"Roses in My Heart, " Auntie Marjie Spencer

Marjorie Naholokahiki Burke Spencer has a little while to talk story before she teaches ‘ukulele class at the resort.  Her Hawaiian bracelets jingle on smooth, unspotted hands as she waves and gestures, occasionally touching her face, occasionally checking her watch to be sure she’s on time for class.  

“I never check my watch when I’m playing,” she said, “I want to play as many songs as I can.”  At 86, she is an active and energetic ‘ukulele teacher, hula dancer, singer and “ambassador of aloha,” according to everyone who knows her, dressed in signature mu‘umu‘u, long string of pearls, lauhala hat and lei papale. 

Auntie Marjie teaches weekly ‘ukulele classes in Waimea, Waikoloa, Waikoloa Resort and Mauna Lani Resort, where visitors from the U.S., Canada, Japan and elsewhere come back year after year, to play and sing along with her island “regulars.”

“The best time in my life is right now, because of the people and because of what I do—sharing music and ‘ukulele,” she said.  “And because of what I do is why I’m still here.” 

Auntie Marjie is one of those remarkable women who decided to finally follow her own bliss and reinvent herself, after she raised her family, after she retired from work.  At age 68, she went to the Waimea Senior Center, and began to listen, watch, learn and, as she says, "practice, practice, practice, practice and more practice. 

She joined the Ka‘ahumanu Society, the Waimea Hawaiian Civic Club, Waimea Hawaiian Homestead Association, Waimea Senior Citizens Club and the Hale O Nā Ali‘i, and learned hula and ‘ukulele so she could entertain with the different groups at conventions.  “I was singing in five clubs at one time,” she said. “I stopped so I could concentrate on teaching.”

In 2002, Auntie Marjie received the Waikoloa Foundation’s “Naupaka Award,” for perpetuating the aloha spirit and preserving Hawaiian culture through her teaching of traditional Hawaiian language, dance and song.  “It was an honor to receive the Naupaka Award,” says Auntie Marjie.  “I was the third.  The first was Gloriann Akau and the second was Daniel Akaka.”  In 2009, she was nominated for a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellowship, for her many contributions to Hawaiian culture. 

Her music is her love, but unlike many of her contemporaries, Auntie Marjie didn’t grow up in a family of musicians or hula dancers.  “My father didn’t like hula,” she said, “He was too Victorian… I had a very strict upbringing.”

Marjie was born in 1924, oldest of her father’s third wife’s 14 children (there were already seven from his first two wives).  She had a birthmark near her ankle.  “When Dad saw it, he told my mother, ‘She’s going to go, go, go, go.’  And that’s what I’ve done,” she said.  

Her father worked as a schoolteacher in Puakō and Postmaster in their home town of Kukuihaele on the Hāmākua Coast. He was also a Forest Ranger in Waipi‘o Valley and when he camped, it was seven-year-old Marjie’s job to take the pack mule in with supplies.  “The mule knew where to go,” she said, “so I would just sit there and… zig-zag, zig-zag.” She waves her hand back and forth.

Growing up in the 1930’s, she helped in the family garden, went fishing with Dad in Kaupulena.  “There was no such thing as Unemployment,” she said, “We made our own fun.”  She remembers playing in the sugar cane flume, making bean bags from Bull Durham pouches stuffed with leaves.  “We didn’t have jacks, we had little pebbles.  And the ball was a small little lemon.  It would bounce,” she said.  “And Mother would get a thread spool, cut both ends and put it on a guava stick.  That was our yoyo.”

Marjie attended Kukuihaele School and Hōnōkaa School until her Junior year, when Dad sent her to Honolulu Business College.  “I studied ‘Comptometry,’” she said. “It’s like an adding machine… I was very fast, and I would help Dad in the post office.”  After Margie graduated, she began work for the FBI as a finger-printer.  “Everybody in the state of Hawaii, all the fingerprints came to me,” she said. 

In 1944, when she was 20, Marjie came home for the holidays, and took the sampan bus to Waimea to see her sister.  But when it was time to go back to Hōnōka‘a, the bus never came.  “In those days we had no car, no phones,” she said.  “So I went to the police station to call a neighbor with a telephone and let my mother know.”

“That was the time when thousands of soldiers were in town,” she said.  In 1943, Waimea had, almost overnight, become home to 25,000 Marines from the Second Division—mostly survivors of the devastating battle on the island of Betio in Tarawa Atoll.  They arrived by truckloads into the sleepy paniolo town, ill-equipped, many physically ill and unprepared for the winter weather.  The troops were quickly adopted by Waimea, and enterprising residents set up hamburgers stands, laundries and shops, and Parker School was used as a USO Club, for recreation, concerts and dances.

It was not uncommon at the time for a police officer in one area to give someone a ride to the police station in another, particularly a young, single woman in a town bursting with Marines.  “I was still on the phone,” says Auntie Marjie, “When somebody came over and said, ‘Ma’am, that officer would like to take you home.’  And I said ‘Oh…?’  “Oh!” 

A handsome policeman in uniform and holster waited politely across the room.  Officer Peace Spencer was on his way to provide police presence one of the public dances, and Marjie went along.  She remembers sitting and waiting, watching couples dance, enjoying the music.  At the end of the night, he took off his gun belt and held out his hand.  “We danced the last dance,” she says, her eyes far away.  She doesn’t remember the song, but she relives the moment when she hears her favorite, “Could I Have this Dance, for the Rest of My Life?”  “When I hear that song, I say ‘my God—it’s me.’” 

Peace and Marjie were married for 48 years, and raised five children.  She worked as Administrative Director for the Hawaii Preparatory Academy and when the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel opened in 1965, Marjie became one of the original employees as a cashier/PBX operator, then Executive Secretary and Activities Director. 

“It was at the Mauna Kea,” she said, “When I would see these people, musicians, with their beautiful aloha shirts and mu‘umu‘u, carrying their ‘ukulele.  And I thought ‘that’s what I want to do.’”  When she retired, she began her second life, learning hula and ‘ukulele.  It wasn’t long before she was performing and teaching.

She was teaching at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows when Sharon Torbert, now a Waikoloa resident, was visiting from the mainland with some friends.  As they strolled through the hotel atrium, a lovely woman in mu‘umu‘u and hat with lei pāpale greeted them.  She gave Sharon a lei, answered questions and shared an impromptu hula lesson on the spot. The next day, at the King Kamehameha Day Parade in Kailua-Kona, this same smiling woman waved at them from one of the floats.  Years later, after Sharon and husband Morris moved to the Island and signed up for ‘ukulele class, there she was again, Auntie Marjie.

“She became a very significant person in my life,” said Sharon.  “Her gentle, loving ways just endeared her to me so much.  She is patient and willing to show you over and over again; as much as it takes until you get it… She makes me feel special; just like she does everyone else in our class.  She always tells us that she is still on this earth because of us.”  Sharon spearheaded Auntie Marjie’s NEA nomination last year, and although she has not yet been awarded, the nominations remain open for five years.) 

“All these people have become my extended family,” she says.  “They have become roses in my heart.  I could walk in my garden of roses forever.”

For the NEA nomination, Daniel K. Akaka, Jr., Director of Cultural Affairs at the Mauna Lani Resort at Kalahuipuaʻa, compared her way of sharing-teaching with that of traditional Hawaiian grandparents.

“In our Hawaiian culture, the elders, the kūpuna were greatly respected and revered as the teachers, the kumu, the tree of knowledge. In the days of old, the mākua the parents, tended to their daily chores while the grandparents took on the role as the educators for their grandchildren…Although the sands of time have shifted and the modern world encroaches, there are a few in the Hawaiian community who are still bearers of the torch and who embody the values and the teachings of old…

“Aunty Marjieʻs kuleana or responsibility is to share her knowledge of hula and playing the ‘ukulele.  Although many can teach these skills, not all can teach in the time honored way of the kūpuna… At an age that most people would look at this time in their lives as a time for rest and retirement, Aunty Marjie unselfishly uses her precious time for teaching.”

It’s been a joyous ride,” she says.  “There are not enough hours in the day.”  She checks her watch to be sure she’s on time for class. 

(Originally published in Ke Ola Magazine)

MARY KOSKI

“I am in love with light. Sunlight, starlight, moonlight and that pearly silver light that comes from rain and mist. Lamplight, candlelight and firelight. The reflected light from glowing skin, the bright spot of light reflected from a flashing eye.

“I am in love with shadows. Warm shadows, cool shadows, luminous speaking shadows, shadows that hold mysteries and secrets, shadows that are merely a soft whisper.

“I only paint light and shadows, the forms they hold within come by themselves.”

-Mary Koski

In the Waimea home of artist Mary Koski live flowers in windowsills, in bottles and pots on cupboards and table tops.  There are two overstuffed puffy cats in the chairs, and smiling children framed on every wall.  And fairies, flickering just outside the corner of your eye.  We have tea on a tray, cups and saucers, tinkling spoons, little cookies. How better to call the fairies?  They twitter around my head with memories of my grandmother, and that first cup of tea long ago, rich with milk and sugar. Certainly Mimi’s house had fairies too.  But that’s not this story. 

Mary and her next door neighbor who also happens to be her daughter Kathy Long, who also happens to be an artist, sit with me just off the bright kitchen, where light twinkles in and plays among the flowers, tea and spoons.  These two women have obviously spent their lives as each other’s biggest fan; they finish each other’s sentences; they stir and sip and smile together.

“I never wanted to be a nurse, a teacher, or any of the other things other little girls wanted to be,” said Mary.   

“I just knew I was going to be an artist.”  Born in San Diego, she demonstrated exceptional talents in music, dance and art from a very young age.

“Mom started out in dance,” said Kathy.  “She was a ballerina; she danced on point at 7 years old.  And she played violin with Santa Barbara Orchestra.”

Art was the bliss Mary chose to follow, and she began as an art major at the University of California at Santa Barbara, but only attended two years.  “I was going with a boy that my parents didn’t want me to marry,” said Mary.  “So I said, ‘Well, if I have to move, I want to go to Mexico City.’  I just knew that they wouldn’t let me do that.” 

Her parents surprised her, however, and it wasn’t long after she arrived at Mexico City College that she met Oiva Koski, who was working at the Finnish Embassy.  As the story goes, he had been with the Finnish Embassy in Berlin during World War II, when he got the idea to buy a boat and sail from Norway to Mexico.  Someone sank it, and he lost everything, but without it, and a spirit of adventure, he would not have met Mary.

“We were at the bus stop,” said Mary, “And it was Christmas time so the busses were very crowded and there were only two seats available.  We talked.  He spoke a sort of ‘Finnglish,’ but he was a sweet young man with extraordinary IQ.”  For Mary and the tall, blonde, blue-eyed Finn, it was love at first sight, and for the next sixty years, theirs was a romantic adventure played out around the world.  “We had a lovely marriage,” said Mary.  “We had more fun than anybody… he just had itchy feet.”

After a couple of years in Mexico, and the birth of their first child, Oiva decided to move the family to Brownsville, Texas where his parents lived.  From there, his itchy feet took them to California, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and across the Atlantic Ocean.  Eventually, the Koski’s crossed the Atlantic too, and in Europe, Mary enjoyed painting in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Scandinavia.  “I loved living in Liechtenstein,” said Mary.  “We were on a mountainside… just above the cloud level.  And some mornings, it was like somebody poured a bucket of gold down the mountains.”

Mary would work, painting portraits, miniatures, still life and landscapes, wherever they were in the world, now as a mom of two boys and a girl.  “I would be dispensing juice with one hand and paint with the other,” she said.  “I met the nicest people doing portraits.  You spend a little time with people, you’re with them several days or several weeks and you form a relationship.”

“We moved 36 times before we bought this house in Waimea,” said Kathy, “And we always went to fascinating places...  As kids, we were used to it. I loved my childhood.  We had a good time; we were a good family together, a very creative household.”  

In 1983, Mary and Oiva, Mary’s mother Bertha Irby (a distant relative of Lady Godiva, according to Kathy’s research), Kathy and her husband Bertil Long and their daughter Megan, moved to the Big Island.   At the age of 78, Oiva created a comfortable family compound with a shared garden yard that is inviting to all, including fairies.

Perhaps as a result, Mary is the author of four books about fairies, including three volumes of the popular “Stowaway Fairy” series, and “Fairies in My Hat.”  For over a decade, Island Heritage published her “Children of Hawaii” Calendars, which have become collector's items.  She also created a little book of paintings and poetry called “Tiny Treasures” and illustrated the “Little Princess Kai‘ulani and Her Garden by the Sea” by Ellie Crowe.  Many of her paintings grace the corridors of Kapi‘olani Hospital for Women and Children.

Amazon.com describes her work as “a celebration of Hawaii's children, set against their tropical island home and depicted in luminous paintings…  Koski reveals a delight and fascination with the subtleties of the human face and the challenging interplay of light and shadow. Working in the classical style of Flemish masters like Vermeer and Rembrandt, Koski creates light and life that seem to glow from within the painting.”

Of herself, Mary says, “For years I painted still-life, beautiful objects, and portraits of dignified business men and lovely ladies. I didn't really mean to become a painter of fairies and children, but they captured me with their innocence and charm, their delight in life and, of course, their incredible beauty.  Ultimately, I really didn't have much choice.”

To learn more about Mary’s art and writings visit www.MaryKoski.com

(Originally published in Ke Ola Magazine)

"Hamakua Hero"

Katsu Goto died tragically over 100 years ago, but his story continues to inspire.  A memorial service held Saturday at Honokaa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple paid tribute to his life and work, as members of his Japanese and Hawaii families joined in the spirit of community consciousness.  The ceremony also honored the 125^th anniversary of the Kanyaku Imin, “first boat” Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. 

As detailed in an earlier NHN story by Editor Ron Eland, Goto gave up his family name and birthright as eldest son to be on that boat, S.S. City of Tokio.  He worked as sugar cane laborer, 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, at $9 a month, for the Ookala Plantation owned by Robert Overend.  When his 3-year contract was fulfilled, he elected to stay, unlike many of his comrades who returned to Japan, and  opened a store, selling general merchandise, Japanese products and medicines. 

Goto’s financial success, sympathy with labor, and encouragement of other Japanese businessmen led to animosity and the eventual confrontation with plantation staff which resulted in his death on October 29, 1889, at the age of 27.  His body was found hanging from a telephone pole in Honokaa and three men were prosecuted and jailed, though two escaped. 

Katsu Goto’s story was kept quiet for almost a generation.  Not discussed in “polite company” or taught in schools, it was unfamiliar to many in the community until recent years.  One attendee, Masa Nishimura, of Hamakua Jodo Mission where Goto is buried, did know the story, and he made a request of the audience.

“I didn’t know I had to come up here and speak to you folks until the Reverend showed me the program,” said Nishimura to the Hongwanji congregation.  “When I was going to high school, I didn’t know, but my mother used to talk about Katsu Goto, Katsu Goto.  And today after hearing Mark and Dwight say they didn’t know about it then, I have a request.  Take the story of Katsu Goto into to schools and make sure people know about this piece of Hawaii history.  Thank you.”

Patsy Iwasaki brings the story to life in a new way in her manga-style graphic novel ,“Hamakua Hero: A True Plantation Story,” illustrated by Avery Berido of Keaau.  In animated drawings supported by historical and cultural references, the book is a re-telling for a new generation.  Iwasaki and Berido attended the service, stayed to sign books and talk story at the luncheon afterward.

“We are hoping to reach a wider audience with this very different kind of novel that is very popular with young people,” said Iwasaki.  “My hope is, just as I was fascinated and intrigued, that more people will learn about Katsu Goto and his family and the role they play in our history.  It is a story of hardship, success, injustice and tragedy, but it is our cultural legacy.”

Iwasaki was inspired by the work of Dr. Fumiko Kaya , adopted niece of Goto’s brother, Sekijiro Kobayakawa; she survived the bombing of Hiroshima and became a successful physician and community leader before learning of her relationship to Goto in 1985.  Kaya visited Honokaa that year for the 100^th anniversary of Kanyaku Imin and wrote a book, “Katsu Goto, the First Immigrant from Japan,” in 1988. 

Kaya established the Goto of Hiroshima Foundation in 1992, giving scholarships to Hawaii students to attend the August 6th Peace Ceremony in Hiroshima.  The Katsu Goto memorial, near Honokaa Public Library, a few blocks from where he was hung, contains stones from Hiroshima and a Japanese cypress, together with local lava and an ohia wood post.

Kaya’s son, Kiichi Kaya, and daughter, Toyoko Saeki, traveled from Japan to be present at Saturday’s service.  With the assistance of interpreter Shaw Fujii, they met members of Goto’s actual Hawaii family for the first time.  Mildred Kaneta of Honoka’a is the daughter of Katsu Goto’s sister, Saku Kobayakawa.  The families enjoyed sharing heirloom photographs, maps and letters.

They also received a gift from Brent and Blake Cousins, known for their “Bottle Hunter” video series on You Tube.  They presented a small Japanese eyewash bottle, found in the area of Overend’s plantation house, from about the same era .  The bottle is not unlike something Goto might have carried on his store shelves.

The Peace Committee of Honokaa Hongwanji and the Buddhist Women’s Committee supported Saturday’s gathering, attended by almost 200 persons, including State Senator Dwight Takamine and his father Yoshito, and Representative Mark Nakashima.

“I thought this was a nice way to spend a beautiful day in Hamakua and I was pleased we could get together with relatives of Katsu Goto,” said Nakashima.  “The contributions he made over 100 years ago impact the community today and spread the message of social consciousness to the next generation.”

“I think it’s wonderful how someone’s life lessons can still make a difference to the community,” said Peace Committee Chairman Miles Okumura, who presided over the events.  “That a young man dies and so many people come together to honor him…  He is part of our heritage.  But if you look around, there are new heritages in Honokaa.  In a way, Katsu Goto brings those heritages to us.” 

More information can be found in “Hamakua Hero: A True Plantation Story,” available at local booksellers and Amazon.com.

(Originally published in North Hawaii News)

Serving up Smiles, One Ice Cream at a Time

 Kea Kauka’s favorite is the rainbow shave ice.  Polu Akamu prefers his orange Creamsicle.   Ethaniel Wilson’s choice is a Fudge Brownie, and little brother Abiel is all about the Hyper Stripe.  Other kids and grownups, drawn by the funky, incessant broadcast of “It’s A Small World,” line up and order up.  The ice cream man’s in town.

“These guys (at Ke Kumu apartment complex) are awesome,” said ice cream man Tony Cootey.  “Sometimes they stand up on the hill and give me a standing ovation.”

   

“Every Sunday,” says Waikoloa resident Sasha Knowles.  “We were doing some cleaning today when they heard the music and here we are.”  

“I’m getting my favorite, ‘Schweddy Balls,’” said Lisa Kane.  “It’s a flavor from Ben & Jerry’s.   I try to always come.”  Originally from off-island, both Knowles and Kane—along with numerous other Waikoloans—have similar snack food memories.   “I moved here about a month ago from Oahu,” said Kane.  “No ice cream man, but lots of manapua trucks and we, like, lived off of that.”

Wherever he goes in his little yellow truck with the great big sound, Cootey draws an excited crowd.  Daughter Angela Cootey, 7, loves to ride along and help.

 

“I like it because it’s really fun to see so many happy people,” she said.  Her favorite?  “I have to say, the ‘Fat Frog;’ it’s like green apple,” she said.  Angela may help with the bookkeeping, because she loves math, wants to be a math teacher when she grows up.

“One day Tony said ‘I’m going to go sell ice cream,’ and I thought ‘that sounds like fun,’” said Kevin Torres, who manages inventory and customer service while Cootey drives.  Torres, who lives in Ahualoa, is a classmate and longtime family friend.  

The team sells about three dozen different ice cream novelties, plus 8-oz. cups of Waimea’s own Tropical Dreams Ice Cream, made by John and Nancy Edney in their Lalamilo plant.   They also carry a line of all-natural fruit bars, and other items for special diet needs.  Every week, they visit eager fans in Waimea, Kawaihae, Waikoloa and sometimes Puako.

Born in Hilo, raised in Waimea, Cootey lived in California for 16 years and that’s where the story starts.

“The first time I saw a real live ice cream truck, I was living on Travis Air Force Base,” said Cootey.  “I was out mowing my lawn when all of a sudden every kid dropped his bike and went running.  I thought it was an air raid drill or something, so I asked my friend ‘Should I be worried?’ and he said, ‘If you want ice cream, go get some money.’”

When he returned to the Big Island, he went to work full time as a cook at Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows’ CanoeHouse.  He also started thinking about new kinds of work, to supplement his income and eventually move into a business of his own.  

“There were three things I was considering,” said Cootey, father of three children.  “When you are a cook, you spend a lot of time—nights, holidays—away from the family, so it had to be family-friendly and give me more time with them.  Second, I wanted something the kids can be part of.  And, I wanted to do something where you’re not just taking, but kind of giving back too.  I love the way the kids get excited,” he said. 

“After thinking about all these things, I just woke up one morning and told my wife ‘I’m going to build an ice cream truck.’”  Cootey found the truck, a 1984 AM General (made by Jeep), on Craigslist in California.  His brother-in-law checked it out for him, and although the retired mail truck with right hand drive was in pretty bad shape, it had a lot of personality, and potential.  

“When I received the shipping papers I was a little worried because they said it was a ‘very used’ truck,” Cootey said.  “The first day bringing it up the hill, the radiator blew.  Thank God my brother Patrick is a wiz mechanic.  He got it running like a clock.”

About a year later, the little truck was spiffed up with a coat of bright yellow paint and a funky new sound system that included the “Ice Cream Truck Music Box,” a package of 32 songs and sound effects, including  “It’s a Small World,” “Music Box Dancer,”  galloping horses, sproings, boings and people’s voices.  The company slogan: “Serving up Smiles, One Ice Cream at a Time,” is emblazoned across the back.

“I could have bought a van with a camper top, but I wanted an ice cream truck that looked like an ice cream truck, and one that the kids will remember,” said Cootey.

History disagrees as to when the first ice cream came to Hawaii.  The Hawaiian Historical Society says, “Ice cream, commercially available in New York City as early as 1786, was not sold in Honolulu stores until offered by the Criterion Coffee Saloon in May 1870.”

Meadow Gold Dairies Hawaii indicates they became the state’s first commercial ice cream producers in 1924, when mechanical refrigeration allowed the company's predecessor, the Dairymen's Association Ltd., to make the frozen dessert.  In 1929, they opened an ice cream plant in Hilo, the first outside Oahu.  

Ice cream’s older cousin, shave ice, probably arrived with Japanese sugar cane plantation workers in the 19^th century.  Wikipedia says, “Shave ice traces its history to Japan, where it is known as kakigori, and dates back to the Heian Period” (794 to 1185).  

But, although more people on the island seem to remember the manapua man than the ice cream man, Cootey doesn’t feel like it’s passé.   “I think it’s something that’s not been done for a long time… I think it’s making a comeback.  It’s a retro thing.”

“It brings back memories,” said Waikoloa resident Sigrid Wilson.  “We had the ice cream man in Peru where I grew up.  They had pushcarts, and the ice cream man played a trumpet…   It’s such a cool idea to have it in Waikoloa.  All the kids run when they hear the music.  And look how happy these kids are.  Yes, you can buy ice cream in the store, but it’s not the same.”

Look for Tony Cootey and the yellow ice cream truck in Waimea on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (starting about 2:30 p.m. on school days, a little earlier when school’s out), on Sunday mornings in Kawaihae and after 11:00 a.m. Sundays in Waikoloa.  He’s also available for private parties (443-8494).

“There are harder jobs out there than driving around in a funny looking truck,” said Cootey, “I told my boss at the hotel that I want a standing ovation when I come to work, and he said maybe—if you bring the ice cream truck.”

(Originally published in North Hawaii News)