Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

BR: You went from Wai‘aka and then you went up to the radio station
JH: Waiki‘i. And then before the war started about [thinking] six months or a year before the
war. Before, I was working on the radio station, I went over to work on the ranch. And
later, A.W. came up, he told me, “Hey, I got job for you, the radio station. The guy over
there got hurt, you’re going to take his place.” I say, “Hey, I don’t know anything about the
damn place. I never worked there in my life. I don’t want to go over there.” He tells me,
“I’ve got it all taken care of. You know Ralph” Yes, I know who he is, I see him. I talked
to him when he come up here to Waiki‘i.” “You go and see Ralph, tell him I said, you’re
coming over there.”
KM: What was Ralph’s name
JH: Ralph Buzzard.
KM: Buzzard. Okay. That’s the Mutual Telephone Company, Mac Hill, just below the houses
JH: Just below, the houses, yes.
KM: Oh yes.
JH: He says, “You go and see Buzzard tell him, I sent you.” I didn’t go see the telephone
company for a job. But I went over there and I worked for the telephone company.
KM: Wow!
JH: Old man Carter arranged everything, it was done. I couldn’t tell him, “No, I ain’t going.”
KM: [chuckling]
JH: The next day I would find, I ain’t got no job.
KM: No job! [chuckles]
JH: It was a matter of where he sent you, you go.
KM: Well, he trusted you.
JH: But I told him “I like to go hunting.” He said, “You go work over there, you want to go
hunting with the ranch guys up here, Tony and them. “You go tell Alex, get a spare horse
and you can go hunting any time. Go with the ranch guys and go hunt with them.” I was
the only outsider, I was working for outside place. I could go hunt on the ranch. Hunt
pheasant, hunt all over the place. He told me “It will be the same as working for the
ranch. You can go hunting.” And he gave the radio station free milk and everything.
KM: Yes. How many, was it just you and your wife or other families
JH: No. Only the wife and I.
KM: Only the two of you
JH: Yes. We were down at the radio station. Buzzard and the wife lived over there.
BR: That’s my earliest memories of him, Jess, is at the radio station. I remember going and
they played cribbage late into the night, and we would curl up wherever we could find to
sleep. While my parents, him and Minnie would play cribbage. You remember that
JH: Yes.
BR: Poker or whatever you played, kämau.
KM: Kämau [chuckling].
JH: Kämau, famous game, endless game.
KM: You stayed with the radio company
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:440