Quite a few years ago, a classmate of mine started working at The Advertiser. I admit that I didn’t recognize her at first (sorry Karen), but she recognized me. We got to talking and we were recalling the good ol’ days and Karen said she still had my senior picture that I gave her.  So one day she brought it to work.  As I was reading what I wrote on the back of the picture, I just had to laugh; “Have a righteous summer”.

Righteous?

Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a super religious guy back then, but that’s one of the words that we used to say - back in the day.

Which got me thinking of other words or terms we used to use back then, such as:

Far out - “That is so far out!”
Bitchin’ - “It was a bitchin’ wave”
Geev ‘um - “Go for it brah, geev ‘um”
Fast - “Us country girls not fast like you town guys” (Thanks for that one, Barb)
Boss - “It’ll roll, it’ll toss, the hula hoop is really boss”
Neato - “Wow, neato!”
Ice out - “We went ice out LB”
Trip - “Da guy was one trip”
Trippin’ - “Nah, they not going steady, they just trippin’”
Bag - “Eh you guys, I going bag.  See you tomorrow.”

Okay, that should get you folks started.  What other words or terms do you recall using back in the day?  If you can, use it in a sentence or give the definition.  Slangs allowed, but no racial slurs.  And keep it clean.

In keeping with the bowling theme, let’s visit bowling in general.

First of all, I would like to thank Edward Sun for the very informative entry he contributed in the Remembering Bowling Alleys blog entry.  If you get a chance, please read his posting.

When I was about 8 years old, my dad bought me my first bowling ball - a 10 pound Ebonite with the name “DEL” imprinted on it.  Cost $5.  My bag was a hard plastic case that we got at the Gold Bond stamps redemption center.

Later on in my early teens, I got my first brand new ball.  IIRC, it was an Earl Anthony Mag-7.  I loved that gyro looking logo on it so I just had to have one.  I believe it was soft rubber - and hooked just about a much as a rubber ball could hook in those days.  I didn’t bowl in any leagues - for recreation only, maybe once a year or so.

Skip to about 15 years later when I got married, I joined a team with my father-in-law in the Nisei Friday night Bowl-o-drome league.  It was the second shift league and between the machines breaking down and the first shift bowling slow, sometimes we wouldn’t get started until 10:00 pm.  Even though we were just a 4-man team, we wouldn’t finish until way after midnight.  But back to my bowling balls, since I was now bowing in a league, that meant I needed a new ball - a Columbia Yellow Dot.  I thought I was all that, until I saw the other bowler throwing something called a Hammer.  A urethane ball with a unique block - unlike the old standard “pancake” blocks.  Bought myself a black Hammer.  Oh, but the red hammer hooked even more so I needed the red Hammer.  Hmm, two balls.  Now I need the 2-ball Hammer bag.  This was getting expensive at over $125 per ball and about another $75 for the bag.  But I was having fun and my average was improving.

The Nisei league started to lose teams and was getting almost too small to make a league.  In fact, we only took up half the alley.  The other half of the alley (actually a little less) was used by 2 leagues that rotated on a 6 month basis.  The Department of Transportation league and the Department of Health league.  Eventually we joined forces and formed the Department of Health league that ran consecutive seasons.

But due to the late nights, over time the league got smaller every season until it disbanded.  Some of us joined a Thursday night league at Kam/Mak bowl.  Going from Bowl-o-drome to Kam/Mak bowl was such an upgrade.  No more broken down machines.  No more overground ball returns.  No more kicking the ball return when trying to pick up the 10 pin.  And best of all - no more manual score keeping!  At Bowl-0-drome I used to dread having to keep score.  When it was our turn to keep score, I had to keep score by myself.  My other team members just didn’t keep score.  Sometimes I’d even have to write in scores between my first and second ball.  Talk about throwing off the rhythm.  With the automatic score keeper, I could relax and joke around with my team mates and stay loose.

By then, my bowling equipment had advanced quite a bit.  I was partial to Track bowling balls with exotic drillings.  Axis weight.  Leverage weight.  Sanded.  Lightly polished.  Finger inserts.  Tape.  At that point, bowling balls were costing me around $235 each.  And the gloves and wrist supports all added up.  Oh yeah, and the 2-ball Hammer bag was just too small.  I had to have the Bruinswick Zone 3-ball bag on wheels.  The hard decision was figuring out which 3 balls to take to the alley that night.  I must’ve had about 6 different balls to choose from.  My theory was that, like baseball players that get a new bat because the old one “ran out of hits”, I had to get new bowling balls because the old ones “ran out of strikes”.  And the shoes, had to be the Dexters with the interchangeable soles for the different approach conditions.

But about 5 years ago, the Thursday night league also disbanded and that was the end of my bowling career.  I did manage to “break the bank” once.  That called for a game of 260+ with handicap.  But I never did bowl a perfect game - even with handicap…

Some bowling tidbits:

• Why isn’t bowling an olympic sport?
• Bowling is one of the few sports where you can achieve a perfect score.
• A 7-10 split is not impossible to pick up.  I’ve seen it done.
• The secret to keeping score:
  • A spare is 10 + the count on the next ball rolled
  • A strike is 10 + the total count on the next 2 balls rolled
• 2 strikes in a row is called a “double”.
• 3 strikes in a row is called a “turkey”.
• 4 strikes in a row is called a “4 bagger” and so on.
• A “coke frame” is when everyone on the team strikes in the same frame except for one team member.  That person has to buy the whole team drinks.  I’ve been “coked” many times.
• “Sand baggers or Dumpers” are those who know they have no chance to win the jackpot so they throw a junk game to retain their handicap.
• “Horses” are those you give their money back to after you win a jackpot - because they usually give your money back to you when they win.
• Most Embarrassing leave - a 5, 7, 10 split.  Means your ball has no drive when hitting the pocket.  Almost impossible to pick up.
• Most Macho leave - a solid 5 pin.  Means your ball has too much drive when hitting the pocket.
• Improper Etiquette: Going on the approach when a person in either adjacent lane is getting ready to bowl.
• Too Much Proper Etiquette: Waiting for two lanes on each adjacent side to clear before going up to the approach.
• Worst Nightmare: Stepping on water with your sliding shoe (can’t slide).
• Most Embarrassing: Having your ball slip out of your hand on your back swing.
• Best Times: The end of season bowling banquet.

We visited memories of old bowling centers in the last blog entry.  Now let’s visit old bowling memories that you have.  Any funny stories to share?  More bowling tidbits to add to the list?

In keeping with the school theme, let’s visit our high school days and the cliques we had.

I went to Kailua High School (go Surfriders!) back in the mid-70’s.  Kailua had a big mix of different ethnic as well as pop-cultures kids.  Being a surfer dude, we hung out on “the benches”.  There was a sloped walkway leading from the classroom building to the cafeteria.  Along each side of the walkway were benches, divided by a crossing walkway that sort of divided the upper and lower benches.  All us Oriental (Asian wasn’t a word we used back then) surfer guys hung out on the upper benches with some social club girls.  We’d hang out in our Levi’s corduroy pants and silky shirts with the “jap slaps” slippers or the neoprene ones (what were those called?).  The girls would be wearing their backless muumuu with the black velvet jacket or shrink tops with pastel colored hip-huggers.  And we’d talk about surfing, socials, and other meaningless topics.

The lower bench was filled with non-Oriental surfer dudes.

On the very top part of the upper benches was the ‘Nalo girls because it was next to the C building girls bathroom where they hung out to smoke.  One of those ‘Nalo girls was actually a guy, but if you didn’t know it, you couldn’t tell.

The mokes hung out in the C building boys bathroom smoking their cigarettes.  I remember using that bathroom once in the 3 years that I was at Kailua.

Then there were the “mound hounds”.  As you entered Kailua High School compound, there was about a 1/2 acre grassy area.  The mound hounds would sit in a circle of maybe 10 of them and puff the pakalolo.  They strategically sat in a circle in the center of the mound so every one of them could act as a “look out” and would shout out when they saw the “heat” coming.  They were the hippies of the school.

Then there was the jocks.  They’d hang out around the D or E building stairwells or on picnic tables fronting the gym.  The wannabe jocks would be playing basketball on the asphalt courts next to the locker rooms.

Across the gym was DeMello Hall which was an amusement room of sorts.  There was a coin operated shrunken down pool table and a juke box - video games weren’t invented yet.  Mostly the future gamblers and hustlers hung out there.

In the center of the campus was a courtyard where the conservative students used to hang out.  These were mostly the ones that didn’t fit into an clique.  And in a way, they were a clique among themselves.  Some of them would play chess there.  These are probably the CEO’s in today’s world.

There was a wall along side of the courtyard where all the drama students hung out.  I always thought these people were a bit strange when we tried so hard to be “cool” in high school and these folks chose to take up theater acting.  But hey, to each his own.

Auto shop would have the hot-rodders hanging out there getting their fingernails all filled with grease and trade stories about Holly quad-carburetors and Hooker headers.

The nerds used to hang out  in the Japanese class or other open classrooms.  And study or play Trumps.  My older brother used to hang out in the Audio/Visual room.  His excuse was that it was one of only a few air conditioned rooms on campus.  But I knew better.  What kind of people hang out in the A/V room?  Dorks.

Personal Computers weren’t invented yet so there was no such thing as computer labs, thus there was no such thing as geeks yet.  I don’t think the word “geek” even existed back then.

I never did take band, but I suppose the band geeks hung out in the band room.  I stand corrected - is guess the word “geek” did exist back then.  Isn’t that right Bruddah Lance?

So what kind of cliques did your high school have?  Which ones did you hang out with?  Jocks?  Band?  Surfers?  Racers?  Nerds?  Dopers?  Social clubs?  Parking lot?

 On Friday, I read that Moiliili Mochi & Candies and the Peanut  Shop is shutting down later this month.  I’m sorry to hear that another mom-n-pop store is going to be history soon.  I vaguely recall when Moiliili Moch/Peanut Shop moved to Liliha.  I remember thinking that here’s another shop whose name is out of place.  Click on the picture to see a close up of the building’s name.

  <— clickable!

Then I started thinking of other shops with names that are out of place.  The one that most people think of first is Punchbowl Fender Works located in Kaimuki.  Now I’m sure the name of these shops once reflected the area that the shop was originally located in, but still, it’s fun to point them out.

  <— clickable!

In some cases, it’s not the establishment that moved, but rather the landmark it was named after.  For example, Stadium Bowl-0-Drome which used to be located right next door to the Honolulu Stadium.

  <— clickable!

Here’s one that recently relocated and kept the same name, falling into the out-of-place name establishments.  Kalihi Pet Clinic located on Beretania Street in Moiliili.

  <— clickable!

And there are new ones to be discovered all the time.  After my wife and I went cruising around and snapped the Kalihi Pet Clinic picture, just one block away on Young street we found, Kalakaua Converters.  I have no idea what kind of business this is.

  <— clickable!

And yet one block further on King street, we find Kaimuki Typewriter located right across the McCully Zippy’s.  Notice the building name is Miss Hawaii Bldg.

  <— clickable!

Now, I’m not sure if this one counts, but we found Varsity Top Shop on Kalakaua Avenue.  I was actually looking for Kamaile Magazine (which is another one) but it looks like they closed up.

  <— NOT clickable!

Can you think of any other businesses that fit this category.  Food establishments perhaps? (hint)  How about schools?  Kapiolani Community College located in the Diamond Head area.  That’s another one.  Kelli’s parents explained to her that KCC used to be located on Kapiolani and Pensacola streets, next to McKinley.  She would’ve never believed it.

If you can’t think of any, how about remnants of old businesses still around at the new place of business?  Like the Garden House sign still there on the now, mattress store.

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Bonus: Here’s a little something that I always wanted to show before it’s gone.  Remember these signs?

   <— clickable!

I’ve only seen them in one place in town.

Since you’re reading this blog, you must be computer literate - unless you’re Shoulder Surfing and reading this over someone else’s  shoulder.  But assuming you’re not a Shoulder Surfer, anklebiters suggested this excellent topic to me.

What was your first PC and/or what was your first exposure to computers?

For me, being that I was in the Data Processing program at Kapiolani Community College, my first exposure to a computer was at KCC.  It was an IBM System/3.  It processed one job at a time: read in the cards, process the data, print the report.  Rinse and repeat.  It didn’t have a terminal or monitor for a console.  There was a 2 character LED display that displayed codes.  Then the operator would have to turn a dial or two on the actual CPU itself and press a button to enter the reply.  IIRC, system message “3E” meant that the program already exists and to turn the dial to “1″ and press the enter button to replace the existing program.  And there were 2 hard drives in it -  in drawers that slid open.  One fixed drive and one removable drive.  The removable drive was encased in a huge plastic casing with a pop up handle on the top for easy handling.  It was about the size of a Kozo Sushi Aloha platter.

When I started out my career in the field of computers, the first computer I worked on was an IBM System/34.  It had a real console terminal and could process multiple jobs at the same time.  This was back in 1979.  Since then, I’ve worked with an IBM System/36 and an IBM AS/400.  Today I’m still working on an IBM computer here at The Honolulu Advertiser.  It’s a renamed AS/400, now called an IBM iSeries.

And now we get to the good stuff - my first home PC.  It must’ve been around 1996 that I bought my first PC from Costco.  It was a IBM PS/1 tower.  It came complete with the CPU, a 15″ monitor, keyboard, speakers, and a mouse.  I believe the processor was a 486/33 plus Overdrive 66mhz processor.  It came with a whopping 4 mb of memory.  OS was Windows 3.1.  But of course I needed more speed so I went to Memco, dropped $200 and bought a 20mb stick of memory.  I was stylin’ with 24mb of memory!  Since then, I’ve had a 600mhz PC running Windows 98, later upgraded to Win XP, a few VAIOs and most recently, a G4 Mac.

I remember “experts” making a statement back in the 90’s that over 60 percent of homes will have a least 1 computer within the next 10 years.  I said they were crazy.  Ha!  Today I eat my words.

So, how did you get exposed to computers?  Were you forced into it?  Were you reluctant at first but now can’t live without it?  Do you remember your first home PC?  Are you PC or Mac?

Geek speak allowed.