This oral history interview is a project of the Historical Committee of the Outrigger Canoe Club. The legal rights of this material remain with the Outrigger Canoe Club. Anyone wishing to reproduce it or quote at length from it should contact the Historical Committee of the Outrigger Canoe Club. The reader should be aware that an oral history document portrays information as recalled by the interviewee. Because of the spontaneous nature of this kind of document, it may contain statements and impressions that are not factual.
Muriel Flanders is the sister of Walter J. Macfarlane after whom the July Fourth Regatta is named. Her family has supported the Regatta throughout the years. She, her mother, Alice Kamokila Campbell and two of her daughters, Alice Guild and Mary Philpotts-McGrath have awarded the trophies to the winning crews for the past fifty-one years.
In 1972, Mrs. Flanders donated the koa and sterling wave trophy which is awarded to the over-all winner of the Regatta.
In 1980, Mrs. Flanders’ grandson, Walter Guild, crafted a model of a koa racing canoe which he donated in honor of his grandmother. This trophy is given to the Boys 18 crew each year.
A sterling silver bowl was given by Mrs. Flanders in 1984 as a trophy for the winner of the Senior Women’s race. Also in 1984, Mrs. Flanders donated two milo bowls for the first place Women’s Masters and Senior Masters crew.
In 1992, in celebration of the 50th Annual Macfarlane Regatta, Mrs. Flanders donated two trophies which were awarded to the winning crew of the Boys and Girls 12 competition.
The Macfarlane Regatta is the oldest annual canoe race in Hawaii.
Interview by Barbara Del Piano
June 25, 1993
BDP: This is Friday, June 25, 1993. I am Barbara Del Piano (BDP) and I’m interviewing Mrs. Muriel Flanders (MMF) in the library of her home on Kealaolu Avenue for the Outrigger Oral History Program. Mrs. Flanders, could you tell us a little about your background? When and where were you born?
MMF: I was born in Honolulu, eighty-four years and two days ago, in 1909, June 23.
BDP: Your parents . . . where were they living at the time you were born?
MMF: They were both here in Honolulu.
BDP: Right here in Honolulu?
MMF: Yes.
BDP: Could you tell us a little bit about your background?
MMF: Well, my mother was Alice Kamokila Campbell . . . that was her maiden name. My father was Frederick Walter Macfarlane . . . spelled with a small “f”.
BDP: Right. I finally learned that.
MMF: And they were both part Hawaiian. My father was part Scotch . . . Scottish, I should say. My mother was the daughter of James Campbell, who was from Londonderry. He was Scottish, actually, but on the boundary of Ireland.
BDP: When did the first Macfarlane come to Honolulu?
MMF: Way back. I don’t know what year. I guess we can tell more or less by the dates of the children’s births. My father was born here in 1882, and my grandfather and his older brothers were also born here. So I would say that the first Macfarlane came in the mid-eighteen forties.
BDP: And where did they come from?
MMF: I think from New Zealand. Recently, in some publication, I read that they came on their own schooner. I just can’t imagine! It must have been a very small schooner. I’d like to research that. I always took it for granted that they came by steamer or sailing vessel, but it said they had their own schooner. I imagine they had a crew in that case.
And then James Campbell came. He ran away from home when he was a boy and joined a crew as a helper, and eventually became a carpenter. He landed on Maui and eventually bought the Pioneer Sugar Company. He went to work for Mr. Henry Turton at first, and became head luna and eventually went into partnership with him and then bought it. So he was on Maui for years. Then he sold Pioneer and bought Ewa Plantation. So the whole family moved down here.
BDP: To Honolulu?
MMF: Yes.
BDP: How many children were there in your family?
MMF: There are five.
BDP: There are five? And, Walter Mac was a younger brother?
MMF: No. He was older. Alice was the eldest. She died in 1936, I think it was, in childbirth. But she left two children: Jimmy Growney and Alice Robinson, Cokely now. And then came me, and then my sister Kala and my brother Wyatt.
BDP: And did you grow up in Ewa?
MMF: No. I grew up at Pensacola Street. But we spent a lot of time, both summers and when we were young, before school . . . we spent a great deal of our time at Kahaluu. My father and grandfather owned a pineapple company, Macfarlane Pineapple Company, and we would go down for summers and spend our time riding around the countryside. Everything from Heeia to the Pali was our playpen. We used to ride forth at six in the morning and come home to lunch, then go out again . . . no supervision at all . . just the three of us.
BDP: You and Alice and Walter Mac?
MMF: Right. Walter was our scout. Alice was the chaperone. She kept us under control. Without any supervision, we would ride all day long . . . take our horses down to Heeia, swim them out . . cool them off.
BDP: Was Hygienic Store there in those days?
MMF: I don’t quite remember. I think it was pre-Hygienic Store. The Hygienic Store was there later, but not in the early days.
BDP: And eventually you had to go back to school?
MMF: I think I told you about our first day at Punahou. Mother was very casual about little things like schooling, so Alice had never been to school. So finally, someone caught up with us and Alice and Walter were registered to go to Punahou.
So on that day, our Japanese driver took them to school and I asked if I could go along. My mother said “Sure!” so when we got to school I said to Oka . . . by the way, Oka later went to the Academy of Arts, I think as a receptionist, and he was there for years and years and years.
Anyway, Oka let me out of the car so I went in with them and the teacher, I don’t know if it was Miss Doggett. Anyway, she let me in so I sat down and started school without registering or anything. So the next day I went to school again, and the third day, and finally, I was just part of the first grade. I was never registered to begin with. Of course I did the second year. I mean the second grade.
BDP: And all three of you were in the same class?
MMF: All three of us! All through grammar school and high school.
BDP: Isn’t that wonderful!
MMF: Right. One night I was sitting next to Dr. Fox at a dinner party and I was telling him about it and he said, “It’s just impossible, Muriel. It couldn’t have happened.” I said, “But it did happen.” And he said “I don’t believe it!” (Laughter)
BDP: You mentioned too something about another summer you spent sailing.
MMF: Oh, we spent many summers sailing. Everybody then had a house at Pearl City. Both my grandmothers had houses there . . . right next to each other actually. So there was always some place to stay.
Not that I liked it . . . I didn’t like it down there. It was so hot, and no breeze at all. And there were snakes on the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Water snakes, so I didn’t like to swim there.
So, like the three musketeers again, just like at Kahaluu, we would go forth in the morning, get in our little boat. Walter Mac again was the sailor and the scout. And we’d sail all over Pearl Harbor, all day long. We’d take a picnic lunch . . . we always had our picnic lunch . . . and sail over to Ford Island or wherever he wanted to go. So in those days we were always on the water.
BDP: So that must be where Walter Mac developed his love of sailing?
MMF: Yes. Because he was essentially a waterman. I was thinking last night about what we’d talk about today and I thought . . . he was a sportsman . . . but I think his true love was the water. I think he was a waterman. Swimming and surfing, primarily. But he also played football through high school and college. At the University of Hawaii he was on the “Wonder Team”, I think they called it. I think it was around 1926 or thereabouts. And there was Mel Peterson, I can’t remember all the names, I didn’t know them well . . . Mel Peterson and I think Tommy Kaulukukui . . . I think they were called the “Wonder Team” and they went on for several years. And Walter Mac went on these trips with them to San Francisco, or wherever they played, and visiting teams. Of course, he was a good sailor and a good rider.
BDP: Horseback riding.
MMF: In fact, he was on the boys’ polo team. He was the youngest polo player in the United States, officially.
BDP: Was this at Punahou, or on the mainland?
MMF: Here. But not at Punahou. It was just extra-curricular.
BDP: Oh, I see. After high school?
MMF: No. No. He was little. He was the youngest player and my mother had to have his mallets made to order because he was so small. But he played on the boys’ team, with the older boys. He was quite good. They had races at Kapiolani Park. Both full-fledged races and children’s . . . boys races. I remember once, Walter Mac was racing against Wally Waterhouse, who was a little older. And it was a very close finish and the judges gave it to Wally. My mother, who was really not aggressive or anything, but she got up, walked across the race track and went up to the judges and disputed it. So they re-ran the race and Walter Mac won. There’s a little cup up there that he won.
BDP: Oh gosh. Did he have his own horses?
MMF: Uh-huh.
BDP: And where did he keep them? At Diamond Head? At the old Polo Club?
MMF: At the Polo Club, yes. On Kamehameha Day, you know that was always . . .
BDP: That was a big day for horseracing . . . not canoe racing like it is now.
MMF: Uh-huh.
BDP: And then you moved to the mainland somewhere along the way, didn’t you?
MMF: In 1919. After the armistice. But things were so discombobulated then, I think we couldn’t . . . of course, we were just children then so this is just heresay, but I think probably my mother couldn’t get a direct passage to San Francisco so it must have been very upsetting.
BDP: So where did you arrive?
MMF: We went up to Victoria. So it was a long round-about trip. We landed in Victoria and then we came down the Puget Sound. Of course, in those days, you didn’t just pick up a suitcase. We were going for years, so we had our trunks. And there was a large group of us. Our Japanese maid, Naka, our nurse, and we had a governess, Margaret, and the cook, and then five children. My father stayed behind.
So we went down to Puget Sound and landed in San Francisco. We had a house already rented. West Clay Park. I remember, in the fog. And it was so traumatizing because we had left the beautiful Pensacola house and going barefoot, and having our own pool and we loved Punahou so much . . . and all of this, and then going into this foggy climate, smallish, dark house. And from there, going into boarding school. It was very traumatic.
Alice and I were put in Notre Dame Convent in San Jose and then mother continued on down by train that night with poor Walter Mac and he was put into Thacher’s Boarding School in Ojai. Of course he was miserable too. So we were in convents for the next eight or ten years and I went to all the convents around San Francisco, but Walter Mac ended up at Belmont Military Academy during his entire high school, so at least he didn’t jump around. But Alice and I went to Notre Dame in San Jose, and then we moved up to Belmont, California, and then we went to Dominican in San Rafael, and Sacred Heart in San Francisco, then back to Belmont and back to Notre Dame. That’s where we graduated from.
BDP: Why did you move around so much?
MMF: I don’t know, really. Perhaps because I was so unhappy and probably complained so much that my poor mother would try to find a convent that I might like, I don’t know why, really, but we moved around quite a bit. Oh, we had one year of public school, which we just adored, in San Francisco. But then, back to the convent.
BDP: To the convent . . . oh dear!
MMF: So I vowed none of my children would ever go to boarding school. And I kept the vow.
BDP: And so, after all those schools, you were kind of resigned to living on the mainland, weren’t you? You married up there . . . and could you tell us a little bit about your husband?
MMF: Well, Walter went to Menlo Junior College. That’s where I met him. And he was quite enamored with the idea of coming to Hawaii to live. There were a lot of Honolulu boys at Menlo . . . “Brother (Albert) Wilcox and Tommy King and Marky Robinson. So that Walt got to know them and heard so much about the Islands. So after we got married, he said, “Let’s go back to Hawaii” and Walter Mac came up . . . actually, he came up for our wedding. He gave me away. And . . .
BDP: What year was that, that you got married?
MMF: It was 1933, and we were living at the Fairmont Hotel then . . . my mother had one of the . . . there were two penthouses at the Fairmont, and she had one of them. And so we were married at the Fairmont and we took over the dining room. We were married in the Gray Room which is now, I think a big cocktail room. And the reception was in the dining room. Walter Mac came up and he gave me away and it was during prohibition. So Walter Mac was holding forth with cocktails in his room and of course, champagne was still available, you know.
BDP: Oh really?
MMF: Uh-huh. Through the hotel. You know, but it was sort of uncertain. Yes. So then Walter Mac said “If you kids” . . . that’s how he used to talk . . . “If you kids will come back to Honolulu, we can build on my property.” He had bought a piece of property when the Luci Henriques estate was sub-divided, and it was in a very choice part of Nuuanu. It was right next to . . . well, it was two down from Loy Marks’ great big house which belonged to . . . well, it was built by Clarence Cooke.
So Walter Mac said “It’s really in a nice part of town and everything. If you come down we’ll build a house together.” He said “I won’t be there much. I like to travel,” and he was staying with Chris Holmes at the time, mostly down at Waikiki. So we said “That sounds fine!” So we came down and we built the little house with three bedrooms . . . one for ourselves, one guest room, and then one for Walter Mac. So when it was built, he came up and said “Well, I may as well try out my room.” So he came up one night . . . it was during mango season, he got such bad asthma that he said “Never again! I don’t think I can live up here. So too bad for me, bad for me.”
It was around Christmas time and he came up for Christmas and he had an envelope. He stayed with us for a while. He brought his presents and everything, for Alice was the only child at this point. Mary and Judy weren’t born yet. And then he gave me this envelope. It said “Merry Christmas. I‘m giving you this property, my property, for a Christmas present. Enjoy!” or something like that.
BDP: What a wonderful person!
MMF: Yes! And he gave us . . . I would say, the equivalent of an eight thousand dollar Christmas present, which was pretty magnanimous.
BDP: Right. We missed something about Walter Mac. He came back then, to Honolulu, before you did?
MMF: Yes. When my parents were divorced, he came back with my father. He had just graduated from high school and he put himself through college by working on the Ala Wai. He had the midnight shift, or anyway, the night shift.
BDP: What type of work was he doing?
MMF: I think he was on the dredge, operating a dredge of some kind. So he worked at night and went to school during the day, and played football and put himself through college.
BDP: Was he a member of the Outrigger by this time?
MMF: I imagine so. I’m not positive, but he was living with my grandparents in Waikiki. Their house was beyond the Royal, where the Sheraton is, and then it went across Kalia Road. The garage was against the Royal. So it was a pie shaped lot.
Walter Mac was living out there and of course he got to know all the Royal Hawaiian group, and so he used to spend his free time with them, you know, the Royal guests. And when I came down to visit, I met a lot of them. And we would laugh because we would sit on the beach, and Walter Mac would say, “Well it’s time for me to swim home.” And we got such a kick out of it. So with that, he’d go out to the water and swim around the point.
BDP: And there he was, home.
MMF: Uh-huh.
BDP: So when you got back, did you and your husband join the Outrigger?
MMF: Yes. I think we joined immediately because I remember taking Alice down there . . . and I have pictures of her at the old Club. It probably wasn’t the original one. It was the old wooden one. Brown wood. I don’t remember too much about it. In those days, nobody was skin-cancer conscious, so we spent all day in the sand and had our children down there, without any sun lotion, or anything. But we spent all day, every day there. Then when Mary and Judy came along, they joined us. And they were all brown as berries . . . we all were . . . I guess we’re very lucky we’re in good shape after all that sun.
And of course we got to know all the beach boys and Duke, and all of them, because they were all right there at the old Club.
BDP: We talked the other day about one of our favorite characters, Sunshine the parking lot attendant.
MMF: Was he yours too? Oh, he was so funny! But what impresses me now is that the Outrigger Club was able to afford a parking lot that was right across the street. The first one, as I remember, where Sunshine held forth, was right across the street. What’s there now?
BDP: It’s got to be the Princess Kaiulani or a row of shops.
MMF: Shops, I think. And to think that we could afford to have that as our parking lot! Then it seems to me that we moved next door to the Club.
BDP: Between the Club and the Moana.
Do you remember who the first member of your family was to join the Club?
MMF: No, I don’t. I’m sure my father was. I would imagine my grandfather was. I’m sure my great uncle, Clarence (Macfarlane) was, because he was a waterman. He was, of course, more into sailing, but he was an all-around waterman. I wish you’d look it up, Barbara. I’d be interested in knowing. But Clarence was interesting because he started the Transpacific Yacht Races. It’s interesting how that got started. He had an idea of a transpacific race and talked to some of his friends who had come down here. He knew a lot of people on the mainland and so he organized a transpacific race and it was supposed to start in 1906. So Clarence left with his crew and sailed to the mainland, and in the meantime, the big earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco had occurred. But, of course, Clarence didn’t know it because he was at sea. So he sailed into San Francisco Bay . . . and by the way . . . I always thought this was quite interesting . . . as they sailed into the bay and came to the Farallon Islands, there in the bay, one of the crew called out “Land!” So they all rushed to look. They were cutting through a sea of pumice. The boat was cutting through so that Clarence thought that was strange. They continued through the pumice and then they came into San Francisco . . . and no San Francisco. It was, you know, it had burned up.
BDP: It had been demolished.
MMF: Pretty much demolished. And of course it was a terrible shock to all of them. But they continued on over to Sausalito and they tied up there. And so Clarence got in touch with the people who were supposed to enter in the first race, and none of them were interested, of course. They were just completely preoccupied. So he went down to Los Angeles and he reorganized and got a group together and that’s why the race today starts from Los Angeles instead of San Francisco. I think that was interesting.
BDP: Very interesting! And they never found out what caused the pumice?
MMF: No. And I don’t think it’s ever been reported. It was written in either a letter or a diary, so I’m quite sure it’s true, but I don’t think it’s ever been reported to geologists and I still think it would be of interest. It might even be enlightening, because there must have been some sort of eruption under the bay to have caused the pumice.
BDP: You would certainly think so, wouldn’t you?
MMF: Which might just have some relation to the earthquake.
BDP: Now, getting back to Walter Mac, you say that all his life he was pretty much a waterman. But his favorite water sports were sailing and surfing. Did he do both body surfing and board surfing?
MMF: Yes, un-huh.
BDP: Where did he do his body surfing?
MMF: Oh, all over I guess. I imagine the North Shore like the rest of them. I remember one day we were out at Sandy Beach. There was my Walter, my husband, Bill Hollinger, who was also an Outrigger member, Walter Mac and Louie Kahanamoku. And they were all out in the waves body surfing. I was sitting on the beach, and waves got very rough, very big. So my Walt and Bill Hollinger, just the two of them, they came in. They were sitting with me on the beach and we saw this huge wave come in. It was so big! We were beckoning to Walter and Louie to look behind them, that this huge wave was coming. So they did. Finally they got the drift and they turned and looked. Bill Hollinger said “I’ll bet you that Walter Mac takes it and Louie ducks it.” So the wave came, and it was so high you could see Louie’s whole body silhouetted upright in it. So he let it pass, and Walter Mac caught it. And there was this little head on top of this enormous wave. And so he caught it and it went all the way across the highway. It was the most thrilling thing, really!
BDP: It must have been frightening too!
MMF: It was frightening, but it was thrilling! And when he finally picked himself up, he was all scratched and bruised.
BDP: He could have been badly hurt.
MMF: Yes, he could have. And he could have been run over by a car, I guess. Anyway, there was a tourist with a camera on a tripod, and he got a picture of it. He promised to send it to me, but I never got it. Not that it was a reflection on Louie because it showed that he had good sense. But on the other hand, I’ve thought about that at times, and wondered . . . you know . . . you wonder what makes people click. Walter wasn’t showing off because there was no young woman there to show off to, except his sister, and he wasn’t doing it for me. So I think it was a challenge. He just couldn’t pass up a challenge!
BDP: Well, speaking of challenges, he certainly took on a big one when he rescued the Outrigger from its dire financial problems back in, I guess it was the early forties.
MMF: Let’s see. It must have been about 1940. Yes, you’re right. Because it was before World War II. And their lease had run out, as I understand it, or as I remember it. And so the members began dropping out, I think. Or they didn’t renew their memberships. So it became critical because it was falling to pieces . . . because the membership was slipping and the lease was coming to an end and nobody was doing anything about it. Walter Mac wanted to save the Club, so, like a one-man band, he took off. He approached all his friends and family and tried to sell them memberships . . . whether it was just regular memberships or life memberships. He sold my mother five life memberships which she gave to family members and close friends. And of course he bought one for himself. He kept at it and talked about it whenever possible. He went out and actively solicited and finally sold enough to raise enough interest and confidence in the Club. First, I suppose he had to renew the lease, and then in order to renew the lease he had to have a pretty good membership. So it was a very big and difficult challenge but he pulled it off.
And so then, we had this beautiful, glamorous clubhouse. Do you remember it?
BDP: Yes! I sure do! It was lovely, really a lovely clubhouse, in such a desirable part of Waikiki. I don’t remember how long we had it but . . .
BDP: I think we moved to the new Club in 1965.
MMF: Nineteen-sixty-five? Oh, to the new one, you mean, that we’re in now?
BDP: Yes.
MMF: Well, I’m talking about the other one. The one between 19 . . .
BDP: They rebuilt the Club around 1940.
MMF: Yes, 1940. No, it wouldn’t have been that late, Barbara, because , . . . yes, we were there all during the war. So it was about 1940. And anyway, I think that was Walter’s greatest achievement, and probably his happiest.
One night, I was leaving for New York the next day so it was sort of a nostalgic little dinner that I had with Walt at the Outrigger, and we were sitting outside and I said, “Walt, do you realize that if Walter Mac hadn’t reorganized this Club, we wouldn’t be sitting her tonight. And all these other people wouldn’t be here, and all these waiters wouldn’t be here, and all these chefs wouldn’t be here. Think about how many lives were affected by that . . . to say nothing of the children who’ve been raised here.” So it really impressed me that night that it was a far reaching project. It wasn’t just a transient thing.
BDP: No, it made a difference.
MMF: It made a difference in a lot of lives.
BDP: It’s such a shame that Walter Mac didn’t live longer to see what happened to the Club. Could you tell us a little bit about his untimely death?
MMF: Well, he went down to Mexico. He had very bad asthma, had had it all his life, so he hadn’t taken the typhoid shots that were really required. But he got out of it some way. I think by saying he was allergic to shots. So his wife, Audrey, had gone to Mexico, Acapulco, or some place. And Walter Mac went down to join her and he ate oysters and contracted typhoid. He began feeling very ill. He called me from Los Angeles. Walt and I were in Menlo Park at the time. He said that he was feeling very ill, but he was going up to Piedmont to be with Granny Abbott, his good friend and his wife in Piedmont, and would call me from there. The next thing I heard was a call from Granny Abbott saying that Walter was so ill that they took him over to Peralta Hospital, which is a private hospital in Piedmont, and they discovered he had typhoid. They couldn’t keep him there cause it was so contagious, so they sent him to the Oakland County Hospital. I left my Walter with the children in Menlo and I took an apartment in Oakland went to the hospital every day. And they said if we could get penicillin Walter could be saved. But penicillin was so scarce and it was needed by the Army.
BDP: And the war was going on.
MMF: The war was going on. We were unable to get the penicillin and so Walter died in the County Hospital, which was sad. It was really very sad.
So then Henry DeGorog, the manager, had the idea of having a regatta and naming it for Walter Mac. My, he organized it very quickly because Walter Mac died on June 4th and the memorial . . .
BDP: I think they had a race on the 4th of July but they named them after Walter Macfarlane at that time.
MMF: Oh, I see. Oh, I was wondering how they could organize them so fast. Oh, that’s it, Barbara. So you’re telling me now. Who’s having the interview? (Laughter)
Anyway, I’m glad to know that. But Henry had got the idea of naming it after Walter Mac which is the most wonderful memorial that could ever be. When I see those kids out there in the sunshine, the beautiful water, beautiful waves, and everybody so happy and clean and salty (laughter). You know, it’s just the most beautiful memorial imaginable.
BDP: Isn’t it? So much better than a plaque or a statue . . . or anything they could possibly have done.
MMF: He would have loved it.
BDP: And we just celebrated the fiftieth.
MMF: Can you imagine!
BDP: After the Fourth of July race was named for Walter Mac, your family used to attend the races and give out the trophies to the winning teams every year, didn’t they?
MMF: Right. That beautiful huge trophy, and it is exquisite . . . the Senior Men’s . . . was given by Matson Navigation and that’s the one that my mother used to present every year until she moved away. And then I stepped in and started giving it. And we used to . . . we still do . . . fill it up with champagne. She started that actually, and then the Outrigger picked up and said “We’ll do it from now on.” So they supply the champagne now. Well, I presented the trophy for about twenty years or more, maybe thirty years, off and on when I was here. Then Alice took over and she’s been doing it for about . . .
BDP: That’s your daughter, Alice Guild?
MMF: Yes, she’s been doing it for five or six years and Mary is doing it this year because Alice will be on Hawaii.
BDP: That’s another daughter, Mary McGrath?
MMF: Yes.
BDP: So you have a daughter and a grandson that are both on the Board of Directors at the Outrigger now?
MMF: We have a very active family membership. DiDi, Dianne, (Guild) is coach, I understand, this year.
BDP: Of the women?
MMF: No. Of the whole program. This is her first year. So Mary is, I think, going to present the trophy. I just received an invitation today. And it said to call Jon Sutherland if I wasn’t going to give the trophy. So I’ll call him. But so far, it’s always been in the family. We’re so proud of it, and so happy with it. I think we’ll hang in there as long as we can.
BDP: Isn’t that wonderful! So there have been four generations, then, that have been members and I guess if we took a head count of how many family members belong to the Club today, there would be a very large number.
MMF: Yes, particularly if you go into the extended family . . . cousins and nieces and nephews etc. It might be in the hundreds. Well, at least dozens.
BDP: Well, your family certainly has contributed a lot to the Club. Do you have any other special memories of the Club, or Waikiki in general that we could include?
MMF: About the only other one that comes to mind is of that beautiful banyan tree at International Market Place, which was planted by Eliza Macfarlane, my great, great grandmother. And as I understand it, her house was on the mauka side of Kalakaua Avenue where the International Market Place is now. And she planted it in her front yard. So when I read recently, a few years ago, rather, that the city was thinking of putting in a convention center there and the old tree would have to come out, I felt very badly. I’m quite relieved that it’s going to stay there, at least temporarily. Every time I see it I have a very special aloha for her for planting it.
BDP: Your roots are very deep here, just like that tree.
MMF: That’s a nice comparison, Barbara.
BDP: Well, I thank you. Your memories are just wonderful. I know that the Outrigger and anyone who ever reads this will enjoy it. Thank you so much.
MMF: You’re so welcome.