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MN: And then in terms of classmates at Maui High, where did most of your classmates come from?

KM: See, remember I commuted 12 miles, that's the difference between... there was no bus transportation, basically, during those days. And until I was, got my driver's license, very little, except in addition to school functions, we had Boy Scouts. My involvement with the Boy Scouts was, involved a lot of interchange between my classmates. Not only from Maui High but from the different towns like Wailuku and Lahaina. Lahaina was just as far away, further than Maui High School. But we did have interchange through their activities like the Alexander & Baldwin recreational activity. Football season, we would have fierce competition between Lahaina, Wailuku, Kahului, Paia, Puunene, in all levels of athletics. From swimming to basketball to baseball to softball, football. The entire island was involved with these Alexander & Baldwin Recreational activities. And I think there was nothing comparable to that even on Oahu, I think, although I do remember Oahu had a very strong barefoot football, like we had on Maui. But Maui had a very organized Alexander & Baldwin recreation program.

WN: You're talking about island-wide competition and rivalries, and you said earlier that there was this relationship between the neighbor islanders and the city folks on Oahu. I was wondering, what about between Kahului and the plantation areas? Was there this kind of a difference?

KM: Well, let me tell you. There was a very strong rivalry between Kahului and Lahaina. Number one, we were pretty far apart. On a Boy Scout level, I had a lot of friends from Lahaina. But when it came to baseball and football, especially football, football is a contact sport now. Baseball was not a contact sport. The rivalry was very fierce between Kahului and Lahaina. In football, I remember on so many different occasions, we ended up in a fight after the football game. Not big fights, but there was grudges between certain players, especially those who were involved with body contact on the lines, so to speak. Between Lahaina and Kahului, we had some, even extended to baseball. The football rivalry extended into baseball. But the baseball, you hardly have any occasion to get involved, losing your temper and whatnot. But I remember between Kahului and Lahaina, it was there. You had to expect the worst every time we played them.

WN: Did you get a feeling that the Lahaina folks and the plantation folk, Paia, Puunene folks, that really want to try harder to beat the town folks?

KM: More or less, more or less. But Lahaina, you got to remember, Lahaina was a big city. And there was this rivalry... I would put it this way. The girls from Lahaina were far more sophisticated than the girls from Wailuku, Kahului or Puunene or Paia. And you know, my analysis of that is the reasons why this happened to be, because Lahaina was exposed to the U.S. Navy every so often. Because the navy had maneuvers out on the ocean of Lahaina. It was said at one time that the entire U.S. Navy could get into that Lahaina, Molokai, Lanai complex. And there were occasions where the entire navy or the Western Pacific U.S. Navy came into Lahaina. I don't remember how frequently it came, but the young ladies of Lahaina got exposed to these young sailors more often and so the ladies were much more sophisticated than the girls from Wailuku, Kahului or Puunene.

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