Hilo Days: On and Around the Pond

When we lived on Barenaba Street, there were adventures galore for a preschool kid like me. We would eventually move to Ekaha Street, and the Barenaba Street house became referred to as “Obachan’s house” because Dad’s mom remained behind.

Although we knew the pond as “Lanai Pond,” its actual name is “Mohouli Fishpond.”

Good memories abound, many of which I wrote about in my now-gone website, Hilo Days. But here’s one of the stories from the website that I’d like to share with you.

Lanai Pond

Photo by N. Peralto, on www.avakonohiki.org/

Lanai Pond was right across the street. Actually, “pond” is a misnomer. Lanai Pond was big – more like a lake. It was a kind of swampy place with lots of big fish in it, crowded with reeds and limu [Hawaiian for “seaweed”].

I took my first rowboat ride on the pond. I think we paid a quarter for the ride. The skilled boatman took a couple of us kids out on the pond and even let us row the boat. Kind of spooky. Every time I looked over the side, my sphincter would tighten. It wasn’t bad when I was rowing; I had to concentrate on not losing the oars. But eventually, I had to move out of the rowing seat and into the stern of the boat.

The boat would rock gently from side to side, we’d squiggle to maintain our balance, and the boat would begin to rock less gently from side to side. I’d inadvertently look over the side, and my sphincter would tighten.

“Look at the fish! The boatman would say, pointing down at some large mullet passing by under the boat. I’d look, of course, bracing myself for another sphincter-tightening episode. But God, those fish were fascinating. They were mostly mullet, but every now and then a different-colored one would pass by.

I think the quarter bought us a half-hour, but it seemed like only five minutes before we headed back to shore. End of nature lesson.

* * * * *

The canec mill was across the pond from the Kilauea Avenue side, and we used to sit in the grass watching the smoke rise from the stack.

One day, something more than smoke rose from the plant. “The canec plant is burning!” people were shouting as they raced down Barenaba Street to Lanai Pond.

My first fire watch! The canec plant really was burning. The flames were reaching high up into the blue Hilo sky, and you could actually hear the roar as the sound blasted across the quarter-mile-wide pond.

I think the entire population of Barenaba Street was at the pond that day as the fire department battled the fire. The canec plant went back into operation after the fire damage was fixed.

* * * * *

The plant itself was a fascination. Years later, when I was in intermediate school, I went skinny dipping at night at the canec plant. The water was fed by springs and was more of less brackish since the pond fed Wailoa River in the Waiakea area of Hilo.

Let me tell you, when we jumped into the night-cold water at the canec plant, more than just sphincters tightened up. Females might have a hard time understanding that, but every boy or man who has ever turned on the cold water in the shower by mistake knows what I’m talking about. It was cold.

* * * * *

Do you know I saw my first insect zapper at Lanai Pond? There was a restaurant that opened at the pond called – what else? – The Lanai.

One of its features was an electrical bug zapper. We used to stand there and watch bugs get the shock of their lives and drop into the pond where the hungry fish would gobble them up.

Yumm, fried moth.