Friends and Family Fun Times!

Today is my last post with Tamara Ching.

It has been so much fun learning about everything Tamara enjoys--and her love for the Big Island (Hawaii.) Thank you so much, Tamara, for sharing your life and your photos with my readers.

What other things did you do with your friends?

We went swimming just about every day after school. If not for a swim team we would swim for fun. We’d also swim on the two nights of the week the public pool was open. It was an Olympic sized pool, 50x25 yards. It had high and low spring boards, as well as a diving platform.  We frequented the beach as well on the weekends.

I had 3 sisters, and our neighbors across the street had 2 boys and a girl. We would play hide-n-seek until very late at night. We would dress in the darkest clothing possible.

There were many times at Halloween when we would put on a haunted house. Our house and the neighbor’s house was an old plantation house and was relatively close to the ocean so it was built on stilts approximately 8 feet off the ground. We would gather old appliance boxes and create a maze under the house. We hung sheets or blankets as walls too. We created sounds with tape recorders, and trick-or-treaters could go through it.

I also remember a time where we all put on clothes we were going to throw out. We each went out and picked a bunch of this weed that were like little bean pods that would stick to your clothes. We each made a ball as big as we could and had a “sticker” fight.  We had these bean pods all over us! We totally did not think about our hair, but we were able to toss the clothing.

Share with us a favorite memory as a kid.

My favorite memory would have to be all the times mom packed us up in our jeep and drove us to a beach or river to swim.  We had these very large black inner-tubes we would use at the beach. We could barely fit them in the jeep with my 3 sisters and I, but we managed to do it. Mom drove us to the other side of the island to our favorite beach. It was a windy day, and the wind was blowing out to sea. Well, I was the youngest and smallest and somehow was left with the inner-tube. I accidently let it go, and we all watched it sail out to sea.  Everyone was mad at me. But we had a nice roomy ride home in the jeep!

Another memory would have to be just running around the pastures in the mountains while dad did his ranching. We took a friend with us once. I was so little, I remember him piggy backing me around up and down the hills. He also carved a tiki out of a branch for me which I still have to this day.

A favorite hang out?

My favorite hang out was anywhere near the ocean. There were many times I would just go down to the ocean or shoreline and find a nice spot to sit and think for hours while listening to the ocean crashing against the shore.

Did you and your friends ever get into mischief? If so, tell us a story.

Hmmmmm….Talk to Luana on this one!

I NEVER got into mischief…that was Luana’s duty! (Remember—I interviewed Luana, Tamara’s sister, last year and she told me some great mischief stories!)

I do remember lining up mangos across the road and getting a kick out of cars running them over.

I also remember picking guavas to sell to the juicing company. I would pick a few rotten ones on purpose and leave them on the top of the crate so that on the way home we could throw them at the road signs. Back in those days there were no seatbelt laws so we sat in the back of a truck, on the tire well, and rode all over town that way.

White Sand Beach on Hawaii

What do you really love about Hawaii, especially The Big Island?

I love that it is not a big city. I love that you can just stop by someone’s home unannounced and they would probably invite you in, feed you if it was mealtime, and talk for hours.  The life was simple on Hawaii when we grew up.  There wasn’t a lot of hustle and bustle—going from one sport to another, or one event to another. 

I love the different climates and terrain on The Big Island. It’s the only island you can drive completely around. The climate changes so drastically in some areas. You can be on a mountain where it is lush and green and in a snap, start driving down to the coast and it becomes like a desert.

I love the site of the dark black lava rock against the deep blue sea and white wash from the wave crashing. It’s just SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I love that there are 3 colors of sand on The Big Island, black, white and green. Where else can you see 3 colors of sand?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Volcano National Park forest. The plant life and growth is just so beautiful to me.  

Big Island Beauty at Sunset

Anything else you’d like to share with my readers?

Just that The Big Island is such a BEAUTIFUL island and if they ever visit Hawaii they should not miss out on the beauty there.

Thanks, Tamara! What variety and what beauty! Personally, I can't wait to get back there!

Aloha and Mahalo for Visiting!

--Cheryl

The Hawaiian Island Detective Club

Book One—Pineapples in Peril

Available NOW Everywhere!

Book Two—Menehunes Missing

RELEASES February 5, 2013

www.cheryllinnmartin.com

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