There's no crying in baseball

As you can imagine, football’s not too popular here. I probably won’t be hearing too many updates around town about the madness in March either come to think of it. Since its essentially summer all year round, surfing of course seems to be the biggest thing around; that is until this past weekend. This past weekend, baseball claimed its spot as Hana’s main source of entertainment. 

Hana’s very small, did I mention that? And like most small towns, a sporting event means community gathering. Woman sitting around a baseball field under the lights, groups of friends and their coolers lined on the streets to watch, children running and scootin’ around…. A weekend tournament to open up the highly anticipated season took place this weekend, ending on Sunday night. We heard from a  little birdie that the final game would be at 7 on Sunday, so headed down to the field, disappointed to find out it had already been played. However, live music had already started, and an older woman graciously gave us as much food as we wanted for free. She probably wanted to get rid of it, but the gesture was appreciated so we filled our plates with pork and much more!

A feeling of being slightly local, by knowing two band members  (a local artist, Scott, who’s unofficial studio is at Hana Tropicals on the drums, and Macki, Mr “Got anymore beer!?” from our earlier jam session in the Oasis on the bass) quickly ended as an announcer for the band took time to thank the “Haoles” for coming out. And he further flicked away that local feeling by defining the definition of Haoles, in case we didn’t know… Haoles being foreigners or people of lighter skin. Apart from a couple straight out of Woodstock solo dancing away in front of the band, Chelsea, Amy and I were the only Haoles in the whole bunch, which easily was around 200 people.

Apart from little things like being on a city bus in Syracuse, I’ve never really experienced being a minority in a given community. It’s not something I stretch to notice, or care about, but it’s never pointed out blankly like it was at the baseball game…With all the tourists around Hana, it’s not something I feel, and even in that whole pork eating, band listening evening, it didn’t enter my mind until a Hawaiian pointed it out.

You can never really tell what Hawaiians think of the Haoles coming on their territory. Most of the older adults are extremely friendly, warming and give hugs when they meet you. However, it’s tough to tell with the Kids. Kids in Hana are a tough breed, and seem to be very definite in their personalities. The ones it’s hardest to tell with however, the slightly intimidating 20 something’s….

Hawaiian pride is seen all over the place, mostly on pickup trucks. They sport maps of Hawaii and sayings like “Maui Born” or “Hawaiian Native,” but one truck takes the cake. The other day on a jacked up pickup, I saw a bumper sticker that said, “If you don’t like Hawaiians, then why the f*@# are you here?!?!”

I like Hawaiians! Let’s hope they remember that….

Aloha or should I just say goodbye?