1965

This was a very exciting year because I finally settled down with my schooling. I was happy with my spring semester classes. I took history, anthropology, botany, beginning algebra and wrestling.

My counselor arranged for me to work at the Polynesian Cultural Center so I could pay for my schooling. I applied at PCC and was hired. I had the opportunity to study the dances and songs for the Fijian and Tongan groups. I really enjoyed learning the songs and to dance in the Fijian group and to dress in their costumes with our painted faces to look like Fijian warriors (although Tonga conquered all the Fijian Islands centuries ago). I also enjoyed learning new Tongan songs and dances like kailao, lakalaka, sasa, ma’ulu’ulu, and soke. It didn’t take me long to be thrown in with the dancers. I hadn’t danced cultural dances since elementary school. I wasn’t shy, I was a good dancer and I loved it.

At the end of the semester the students were told that Elvis Presley was going to come in the summer to the PCC to film one of his movies. The movie needed a lot of extras for the songs and dances. Everyone was so thrilled and excited to see this world famous celebrity in person. We were in awe when he came. Elvis was very polite and I will never forget what an atmosphere one such personality could create. So many tourists stopped where the movie was being filmed to see if they could have a glimpse of the king of rock-n-roll. A rock group from England called the Dave Clark Five stopped by on their tour of the center to chat with Elvis. The whole production shut down for a while. Everyone was watching these famous celebrities as they visited with one another. No one left the movie location because they did not want to miss this special occasion. Elvis, who was thirty years old at the time, was slightly heavier that he’d been. Elvis brought his father to the PCC. Several students starting copying the way Elvis rolled his eyes. I thought it too feminine to mimic. Many took pictures. I did get my picture taken with him. Of course I didn’t own a camera so I don’t have it in my possession. Someone told me years later that they’d seen a photo in Tonga of a girl and me with Elvis. I wish I had a copy. The movie was called Paradise Hawaiian Style, one of his less popular movies. I was in the movie for a blink of the eye.

Summer came and everyone was looking for work. Sione Keni got me a job on campus as a repairman for the dorms. I could repair a broken chair, paint a wall or ceiling or take articles from the dorms or the classrooms to repair them in the shop. I was given a little Second World War Willy jeep for transportation. I was a much improved driver this time although I had not obtained a Hawaii driver’s license yet. Driver’s licenses were not required for driving around campus although I did take the jeep for a little spin around Laie on occasion. The license would wait for the next 14 or so months.

Every year the Polynesian Culture Center performers learned new songs and dances for the fall show that started in September. This season I was assigned to be in the Tongan and Maori sections and learned their new songs and dances. After the regular nightly show we practiced the new show. Often this went into the wee hours of the morning getting the stage entrances and exits and the timing right with the lighting. We had a new famous Hollywood choreographer named Jack Regas calling the shots. Regas had choreographed celebrity shows starring Andy Williams and Dick Van Dyke among others. He was a real professional. My friends Harry Wight and Paul Niu and I were chosen to blow the conch shells on the top of the mountain, which was the backdrop for the stage at the beginning of the Tongan section of the show.




1966

This was a very exciting year because PCC would be taking a group on a promotional tour to the mainland. All the performers were looking forward to it with excitement. Four performances were planned for the Hollywood Bowl in Southern California. There would be a trip to Disneyland and a train trip to Salt Lake City, Utah for performances there and a visit to Church headquarters as well. All the above would be a first for most of us.

I did not do so well in my studies this year and I did not make the passing grade in order for me to return to school in the fall. School policy said that if one failed the grade he or she could not return the following semester. I had to wait to come back in the spring semester of the next year. They said if Immigration got anyone with a student visa on suspension they had the right to deport them. I knew I had to skip school for a semester so I started looking and inquiring for a place and people to stay with while I wasn’t in school.

I was lucky to have a job on campus during the summer. A couple of guys from Los Angeles had a contract with the college to use a new vinyl roofing material on the library and some of the other buildings. They also had a contract to sandblast the school’s sewage treatment plant and to apply new coats of paint. David Robinson, the son of one of the men had become a very good friend of mine. He told me that his dad could get me a job when summer came. They paid me three dollars an hour which was double the amount I got while working for the school. I was the only student who got to work with these men and I felt quite special at the opportunity to work with them. I worked with three men. They were wonderful men and we became very good friends. Bob Piazza, a Catholic was one, another was named Ed. I picked up smoking again with these guys. The work was hard and the summer was hot but I enjoyed the big paycheck I received every Friday.

I was pretty fit physically from working and dancing this summer and I had an awesome tan from working without a shirt both on the roof and in the sewage treatment plant. I usually worked by myself at the treatment plant. One day I fell into the soup while sandblasting one of the rotating arms of one of the tanks. I had to take long showers trying to get rid of the smell. It was not a very good experience but I did not quit my job.

In August we were already to go with the PCC promo tour. It would last two weeks so the PCC shut down while we were gone. It was a very exciting time to leave for the mainland.

The freeways of California blew everyone away because we had never seen such traffic as there was there. The main streets of the big city were astounding. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when we arrived at Disneyland. We couldn’t believe how many people came to this park. My favorite rides were the Matter Horne and the teacups. I also liked Mister Lincoln. I said to myself that I was so grateful I decided to come to Hawaii for further education for I would have missed these experiences of a life time.

The performers of the show had the privilege of staying with the members of the church in Woodland Hills and Canoga Park. Our hosts were so wonderful to us. We felt their love and their friendship. The gospel is really true and we all felt its influence in these saints’ homes and families.

The four performances at the Hollywood Bowl were all sold out. It was a thrill for Harry, Paul and I to do our regular conch blowing bit on the top of the Hollywood Bowl. The newspaper reviews were favorable. Then we had the chance to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show at the CBS Studio in Hollywood. We got to meet Mr. Sullivan himself. He was a very short man, small in stature but huge in fame and fortune. We also met Andy Williams and Dick Van Dyke in person. Actress Lorraine Day and her impresario husband Jack Ghrillicus, who were members of our church, also greeted us.

We had a day off to visit Universal Studios and what an experience that was especially for a movie lover like me. We were so in awe to see the sets for some popular television shows as well as the movie sets.

Time came when we had to leave for Salt Lake City. The Maori group that shared our gig with the Hollywood Bowl left for New York City on their way to England. The cost to fly was out of the question with a group our size so we took the slow train to Salt Lake City. We said goodbye to our hosts and were bused to the Pasadena train station. I think none of us had been on a train before. It took twenty two hours to travel from California to Salt Lake because we stopped at every little town. The food was good. It was kind of boring but we had great anticipation of seeing beautiful Temple Square and possibly meeting with the prophet and general authorities.

We had the same host arrangement in Salt Lake as we did in California. They were so kind; we had a great time at each individual home; two students per home. If there were relatives they took in even more. I was staying with Lamisitouni Wolfgram’s and his family. My roommate was Kitione Maile. We had a great time with this Tongan family. There was lots of food, music and laughter while we stayed there.

At this time the biggest forum for our show was at Highland High School in their huge auditorium in Sugar House. We divided into different stake centers for our practices. We had six different groups: Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, New Zealand and Fiji. Good thing for so many stake centers available.

We were told that some of us would be chosen to go up to the state capital to perform for the governor and members of the legislator. The reason for the small group of performers was because the capital rotunda could not hold all three hundred of us. I was fortunate enough to be picked because my friends Harry, Paul and I blew the opening conch shell to start the show. It was a great experience to perform for those present. I think they really enjoyed the show.

Later in the week, the whole group got to meet the prophet, David O. McKay and some other general authorities who were in town at the time. We met them at church headquarters. Pres. McKay was frail and in a wheel chair but you could not miss the big beautiful smile he was famous for. We knew of his love for the Polynesian people. At the same time we were there the President was receiving a visit from Hubert Humphrey, the Vice President of the United States. I remember the Vice President trying to assist President McKay with his wheelchair and one of the staff intervening. We all sang, “We Thank Thee, O God, For A Prophet”. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. As we left we got to give him a kiss on the cheek. I’d never met a president of the church before. That’s an experience you never forget. Later on we were bused to Huntsville to visit his birthplace.

Time came for our first performance at Highland High. The Samoan group was unhappy because the fire marshal would not allow fire for their knife dance. This would be very strange but there were too many curtains to catch on fire among other reasons. As an aside, I had a very good Samoan friend, their principle fire dancer, who offered to teach me this fire dance. I told him I have enough scars and cuts already and showed him my index finger.

Susan’s cousin Douglas Hansen was serving a mission for the church in New Zealand at the time. He wanted his parents, Lucille and Floyd, to go see this Polynesian show in Salt Lake. Susan’s Mom, Dona Sandberg and sister JoAnn also came to see one of the performances. I think they were impressed with the show. This is very interesting because they were all my future relatives. They did not remember seeing me because all Polynesians look alike, ha ha. I met Susan in the spring of the next year, 1967, when she came for a semester at CCH…more of that later.

I think we had four or five sold out performances in Salt Lake City. Time came to say goodbye and we were ready to go back to Hawaii for the fall semester. I did not leave the mainland when the PCC performers went back to Hawaii because I would not be attending school that fall. I continued staying with Lamisitouni until Kitione Maile, who was taking time off to earn money to go to BYU in Provo, suggested we move on to California. He said we could stay with the brother of his step mother, ‘Ofa Fonua, in San Mateo, California. As I recall I earned a little money dancing at the Bali Hai Restaurant on Salt Lake’s Main Street with Lamisitouni’s group.

David and Paula Pikula introduced me to a beautiful Latter Day Saint girl who was slightly older than I. She worked at Zion’s Bank. Her name was Carol Free. We dated a few times. I told her I was leaving for work in the San Francisco area and she told me she also had a job there in a bank. She already had an apartment with two roommates there. We arranged for her to get me the address so we could meet there.

Then I took the bus to San Mateo, CA. When I arrived in San Mateo, I found out that my relative Leinata Vaenuku and her husband Mapa lived across the street from ‘Ofa Fonua. Peni Lomu was there living with them.

I spent the whole semester working with ‘Ofa in his landscaping business. The Bay area was quite cold in the fall but I got used to the weather after a while. We were mowing lawns, cutting and trimming trees and hedges, raking leaves and hauling trash to the dump as part of our daily chores. We really loved to go to lunch at smorgasbord restaurants. They had the best meats and all kinds of trimmings. We would really load up. We had a ball together. At nights I’d stay up late and watch TV. I couldn’t get enough of the late night movies.

I did pass the written and driving test and got a California driver’s license. I was happy to have it but it was a nightmare to drive around in that city. I was able to go to Walnut Creek to look up a family of a friend, Poppy Baehr. She’d given Alani Vaioleti and me her address in 1966 while she was in summer school at CCH. I met her whole family, Fred, Roberta and their other kids Margaret and Fred Jr. They would be in my life forever more. I was the first Tongan Poppy’s family ever met. Anyway, back to driving, I had an accident in ‘Ofa’s pickup truck while I was going to meet Carol Free. ‘Ofa would make it even later.

I had a good time dating in the big city. We were both strangers there which made us so close. We visited families, attended luaus and barbeques. We fell in love. Time was getting close to return to school. I took her on a date to a beach on the west side of the city and asked her to marry me. I wanted to settle down. She was in love too but was torn because of contention within her family regarding her sister’s divorce from a Mexican. She did not want to disappoint her parents with the same interracial marriage. We were both heart broken at this situation. We both cried but we decided to part civilly. She was ready to go to the temple and I wasn’t. I made a promise to myself that I would give up smoking and drinking before I left for Hawaii. Carol helped me to give up on these vises. I thought the right girl for me was out there but I still had to find her. I just didn’t feel like looking.