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Wood Craft Ben Wood |
Bill Olds will depart
soon for BaghdadHappy Valentine's Day ... Hawaii's Bill Olds, a retired Army officer, will soon be in Baghdad working for a private company that has a government contract for reconstruction. The firm's management heard of Bill's experiences working with Arab government officials and the Special Forces in the U.S. embassies in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and feels he will be an asset. He is due in Baghdad Friday. Bill is happy that he will be closer to his daughter Nalani Simpson, a Kamehameha graduate, who has been living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with her husband for the past 10 years. Bill has been managing the Officers' Club and the Senior NCO Club at the 29 Palms Marine Base in California ...
Nora's back from the cold
Nora MeIjide and her daughter Candes Gentry have returned from a trip to Antarctica. They visited an area where Nora's father, Argentine Navy Capt. Angel Juan Meijide, established a base for his country years ago. Nora says the best time to visit Antarctica is in January and February when the temperature rises to about 30 degrees. Nora and Candes were able to enter the ocean which was warmed by steam from an active volcano. "We belong to the Antarctica hot-tub club," Candes said. Nora took scores of photos of icebergs, penguins, whales and other sea life, some of which she will enter in contests. "We enjoyed ourselves like the penguins during our 11-day visit," Nora said. She wants to form a club for people who have been to Antarctica. E-mail her at nora_from_Hawaii@yahoo.com ...Cathy Foy is deep in rehearsals for "Kiss Me Kate," which opens at the Army Community Theatre Feb. 26. The Cole Porter musical incorporates Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew." Cathy stars opposite Buz Tennent. Jim Hutchison directs and choreographs. All quality people in Hawaii's theatrical world. The Feb. 27 performance at 7:30 p.m. is dedicated to Dave Donnelly ... The Hawaii Theatre is bringing back the Beatles show "Get Back," with members of the London and Broadway casts of "Beatlemania," Feb. 20-22 ...
Sonny was priceless
Hawaii lost another member of its musical royalty when Sonny Kamahele died Wednesday at 82. Sonny was a wonderful singer and acoustic and steel guitarist who started performing as a young boy. Besides music, his love was fishing. I'll always remember the days that he, the late Benny Kalama and the late Barney Isaacs performed at the Halekulani's House Without a Key. All three were on the old "Hawaii Calls" show. Their stories were priceless. Cookie Isaacs, Barney's widow, said Sonny and wife Margaret were here from Hilo Feb. 2 to see Sonny's doctor for his heart problems. Cookie said Sonny weighed only 104 pounds. In his prime, Sonny was quite a character. I remember a night years ago at the House Without a Key when Sonny was supposed to be ill and he arrived in a wheelchair. But when the music started, he jumped out of the wheelchair and danced like Fred Astaire, all dressed up and wearing his snazzy black and white spectator shoes that many old-time entertainers favored. Like his stories, Sonny was priceless ...
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin in the streets
of downtown Honolulu during World War II, writes of
people, places and things every Saturday.
E-mail him at bwood@starbulletin.com
