Comments on: Grocery Markets - Small Kid Time

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:15:20 +0000

Next to Pearl City Market on the Mauka side was Lehua Market. I don't remember going in there as a kid. It was around for a while but I don't know much about it. I do know that after it closed the building served as a workshop for the Marsh Comany that made furniture. They had a store on Dillingham Blvd. where Foodland is now. After that, the market became Airport Automotive something like a NAPA store. The nicest people worked there. The building was demolished and there is a nursing home on the site. Does anybody else remember Lehua Market? I'd like to know more about it. Up the street from Lehua on the left hand side going mauka, there was a mom & pop store right on the corner of Lehua Avenue and the street behind Pearl City Tavern. There was a barber shop in there too. Don't remember the name but I can still see the sweet old lady's face. My dad took my baby sister there and had her cut off her long flowing hair without telling my mom. My mom was pissed. The place is long gone and there's a huge apartment building there now. Across from Pearl City Foodland, where the food court is now, was Shoprite Drugstore. This was the biggest little drugstore. It had everything at the time. The pharmacy was where Bale' is now. At the far ocean end was the fountain service area that had counter and table service. They cooked up the best hamburgers that I ever tasted as a kid. The coke had a unique, unmatched sweetness even to this day. The closest in taste is the coke at St. Louis Drive Inn. There was also a magazine nook in the back of the store. All the comics you read when you had the time. There was even a small two-lane bowling alley next to the fountain service area. I used to look forward to going there just for the sake of going. I never saw so much candy. Cheap too. The store closed in late 1965 because Pearl City Longs was opening in 1966. The store later became B & R hardware and garden which later moved to the Aiea Shopping Center. After that, it became the pet, hardware, and garden shop for Holiday Mart. They got rid of pets and plants, moved the hardware instore, and then opened the food court. Is there anybody out there that either worked or remembers this place?

By: Rodney Lee

Rodney Lee — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:34:17 +0000

Aloha Jon - thanks for you post and welcome to the Midlife Crisis blog. Those were some nice memories you shared with us. Please stop by the MLC blog again as I'm always looking for ideas for new blog entries - and your post brings up some new ideas for me. Thanks, Jon

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:05:27 +0000

Anybody from Pearl City? Pearl City Market brings back a lot of memories. We used to shop there before Pearl City Foodland was built. That market had fresh cut meat and fish. The butcher was one of the owners. I can see it like it was yesterday:Every flavor of icecakes. My fav was the blue one and the strawberry. Mochi crunch, cuttlefish, red squid legs, abalone, and just about every cavity-causing candy that there was. Sweettarts, Sugarbabies, Look, Big Hunk, Horlicks Tablets, Red Whips ( when they were the long ones in the package), Pixie sticks, lipstck candy, necklace candy on the elastic string, Chicostick, those little drinks that used to come in the bottles that were made out of wax and shaped like coke bottles ( 6 in a pack), flat taffy that was wrapped in wax paper(strawberry, orange, grape, banana), Big rectangle Nestle's Crunch (3" x 7") only for the rich: 15 cents. Ice cold sodas all in the bottle kept in the cooler with the water circulating around the bottles. Real size ice-cream sandwiches by Foremost and Meadowgold, not those skinny sickly looking ones they sell today. Thick creamsicles, fudgesicles, and popsicles. Creamy drumsticks.Still can taste them today! Let's not forget about the crackseed. I don't remember them selling out of the glass containers but the packaged stuff was good too when Yick Lung was king and fresh tasting too. Remember Yick Lung potato chips? I remember when we would stay over at my uncle's house in Manana Housing, he'd send my cousins and my sister to Pearl City Market with $5. They'd come back with loaded packages and change. My all time favorite:solid metal sling-shot for 15 cents. The market is still there but is only a shell of its former self. The owners, I believe, have passed on. The market has been sub-divided and has housed a variety of businesses over the years. The one thing that I remember the most about that market and any other mom & pop store I walked into was that it had an unforgettable, distinguished aroma as a result of the combination of the goods that were kept in the store. No matter how old you were, it brought you back to your childhood and happy memories. I'll be back with more.

By: Uncle Rod's Niece

Uncle Rod's Niece — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:59:03 +0000

oh! I just remembered a market and how it use to look...Kalapawai Market. they had those horsie rides and the car rides. I remember dad taking us there

By: Uncle Rod's Niece

Uncle Rod's Niece — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:10:09 +0000

hiya Uncle Rod! Happy Aloha Friday! lets see, I do remember Star Market, I remember Pay n Save and Cornets, I remember Times and the alley way, and my most favorite store was Holiday Mart. That store will always be holiday mart. Not Daiei or Don Quiote or what ever it is...its Holiday Mart. I remember there use to be a Japanese man who sold those japanese pastrie donut things in the front. You could put azuki beans, apples or ham and cheese inside and my most favorite of course, was the chocolate chips.Do u remember him? Robert & I have been trying to look for someone who makes these delicious treats to see if they are the same...just to be able to have a familiar taste of our childhood days...

By: c0hiba

c0hiba — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:09:39 +0000

First!
Morning!
Sitting on plane at lax. Was hoping to be first on new post.
The second pick is Kahala mall. The left side became longs.

By: theDman

theDman — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:03:39 +0000

@Ynaku

No, don't remember Ichi Honda, there was that older Portuguese guy that had the mind of a 12 year old, we used to call him.....Lurch??? Had a job, but could only function as a child. Used to give the teenage girls the creeps, because he liked.....teenage girls.

By: Ynaku

Ynaku — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:48:40 +0000

@theDman, You remember Ichi Honda? He carry that sickle around. Oh Yeah, Frankie Bobo.

oops was I suppose to wait?

By: Rodney Lee

Rodney Lee — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:29:34 +0000

@theDman - Frankie Bobo, the crazy old lunatic. Nice way of saying "the village idiot". ~~~ hmm, blog topic churning...

By: theDman

theDman — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:24:15 +0000

The old Food Fair in downtown Hilo, off of Ponahawai and Kilauea, tiny supermarket.

But not as small as Paauilo General Store, that served that plantation town. It had a small meat counter in the back. Old Filipino man used to be the butcher....Pedro? Had food, meat and clothes inside the very small store. Talk about yesteryear.

And frequently, the crazy old lunatic, "Frankie Bobo" hanging around the outside door, waving his money at passersby and yelling out "...payday tomorrow!!..."