Cloudia Charters - Aloha Friend - Kaimuki, Hawaii News

<ilayer src="http://www.kaimukihawaii.com/cgi-bin/br/br.cgi?action=relay&type=iframe&id=072807215410&color=FFFFFF" height="60" width="468" visibility="show" z-index="10"></ilayer>
Kaimuki, Hawaii News Item
Back \| Current News \| News Archive	Powered by MBC NewsMaker

Cloudia Charters - Aloha Friend

Courtesy of Cloudia Charters Author of Aloha Where You Like To Go?

Aloha;

My dad passed recently.

I wrote the piece below as a "Virtual Tribute" on my blog. Now I want to share it with you because you are special to me. Hope reading this makes your day richer. Warmly, Cloudia

Riding With Dad

So I drove out the H-1 this morning and picked him up. It was a quiet ride. I did most of the talking. He didn't criticize my driving, or suggest a better route. He wasn't preoccupied with a list of "things to be done" and "things to worry about. We stopped at the drive-through at Wendy's, and parked under a tree while I had lunch. He didn't want anything. I remembered that some of the best times we ever had were in cars, including those diminutive English Fords he used in his route.

Back then, he drove through the various ethnic neighborhoods of Philly selling dresses, housewares, and small luxuries to housewives on the installment plan. They bought some, they paid some; Poor Italians, Poles, "Negroes" (as polite folks called them then). He knew every corner in our "city of neighborhoods." And everybody knew my Dad, albeit under a variety of "street names." I remember "Johnny the Dress Man.

Sometimes, like over winter break from school, I'd ride beside him, piled in with all the "merchandise" and all the notebooks, tools, and empty soda bottles that made up his "office. My schoolmates remained safely in suburban ignorance, but I knew the grit, cobblestones, trolley tracks, corner "tap rooms" (bars/pubs) factories, and older housing stock of the city." I also knew that "everyone" is not Caucasian.

At Christmas time the housewives clucked over me, and fed me cookies from every culinary tradition in town! Not my favorite Chinatown, though, as that was still a mysterious and impenetrable enigma broached only for "Chinese" food (the nectar of urban life.) When I saw this exact "salesman dad/ride-along-kid" vignette on-screen in the film "Avalon" I felt as though I was watching a home-movie! The time period, and Baltimore row houses were PERFECT!

Later, when I got a little older, Dad got up before dawn to deliver fresh-baked Italian Rolls from the Amoroso factory. This was his transitional period. I remember riding in the big truck, and learning how HEAVY bread could be.

"I wake the birds up every morning," He said, and it was true.
Soon though, a changing society saw America's cities burst into flaming Summer "race" riots. It was a far cry from my "Martha & The Vandellas 'Dancing in the Streets' growing-up years. I was SO proud that they sang "Philadelphia PA now" in the list of places where folks were "dancin` in the streets! Now, even we no longer felt safe in certain areas. Yo, Philly!

I'm very glad I knew that vanishing, blue collar city of breweries and lunch buckets before the decay of the 70's, and subsequent gentrification, changed my grandparent's red brick city forever

So today I ate "street food" in the car like we always did. Dad didn't mind. I thought of all these memories, and more. There was even a tear shed. Though the Hawaiian music station was playing on the radio like always, I seemed to hear Doo Wop being sung by some kids on a corner somewhere. My Dad, the poor kid from the streets of West Philly (neighborhoods, corners, high schools are important) awoke his most recent mornings in sparkling Waikiki.

"Not bad for two kids from the city!" He'd tell Mom.

Last Fall, we watched the Phillies (complete with Hawaii player Shane Victorino!) win the World Series from Mom & Dad's "beach apartment.

After the bread, he got into the janitorial business. Many were the exhausted ultra-early morning, or ultra-late at night, rides we took through our sleeping city together, surrounded by our mops, and rags, and keys. I still have a proprietary love of buildings that Kona days couldn't satisfy. (Luckily, our Honolulu has a gracious crop of many storeys and vintages; and Dad came to love Honolulu's Chinatown as much as I do.)

Often, over the years, Dad and I would stop somewhere to grab a bite to eat, as today. I thought of all those rides together as I ate: rides to school, to hospital, "down the shore" and even college visits. There were tense rides, and fun rides. Winter & Summer; youth and middle age. Today I had my last ride with Dad; Bringing his ashes home to Mom and to Waikiki. . . He loved them both.

Cloudia

Back | Current News | News Archive

Kaimukihawaii.com cannot guarantee the accuracy of the this News Item. KaimukiHawaii.com maintains this News Item for your personal entertainment, information, education, and communication. Except as noted, there is no affiliation between the KaimukiHawaii.com and this News Item. KaimukiHawaii.com assumes no responsibility for any aspect of this News Item. KaimukiHawaii.com has not reviewed all of the sites linked from this News Item and is not responsible for the contents of any off-site pages or any other sites linked to the Site. Your linking to any other off-site pages or other sites is at your own risk.