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Life's Long Journey

I was born in 1927 in the plantation town of Ookala Hawaii. My father was a Chinese immigrant named Sei Tong Ching, whose name was messed up by some government bureaucrat in the Territory of Hawaii so that it became Sei Tong Ah Ching. He worked in the Ookala Sugar Plantation for most of the time he was in Hawaii. He died in 1947 and is buried near Hilo.

My mother Mary Ah Ching grew up in the Ka'u district of the Big Island before marrying my father and settling down in Ookala. I am one of 9 children that grew up in a cramped plantation style house. Life was tough in the old days, but somehow we all survived and got by to grow up into mostly successful people.

My school years were spent in Ookala and Laupahoehoe. I went to Laupahoehoe High School and graduated in 1946. In the old days, the school was located at sea lavel on Laupahoehoe Point. On April 1, 1946 at around 7 in the morning a series of "tidal waves" (preoperly known as tsunami) washed Laupahoehoe School away and killed several people on the point. Today, more than 50 years later, stands a monument honoring those who lost their lives. I was there when our school had a 50th anniversary class reunion.

After high school I spent several years in the United States Army. I was stationed in Fort Hood Texas, Fort Ord and Camp Beal in California. We were preparing to be one of the invasion forces that would attack Tokyo in 1945. Lucky for us, President Harry S. Truman decided to use the atomic bomb twice in August of 1945 to end the Pacific Theater and all of World War II. After the war ended our platoon was sent to the Philippines to help transition the country from a war torn outpost to an independent nation.

In the late 1940s I returned to Hawaii and served for a couple of years in the Hawaii National Guard. Shortly afterward I worked for a brief time as a heavy machinery operator constructing the original mauka highway of Route 19 between the Waimea-Kohala Airport and Kona.

I started work for the Hawaii County Fire Department in 1952 and was stationed for a short time in Hilo. After learning the ropes I transferred to the fire station in Honokaa where I served until 1967. The first fire station in Honokaa that I worked at was in a large wood and iron roof structure located near the area of the present U.S. Post Office. We were there for several years until the early 1960s, after which the Fire Station was moved to a new facility next to the Police Station near the Honokaa Public Library. There, I spent another 5 to 7 years fighting fires and saving lives.

In 1967 the growing community of Waimea (Kamuela) needed more of a fire department presence beyond the all-volunteer squadron the town maintained. That year I accepted a transfer to the Waimea Fire Department to be the that town's first fulltime fire fighter. My new outpost was a small wooden building located next to the old Waimea Police Station and Thelma Parker Gymnasium and Library. It contained a small office, an old 1950s style Studebaker Fire Engine and a rear area that housed some supples and one squeaky old bunk bed. Unlike most fire stations where personnel worked in rotated 24-hour shifts, I worked at Waimea in the beginning for only 5 days a week, 8 hours a day from 8 AM to 5PM.

While that may sound like a peachy time slot for a fire fighter, believe me, being the only fulltime guy there was not easy. Sure there was a lot of time where I sat and greeted passing children on their way to the nearby Waimea School. However when a fire hit, I had to work my butt off driving the old engine to the fire, pulling the heavy and often stubborn hoses out of the truck, turning on the water and actually fighting the fire. The worst place to fight a fire was at the old Waimea Rubbish Dump which seemed to catch fire almost on a daily basis! Remember this was in the 1960s and early 1970s when open dumping was still the norm for trash disposal. That place was quite foul with its stench of burning, decaying trash, rubber and even some dead animals. Yuck.

Then there were the huge brush fires that would burn hundreds of acres all over the South Kohala area. If you have been to South Kohala, you know the area is very dry, hot and windblown. The landscape is characterized by thick and dry brush grasses, thorny keawe trees and prickly cacti... some of which are grown over old and brittle rock lava flows. This harsh environment makes fighting a fire very tough.

Needless to say, whenever one of these fires flared up, I would always call for backup which came from all directions of the county. Most of the times, we would prevent the fires from harming populated areas and peoples' homes.

Firefighting does not only involve the fighting of fires. Above and beyond that, the job requires us to know how to save peoples' lives in many different situations from heart attacks to traffic accidents. Firefighting also required me to be a good P-R guy and educate the public on how to prevent fires from happening and what to do if there is a fire.

I worked at Waimea until my retirement as Captain in 1976.

Besides my colorful career at the Fire Department, I spent a lot of time doing many other things.

Today I am active in my community as part of the Hamakua Lions Club and the Hawaiian Civic Club of Hamakua. I am also a longtime supporter of the Hawaii Democratic Party and still work part-time for Wackenhut Security at the Kohala Ranch Community Association. For a number of years I also ran our ranch up in Nie Nie. Today we still go there to take care of a small parcel within our acerage.

I have been married for nearly 50 years to my wife LaVerne and have three childen. My children are all grown and living on their own. In fact my oldest son, Mel is the actual ghost writer and publisher of this website. My daughter Sandra works for the County of Hawaii and publishes a very high-tech website called "A Heart of Aloha." My son Randal is an entrepreneur selling Prepaid Legal Insurance in Las Vegas, Nevada.

One of the neatest things I am still in the process of learning these days is the computer. It is quite amazing what you can do with a computer. I think finding information on the internet is one of the neatest things I have come to learn with the computer. I am happy that in my small way, I can be a part of the Internet Revolution with the publciation of my website.

I was Honokaa's "Outstanding Older American" nominee for 2006. You can read about this and view photos from the May 12, 2006 luncheon at this link.

Thanks for reading. Take care of your health and may God bless.

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