KEKAHA — The Fourth of July was just another opportunity for Westside residents to gather and share their unique lifestyle, Sunday. Larry Manuel was kept busy with the Plantation Days open-air museum, offering a variety of items from the sugar
KEKAHA — The Fourth of July was just another opportunity for Westside residents to gather and share their unique lifestyle, Sunday.
Larry Manuel was kept busy with the Plantation Days open-air museum, offering a variety of items from the sugar plantation era.
“I have 200 papers at home,” said Manny Rapozo, who loaned several vintage issues of The Garden Island to the display, several getting comments from patrons who stopped to view the artifacts of yesterday.
Others took the opportunity to ask Manuel for the whereabouts and status of old-timers they saw in the plethora of old photographs staring from within yellowed pages of scrapbooks and photo albums.
“That’s a Red Ryder BB gun sitting on the old tricycle,” a visitor said. “Everybody grew up with a Red Ryder. That was the one to have. Have you ever seen a tricycle that old?”
Rhoda Libre kept the flow moving, transitioning from the Kekaha Senior Center performers offering a medley of patriotic tunes to the mellow award-winning strains from Paul Togioka’s ki ho‘alu stylings off a Taylor guitar with Raymond Duarte manning the soundboard instead of a bass guitar.
As the nation wined and dined on American Fourth of July favorite menu items like hot dogs and chips, Kekaha, one of the westernmost towns in the nation, unwrapped its version of favorite foods. The West Kaua‘i Methodist Church showcased its malasadas and pronto pups, which are only available at events where the church is invited to participate.
“This event combines the various foods by local vendors as well as local companies displaying some of their products and information,” said Joseph Figaroa, the event coordinator. “This is the fourth year we’re doing this as a benefit for E Ola Mau na Leo o Kekaha.”
Besides satisfying the sweet tooth with tasty treats like Grandma’s Cookies with the sugar-cinnamon mix, the Holy Cross Church served up a Filipino delicacy — pork, peas and pimento topped with a lumpia.
Just a few doors down, the Lazaro ‘ohana had a smoked meat bowl, a loco moco bowl and hard ice with ice cream, and the St. Theresa School had the more familiar kalua pork plate.
Westside Basketball with coach Dino Pabre offered the familiar activity games such as the milk-bottle throw, the basketball shoot and the football throw with an opportunity to win a 42-inch flat screen television available for a donation.
Holy Cross Youth Ministry offered two quarters of beef, cut and wrapped, as a premium for its donation as the young people are raising funds to attend an L.A. Congress in California next spring.
Figaroa said entertainment and activities were scheduled throughout the day, highlighted by a pyrotechnic show before closing at 11 p.m.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com
