with a wonderful man...Mr. Melvin Wong, who was happy to meet me, soon seemed to really like me, and had my interests at heart. He soon had me reading books on finance (How to Prosper in the Coming Bad Years) in the breaks in the working day when there was nothing else to do. You see this was a govt. job. It was interesting I suppose, seems that in a government position "work" can become more about how to get through the day with dying of boredom...it I had only hung tight, I might have a really cush position, right now, (and a great pension) but I was INCREDIBLY BORED, but I can't imagine why. I did a variety of things at Dept. of Agriculture, I was titled a Clerk I, and in six months time I had been promoted  to Clerk II....whoopee!

Well I had seven bosses, beginning with Melvin, and if he had nothing for me to do, I then proceeded (clumsily and then, gracefully in time) to the next "boss", in order to see if they had any work for me that day. Tsugio Sakata, was my favorite guy (after Melvin), he was in charge of the actual plants grown there. He was like a sweet Japanese Grandpapa to me. Ellen was a nice Japanese lady covering Home Economics and the 4-h Club which, didn't really have a single member...(don't tell) and I worked for her before the others, yet, after Mel. I landed a nice casual boyfriend at that job too, a beautiful boy my age, who loved his doggy so much he hurried home after work, each day...just to cook for his dog. When he (Gaillen) invited me over, I found that so sweet,  that he cooked for his baby, then we jumped into bed. That love affair with us didn't last long but we remained very friendly.

Oh JOBS! I left that job because i was incredibly underused there and getting utterly bored with the position of "Jane of everything" one day i tied up like a thousand National Geographic and other magazines into bundles, and put them back on shelves...another day I masqueraded as the four-H club and made Guava jelly with Ellen and Elaine Komo the secretary, for some event...(I hate lying!) that was right after I arrived there, and i almost split then...I had to see what else was going on.

I had some odd jobs with neighbors....picking green beans, avocados thrown down to me from tree branches, to be graded into boxes. Hmm...babysitting for a friend, for three sweet little boys. More macadamia nut jobs for various friends and farmers.

I landed a factory position (I was curious) at "Hawaiian Host" a chocolate company on Napo'opo'o road, close by. That allowed me to meet more fun and interesting people and one couple there remained my friends for the whole 17 years i live in Hawaii. I stood on the (disassembly?) line, picking out rotten nuts from the good ones, day after day...after day. Those jobs are rather unforgiving, not creative in any manner!  I suppose my title would be Factory Line Worker or Nut Processor. Most of all our lunches were full of fun conversations, camaraderie, and some rumours of course, as well...and I loved seeing all the different foods in people lunch boxes, there were Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, White folks AND Mixtures of all...of these... right now there are many more Samoan and Tongan folks in Hawaii too (I married a young Tongan man), and a few other folks as well...I would guess still not many black folks venture into the big isle or stay there after venturing...not so much because of prejudice per se (that i know of), but because they would be one of maybe 50 black folks there...so, well I wouldn't feel welcome with those odds, and often didn't anyway as a white HAOLE person, not everyone was full of ALOHA~ Some were full of KaKa.



:~}



Next chapter? next journal entry...



Oh by the way...i took two tests yesterday on Hawaii at okcupid...one called me a tourist and the other some other slightly derogatory sounding title, OH malihini I believe, which means you've pretty much just arrived to the islands, whats ironic is that they HAD just arrived there & wanted to test other folks out on OUR Island knowledge...the other TEST was just obviously written by a male person from the Hilo side who expected me to know the height of Mauna Kea, a load of crap about Hilo, among other things i have forgotten or never cared to know...sheesh, why would I know all that, I don't think that I cared about such trivia when I lived there! And that second test!? It was made by actual tourists (who expected me to be an intellectual up to their standards, I suppose), or someone who has a picture perfect memory, and learned exactly what they have learned on their particular journey around the islands...forgetaboutit! man, massive fail on yer testing ability folks! I was there a very long time and failed your tests so, you suck. I should like to see how you'd do on a REAL GooD Test About Hawaii.... and I may just have to make one, one day.



Well...I lived there as a teen, a beach bum, a crazy party girl, a smart young person who was also very much into merry-making, and a lively swimmer who could beat out tha boys, and generally very athletic, daring person in my youth, and a damn good hard worker to boot! Eventually I became a young mother, still a hard worker, a good friend and confidant, BUT....NOT a scientist at the mountaintop observatory, nor an intellect with massive trivia about the islands rolling about in my head, nor a big time volcano watcher...and I very, very rarely got over to Hilo side (test-dude) because KONA RULES, hehehe...so y'all can just shove those tests. I am no tourist and not a malihini either. What do you know of Sovereignty issues and land disputes? oh mighty test people...or of the importance of ho'oponopono, or how to spear a fish, or how a certain Eel protects the inhabitant of the Alehu shell? What do you know of what I learned? Of craving to eat wana, (raw on the beach) when your pregnant...or watching your husband shimmy up a coconut tree, and throw down coconuts, with his bare hands...to make you a somehow delectable dish of edible hibiscus leaves, and a simple CAN of mackerel, with it? My experience was obviously not yours that's all. Yes I even married a Polynesian boy, lived and loved much in/on the Big Island, a red blooded, true kama'aina, hanai'ed by descendants of Kings, ask anybody about me on Kona-side, Milolii to Kailua-Kona who has been there for ages...they will probably know of me, OR they will actually love me or have a good story to tell, if not many.