I interviewed my Grandpa over Thanksgiving break and these are some memories he had of my Great Great Grandpa. My Great Great Grandpa had six
sons and two daughters. They were all born in Hawaii. He was a farmer and he planted watermelon. His watermelon patch was as big as a mall!
When they went to pick watermelons, they had to camp out because people would want to steal his watermelons. To scare them away they would have
two german shepards and the german shepards would chase them off. They would also have guns to shoot them in the air to scare the thieves off.
After some time, he changed from watermelons to eggplants, bananas, and papayas. The banana field and the papaya field was the size of a football
field. The eggplant was half an acre. When my Great Great Grandpa went to his farm he woke up at 5:30 in the morning. In the summer, on the weekends,
all my Great Great Grandpa's sons and my Great Grandpa, Grandpa, and uncle would go out and help gather the eggplants, papayas, and bananas. When they
came to the bananas they had to get on ladders and get them a certain way or my Great Great Grandpa would yell at them (he normally yelled at my Grandpa).
When he was done gathering he would sell them to a market. He also had thirty to forty chickens and very few ducks. He gave the eggs to his family and
friends.
My Great Great Grandpa lived about a mile from the beach, so when he and some of the family wanted to go fishing they would walk a mile to the beach.
My Great Grandpa would sleep at the beach to catch white eel and other kinds of fish. He would fish at night because in the morning there were too many
people in the water and they scared the fish away. One night he caught an Ulua that weighed eighty pounds!
Sometimes they had a luau. A luau is a Hawaiian feast. When they had a luau they would have lots of family and friends go. A week before a luau
my Great Grandpa would get a pig from a relative and fence it in. For a week he would feed it rotten papayas. After it was plump he would kill the
pig and roast it. That is the story of my Great Great Grandpa.
I thought this story was great because it talked about different parts of my Great Great Grandpa's life which made it interesting. It is fascinating
because it was shocking to hear that the watermelon patch was the size of a mall. It was also shocking to detect that they had guns and dogs to scare
off theives who wanted Great Great Grandpa's watermelons.
I interviewed my Grandpa on my mom's side over Thanksgiving break. I love my Grandpa because he lets my brothers and me help out in his gigantic
garden. My Grandpa told me about how my Great Grandpa owned a restaurant, but it got torn down.
It all started in Honolulu, Hawaii with his father, my Great Grandpa Higa. He owned a restaurant called Star Grill. He was the only cook at
Star Grill, so he woke up at four thirty in the morning to prepare the food. His restaurant was open all day from six o'clock a.m. to seven o'clock
p.m.. He did one special meal during Thanksgiving and it was lunch.
There were apartments around Star Grill and they were filled with senior citizens. Most of them couldn't cook so they went to Great Grandpa's
restaurant. He would make a great big roasted turkey. He would trim, roast it, and make the stuffing. He would make a Thanksgiving lunch so he
could spend time with family at dinner.
But, this did not last forever. One day Great Grandpa Higa heard that they were going to make new apartments in the area. It was planned that
all the buildings in that area were to be torn down, including Star Grill. There were other shops such as grocery stores, gas stations, markets, and
pool or billiard halls. Great Grandpa had to close down, so he said his good-byes to Star Grill. After all this, Great Grandpa only made turkey during
Thanksgiving dinner for the family.
My interview with Grandpa was a lot of fun. I love him, not only because he makes good food, but because he learned by watching Great Grandpa. He
is a lot of fun.
