LIHU‘E — At 79 years old, Jimmy Oyadomari has no plans to retire from The Garden Island. The Korean War veteran has been working at the newspaper ever since he was hired in November or December of 1953. “I’m not
LIHU‘E — At 79 years old, Jimmy Oyadomari has no plans to retire from The Garden Island. The Korean War veteran has been working at the newspaper ever since he was hired in November or December of 1953.
“I’m not really sure exactly when,” Oyadomari says with a laugh.
He is sure that he never imagined himself working at The Garden Island 58 years later.
“I liked the work,” Oyadomari said. “Working for a paper is interesting work. You get to read about the lead stories before they come out.”
Born and raised in Koloa, Oyadomari worked as a compositor in The Garden Island’s former office in Lihu‘e, which is now Kaua‘i Pasta. He was paid 75 cents per hour and would ready lines of type for the presses.
The job required a good eye, thoroughness and a bit of muscle.
One page of type weighed about 80 pounds, according to Oyadomari.
“We worked long, long hours,” Oyadomari said. “At that time, I used to live in Hanapepe, and I’d work until 12 or two o’clock in the morning. Some nights, I wouldn’t come home. I would sleep in the car or find some place on the floor. Looking back, it was fun.”
In 1967, Kaua‘i Publishing Co. moved The Garden Island across the street to its current office located along Kuhio Highway.
With the move came a change in the print shop.
Oyadomari and the rest of The Garden Island’s back shop shifted from “hot type” (molten lead cast into lines of types) to “cold type” (computerized type printed out on photo paper to be made into pages).
Oyadomari worked his way through the ranks, eventually running the entire back operation.
His most rewarding moment came when Hurricane ‘Iniki struck.
“When we had the hurricane in 1992, the whole island lost power,” recalls Oyadomari.
Oyadomari traveled to Honolulu in a National Guard plane to print issues of The Garden Island for residents.
“It was very satisfying to print the paper. The people here on Kaua‘i were very hungry for news because people only knew what happened in their area.”
“We were sent generators, and we ran the paper on just generators. There were wires hanging down from the ceiling with iridescent bulbs, but looking back, it was really gratifying to be able to produce something the public really needed. I look at it as my most satisfying time.”
Oyadomari’s tenure has outlasted eight editors and 10 publishers of The Garden Island.
For the past 13 years, Oyadomari has worked part-time, coming in two to three days a week. Currently, his job is to transfer images from negative film onto aluminum plates.
“As long as they need me, I’ll come,” he said.
On the days Oyadomari doesn’t work, he stays busy by being active in his church and volunteering for RSVP and the Korean War Veterans Association.
He jogs most days a week and uses the extra money made from working as traveling money to visit the Mainland and his four sons.
“The years really fly by. I just feel blessed.”
• Andrea Frainier, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or afrainier@thegardenisland.com.
