The Coconut Wireless: Kekaha-style!

[Congratulations to Jose Bulatao, Jr. for his runner-up written entry in our 2011 Creative Competition. Check back daily for the next several days as we post other recognized entries.]

Any time of the day...."morning, noon, and night"....one could not traverse Elepaio Street in Kekaha, Kauai without being accounted for, wondered about, or merely noticed. It was back then, in the good-old, sugar-plantation era when the town did, literally, mind each other's business.

It was the coconut wireless in its highest and purest form.

From east to west or in the opposite direction, someone knew, someone saw, someone could verify, someone would report, someone heard, someone remembered, someone "observed" (which was a tinge more than just merely seeing)... and someone could get you into trouble or exonerate you from guilt)....whatever the case might be.

The coconut wireless was consistent and reliable, Kekaha-style!

There were specific reasons why. It was at a time when many variables contributed to that consistency and reliability. Most of the housewives in that era were the domestic engineers at each household. They were on duty, 24-7. Occasionally, there may have been a sick child at home who could serve in the capacity as "extra eyes and ears" monitoring what's going on right in front of their houses. There was no television, so one was not glued to a television set. To keep a radio on was fine, because one could do household chores while tuning in to the day's episode of a variety of soap operas.

Hanging the clothes out on the line was an excuse to keep one's eye on the road from the side of the house. The party lines via telephone kept everyone connected, one way or the other. One could tend to the roses in the front yard. One could "talk story" with a neighbor over the fence line while really keeping an eye on whatever might be going on at the moment in the neighborhood. And most of all, one could sit on the front porch relentlessly, to note the comings and goings of family, neighbors, friends, deliveries, passers-by, and downright strangers......no matter what!

"Hmmm, the kids late stay again this morning! As the second time this week, da madda gotta drive them to school! Dey must gat plenny money fo' buy gas. Ke expensive!"

"I wonder, only now the husband had come home? His shift pau 7 o'clock. Where he went? No take that long for come straight home from the mill! Da wife nevah figure dat out yet ?"

As the third time I had see dat boy go to that house when dat girl's madda no stay home. How come he go ovah deah only when da madda stay go to da hospital for visit her sistah? And her daughah, she no mo' shame, or what?"

"Ay, as Consing with her 'friend'! Where they going now? As not da dress she had just buy from Woolsworth? And can smell da perfume she stay wearing all day way to my front doah! Ke strong!"

"Look how many times dose keeds stay go back and forth on dere bikes? Dey bettah not be going to Kuramoto Store for steal candy. I going call up da store and tell dem fo' watch when da keeds go by da store every udda minute. Dey nevah catch on yet?"

"Who dat in da blue truck? I neva see him ovah hear befo'! I bettah ask da keeds if dey know who da ownah of dat truck! He gat all white-wall tires. Must gat plenny money for afford all dat!"

"As da fourth time she going to da store today. and not even lunch time yet! I wonder if she stay meeting somebody by da stoah. Da next time she pass, I going follow her. I like look fo' myself what she stay doin'."

"As must be da guy who stay talk to Tita's daughter, da one who nobody had know she was pregnant because she was always pudgy! You teenk he da baby's fadda? Look like him, lilli-bit!"

These are the kinds of thoughts and words that were exchanged at the dispensary while people sat and waited for their doctor's appointments....or in telephone conversations that innocently asked what one was cooking for dinner to begin the litany of exchanges about these various things or occurrences....or around the kitchen table when it was time for a neighborly chat and a quick cigarette....or between prayers at church, much less a funeral service....

These were the thoughts and words that reverberated through the community as people speculated with their suspicions, their remarkable intuitiveness, their outstanding attention to detail----to share with one another the comings and goings on the street where they live!

This was, as said, the coconut wireless, in action, in a given neighborhood down a particular street! It has dissipated, somewhat, in deference to the constancy of TV soap operas and reality shows and the cell phone which can keep people abreast of anything and everything anywhere and anytime.

It proves, somewhat, that the more things change, the more they remain the same! Only... with greater intensity and mobility!