Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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[chuckles – shaking head]
Or was it monthly or you know
[thinking] Gee, I can’t tell you now, that’s long time ago.
Yes, yes.
I kept an accurate record. Alfred Carter, he’s a strict man, I understand. But he’s a good
man. You would do your job alright, he’s okay.
Yes.
He come over there, he’d talk.
He was very proud about that.
Then when Alfred started to get (older), he turned more responsibility over to Hartwell.
And Hartwell liked me too. I liked those two to work for.
Yes. Was that in about the ‘40s, mid ‘40s or…
No.
No. I stayed there only four and a half years.
Okay.
And like I said, those days there, it was all horses. And Waiki‘i is fairly dry country you
know.
Yes.
So, when the horses go back and forth and all in the plow fields all over there when it
gets dusty, it’s really dusty there and that got into me.
Oh!
My doctor told me to…
With all the kükae too.
Yes.
The combination is deadly.
Oh.
After four and a half years my doctor told me…they couldn’t find out what was wrong with
me because he was in Hilo. He was a Parker Ranch doctor. There used to be plenty,
plenty pheasants. Pheasants just like they go in the corn field they eat, like the oats. So,
well, Alfred Carter, Parker Ranch days, a lot of people go out you know, friends and all
that.
Yes, yes.
One day the doctor said he went up, he hunted, he said, oh he enjoyed it. But, the next
time I went to visit him. Every six months, I go to visit with him. Then he asked me, “Are
you by any chance working that place where they have a lot of pheasants and corn
fields” I said, “Yes.” He said, “That’s your trouble.”
Oh, for real
He said I had too much bronchitis. He told me “I suggest you relocate.”
Yes, yes. So, at that time for those four and a half years or so, you were living mauka at
Waiki‘i
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:369