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It’s lunchtime! HOLUALOA, Hawaii -- On the slopes of Mount Hualalai, a place rich in coffee shrubs, plantation-style farms and small-town congeniality, an old school cafeteria sat for decades overlooking the turquoise waters along the Big Island's Kona coast.
Holualoa Elementary's new cafeteria symbolizes the end of an era for its small-town community
by Crystal Kua
Star-BulletinThe sturdy wooden building, standing tall and proud as the centerpiece of campus, witnessed world wars, community celebrations within its walls, families growing up and a sea of change at its doorstep.
But on Nov. 22, 1997, a few months after the school celebrated its centennial, the old cafeteria -- tired and worn but still full of life -- was consumed by a fire.
Holualoa Elementary School tomorrow will celebrate a renewal with the dedication of a new $4.3 million cafeteria that will carry on the community spirit of the old building while symbolizing the transformation of a changing island lifestyle."Sometimes change is good, sometimes change is not," cafeteria attendant Romel Kainoa said. "But we have to keep up with the times."
Located about four miles mauka of the shopping mall and tourist hangouts of Kailua, the Holualoa school was established in 1897. A portion of the old cafeteria was part of the original school.
"Everything was here at the cafeteria. The voting was here. When there was a May Day program or a Christmas program, the whole community came here. This was the center point," lifelong Holualoa resident Gladys Jose said.
Jose went to Holualoa School from 1941-48, beginning with the end of the military occupation of the school during World War II. "It was a time when, because of the war, there was a great deal of fear that our islands were in great jeopardy."
In the mornings the entire school would gather on a grassy area near the cafeteria, recite the pledge of allegiance and sing a patriotic song. The principal would tell them of the conditions of the war and how they could help, she remembered.Jose returned in 1959 to teach kindergarten and stayed until she retired in 1997, a few months before the fire.
Jose, 64, now ventures to her peaceful coffee farm retreat just above the school. "I'm just four miles away from that busy little city down there."
Barbara Tremaine, the second of four generations to attend Holualoa school, recalled how she and other students used to sweep and mop the cafeteria when there in the 1950s.
Sweeping and mopping are now part of her duties as Holualoa school custodian. "I love my job," said the beloved "auntie" on campus.
But the old cafeteria wasn't only a place to clean, it was where her ground-floor office and storage room was located.
Tremaine looked back on the night of the fire, when many of her sentimental valuables went up in flames."The glow you could see from the cemetery. You could hear the iron roof crumble," Tremaine said. "I just broke into tears."
The next day, while rummaging through the rubble, she came across a melted metal pot which she still keeps in her new digs under the old wooden administration building.
Lunch in the 'circus tent'
With no cafeteria, lunches were trucked several miles away from Kealakehe High School. Students ate beneath a "circus tent" that was erected on the school basketball court."It was cold in the winter. It was leaky. It was hot in the blazing heat," said Principal Jon Znamierowski, who became principal a year after the fire. "It served its job."
Third-grader Pomai Barton said that sometimes when they ate lunch on rainy days under the tent, they had to watch out that drips didn't fall in their food. She demonstrated how she would huddle over her plate to protect it.
The tent also temporarily took over the honor of being the school hub, Znamierowski said.
"We had lunches in the tent, we had Frank DeLima in the tent, we had promotion ceremonies in the tent, we had ... meetings in the tent."
The Board of Education, the Department of Education and the Legislature quickly approved and funded construction of the new cafeteria.
"Hi, Mr. Z," a voice calls out from a field during recess.
Waving to the lad, Znamierowski explained that most students didn't know what it was like to eat in anything other than the tent. "We literally had to teach them how to go in line."
A visitor asked a table of third-grade girls, "What do you like about your new cafeteria?"
"Chocolate milk," they replied in unison before giggling. Later, they said they now have hot food and a cleaner place to eat.
Serving a choice of teriyaki beef sandwiches, cheese sandwiches and chef salads, cafeteria manager Chad Yamamoto marveled at his state-of-the-art kitchen with its shiny stainless-steel equipment.
"It's really nice to have a solid room over our head," he said.
Znamierowski said the cafeteria is big enough to accommodate and feed 5,000 people, should the cafeteria be called into use as a community evacuation center.
More change on the horizon
With a growing school population and technology in the works, Holualoa Elementary School also finds itself undergoing transformation with a new library and computer lab in the plans, the principal said."Change is on the horizon for us. ... The thing we need to do is to make it manageable so that it's good for Holualoa," he said.
Change isn't easy for everyone. Tremaine still hasn't found it in her to move from beneath the administration building to her new office in the modern cafeteria.
With Kona flush with money and tourism growth, the new cafeteria is seen as a symbol of the changes taking place in and around sleepy Holualoa.
"Holualoa is a beautiful place. ... It's been discovered," Znamierowski said.