Pahine holding Bully & Georgie Boy, early 1950s'
[special thanks to Uncle George & Aunty Toshiko for these priceless photos!]
Pahine, Sing, Marbles & Our Names!
Groves of coconut trees on the west-end perimeter....varieties of bananas, papaya, sour sap, sweet potatoes, crotons, lokelani, purple plum trees, ti leaves, kamani, fig and lime trees lined the northeast boundry, or fronting the Reinhardt estate. We had our own shangrila and the river and ocean as our backyard!
Our Grandma Sarah Reinhardt had a much-tendered and cherished hot-house, that was off-limits to us kids. Her moopuna would sneak and pick her lokelani or ginger and a frond of her maiden hair fern to adorn our hair for either sabbath or party time...hmmmmm...'til this day whenever I see rose lokelani, ginger or maiden hair fern, I have fond memories of my Grandma Sarah. She raised exotic orchids, and anthuriums. Although she unrelentessly maintained her hothouse personally, the rest of the estate grounds was maintained by our live-in gardener, Florentino Aabarcus, endearingly called, "Pahine" (pronounced Pa-heen).
Pahine......all we know of him is, according to the 1920 Federal Census, he was living in Waihee Valley, single, and working for the sugar plantation. Subsequently, he was either hired by Grandpa or was a compadre of my dad, Catalino Antonio---we don't know the story as to how we were blessed to have him become a part of our family.....he was "just there" from our grandparents, our parents and our time. Over the years he became a life-long friend of the Reinhardt Ohana---he was a confidant, baby-sitter and playmate all rolled into one! He had so much love and patience with the little ones, but, he also disciplined with an iron-hand if had too, hee, hee! He was a bachelor and could be found tending to the estate grounds and hogs at all hours of the day. He had a green thumb and the estate was kept in pristine condition that was admired by the community.
Pahine would take time off from his busy schedule to beat us at marbles...and the buggah was good too...often laying down his hoe to give us kids a run for our money (well, marbles at least!) in the game of "Fish, or Holes". Even Tutu Tom Krueger would join in and both of them would beat us kids at marbles and not for "fun" either, the buggahs wen keep our marbles, how dat! They didn't mind how little we were, they had no mercy! In hind-sight, perhaps they were teaching us to be competitive, yeah right, more so, our first lesson in gambling and fleecing, hee, hee. Tutu Tom would haul 'dis big coffee tin filled to the brim, not with coffee, but agates of every color under the rainbow and he would challenge us...and no matter how hard we tried, he would beat us....but once in a blue-moon cousin Andrew Boy, would give them a run for their marbles too...but most of the time, the buggahs would always win! Tutu Tom was a better player than Pahine..so, we wanted to beat him more because of it, but we nevah could, auwe!
Sing was the closest to Pahine---if not spoiled rotten by him, as the two of them were inseparable for many years. In fact he is the one who gave her that nickname, "Sing"...we think it's an endearment for "small girl". Not too many people know or call her by her given name, that of Cecilia Nelwyn (sorry, Sing), so you can see why she prefers to be called Sing and even signs legal documents, Sing....auwe!
Eh...all you cousins with the exotic (or so our muddahs thought!) sounding names....do you think our muddahs (whom most of them were sisters), had a hand in naming their nieces and nephews? The reason I'm asking is because we're all close in age....do you think, they sat around the campfire at our homestead and tossed around some baby names as feelers...like, how did they arrive at the name of Christobel, or Dornamae...how about Vernadine and Delphine? Let alone, Elverna and Lovina....eh, my name is Hannah Louisa, so lighten up.....pua ting yeah us? Where did they get those names...have you guys ever asked your parents?
Take my name for example...Hannah Louisa! I hated that name...until one day, my muddah wen tell me that she and I were named after her Grandma Hana Kalauli Reinhardt, Grandpa's muddah....so now, ova half century gone by, I think I can live with that name another half century, ha, ha! But, if she wen tell me earlier about my namesake, I could have turned-the-other-cheek, so to speak.....as I cannot tell you guys the stigma and heartless boys and girls I wen give lickens 'cause they wen tease me "Hannah Banana"! Eh, sum of you cuz guilty too, so no act!
No wanda most of our girl cousins use their middle names...like Dornamae, is "Ipo", both Pearls are "Kuulei" and "Momi", Victoria was Mililani, Lovina is "Moana", and "Maile" prefers it, over Christobel and Leo, over Isabell...just to name a few! How cum my muddah neva give me one Hawaiian name...afterall, she had choke ("plenny"!) to choose from. Our Genealogy stay choke with nice Hawaiian names...let's see...I could of been an "Ohaha" (oh, ha, ha, 'k-den, maybe not that one!) den...how about Nawelu or Nauala....but, alas, we were named biblical names---can tell our muddah wen read the scriptures and kept the characters in mind, 'cause my sistahs names are Naomi, Cecilia and of course, I'm Hannah. Sarah, the name of our grandma and that of several of our cousins, is a pretty name too, also from the bible and I hope they are honored.
I dunno about Cecilia, but Sing said, "Cecilia", was a Saint or something or other. But, I know fo' shuwah...."Elverna" (who is another one, who prefers her middle name Noelani, or Noe) is not from the bible. We asked our muddah how she came to name our sistah, Elverna? One version is that she came across an article in the newspapah (I thought I heard she was watching a parade down Kalakau'a??), anyway, the story goes...she saw this pretty Chinese beauty queen, named, "Elverna" and there you have it! Lucky for Noe that beauty queen wasn't named Mui Lan or Kumquat, aiiieeeyah!
