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MN: And how about the relationship between Kahului guys and Wailuku?

KM: Well, Kahului and Wailuku were pretty friendly. After my year, Kahuili and Wailuku, all the students started to go to Baldwin High School. So the high school level was one community. And some of the things that caused these rivalries was that the Lahaina boys did not like the Kahului boys dating the Lahaina girls. This was really a big thing when I was growing up. The Lahaina boys just didn't like that because those years in Maui, not only this Alexander & Baldwin recreation, athletic recreation, but we used to have community dances. The dances would, like the Bon Odori would be from one town to the other town, right? But the ballroom dancing was a community dancing that used to be held at the various gymnasium. Almost every town had a small gym. And a community dance where all the young people would go would be, one week we would be in Puunene, one week we'd be in Kahului, then the next one would be in Lahaina. And the so-called dancing group would move from one gymnasium to the other. But this was a lot of, cause for a lot of friction. And I think even during the war, World War II, now, I'm referring to, for a while, these dances continued because I remember where the state capitol is now located, it used to be a gymnasium.

WN: Oh, it was an armory.

KM: Used to be the armory. The armory is located where the state capitol is now. And I remember... and I don't know whether it was before World War II or after World War II, that we had the same type of big band dancing. There was a time when this big band was very popular in Honolulu, so it must have been after World War II, I think. I remember Takoshi, George Takoshi who had revived his big band for a while. He built a patio in his lot out in Hawaii Kai just for his band to practice. He built a separate pavilion on his lot next to Henry Kaiser where his band would practice for a while when he tried to reinvigorate the big band popularity. And for a while he succeeded. There was a time when... what was the name of the big band? I forgot what the name is, but he brought back that popularity for a little while, but he enjoyed that.

MN: You know, on Maui, who provided the music at these community...

KM: There was just kind of a, one or two bands. My time, the popular group was called the Molina Brothers. They were very popular, Molina Brothers. Even after World War II, Maui musical group, the Molina Brothers were the most popular ones.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.