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Give yourself a chance to be happiest
by setting a goal to find a career which
involves you in doing what you like to do
best and enjoy most. It then does not
become a "job" tedious to want to opt
out of eventually.
I did, and although my real estate license
paid for all the education my 4 children
desired, one went to Switzerland, I still
loved teaching what I loved doing too
much and helping all of my students find
physical activities to fall in love with to
actively participate in while alive.
Wealth is OK; Health is everything!
Give yourself a chance to be happiest
by setting a goal to find a career which
involves you in doing what you like to do
best and enjoy most. It then does not
become a "job" tedious to want to opt
out of eventually.
I did, and although my real estate license
paid for all the education my 4 children
desired, one went to Switzerland, I still
loved teaching what I loved doing too
much and helping all of my students find
physical activities to fall in love with to
actively participate in while alive.
Wealth is OK; Health is everything!
Sharethese.com
Born Samuel U. Apo, Jr March 22, 1927 Hana, Maui, Hawaii Father: Samuel U. Apo Sr Mother: Margaret Kaaa Apo (a Saint) Age 3-13 Lahaina Hawaii Age 13-18 Honolulu Age 18-22 WWII draftee. Age 23-26 Univ Portland Age 27-31 Tchr Portland Age 31+ Tchr HI DOE |
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| eDUCAEDUCATION Kam III Elementary, Lahaina 1-6 learned nothing.mom moved us to Sacred Heart Elem Cathokic. 7-8. Grad top student,bypassed #1 GI Bill 48 mos U.Portland BA & MEd. UH Biz minor. Real EstateBrkr 1972.8 EmEmployment Summer '39 Pioneer Mill Sugar field hoe hana digging weeds in fields. 2 wks I quit..too hot, 36 cents day! Gr 9 Maryknoll HS Honolulu, 1941 PT job VonHamYoung .35hr. Dec 7 paper boys missimg, we at park solicited to sell 'n yell "X-tra, X-tra" for 3 days..... Army trucks with bodies lined up in front of our school-park...mortuary 1/2 block down Beretania St. Mom worked at Pearl told me quit VHY, work at Pearl. HS Students hired to help out, .88 hr. Work when no school, incl weekends. ist job packing & crating at Ford Island. My tutor tell's me, "Go ask that worker for a box stretcher." I did, The entire shop had a good laugh. In a Supply warehouse we prepared shipping every conceivable item. A few times with nothing to do standing around on the loading dock the boss passing by tells us to sweep the warehouse. One day I tell myself, 'this is a shitty job (sweeping). Then I look around at the other guys and think, "Wow, this is their career! I better get on the stick and get a job that is not a job, pleasure to be doing." In planning (Wa Dat?) for college Jr year everybody knew what they wanted for a career...Me? The book for me was not written yet. All I was interested and permitted to do after my Dad died and I was only 4, was PLAY....in the park. In HS I was at the park until lights out at 10pm. Makiki Park. Not to be denied I woke up at 4am every school day to do my homework...Mom had no reazson for denying my play. Not having any STRONG interest in any career, I finally realized public schools had Physical Education teachers. It's not a job to me...it's fun and games helping kids decide what to like to play the rest of their lives without thinking they are helping keep themselves physically fit. So what's this drop PE in the schools? It is the finest of traditions in schools "believed" by educators and communities. The most brilliant need to keep healthy and useful...not bedridden and helpless. !! Employment |
| MMMilitary ServiceMMmm What a blast! All high school male students whose 18th birthday fell during the 1044-45 school year had their draft call scheduled after 1945 graduation. The oldest in June, the next group in July and the 3rd including me on August 10th 1945...a month before Japan surrendered. So I'm a WWII veteran! All 3 groups sailed to Camp Roberts, CA for 18 week basic training. We were all young and did not no any better than to enjoy the experience. i was in a Heavy Weapons Company, which means larger firing weapns...and we ride trucks if the need is to get places faster. Had I not re-enlisted immediately after Basic, t that's what I was going to be doing. Arriving home from Basic I discovered some in gp 1 and 2 at Hickam instead of in some unnamed Island to relieve the real veterans doing occupation duty. Learned that they hated to conditions and the US GOV offered "bait" to have draftees re-enlist for 3 years to insure enough troops stayed in long enough to serve our Govs objectives militarily. The "bait" was as follows. Whatever rank one was, one stripe was added. We all had none...so one rank up made us all Private First Class...celebrate please! The next bonus was we could opt to leave the Army and be assigned to any of the other services; Air Corps, Navy, Marine or Coast Guard. I opted Air Corps because it was obvious the Army had you dirty, slimy and tired; the Navy had you floating around on unstable floors ; and the Marines, golly, made you dressed sharply and proud to be on the attack, attack, attack wherever the Navy dropped you off'; the Coast Guard, had you in and out of Ports like a mother hen looking after children in, on or under the ocean!(no stability). The Air Corps (Air Force later), on the other had you choose civilian like jobs, service planes, service other depts with whatever, and without Gung Ho officers breathing down your neck to get moving or be killed. Only the Pilots, crazies, face getting killed...the rest of us guys have no worries....one bomb and we're in heaven. Everyone is a specialist serving to "keep the planes in the air or ready to be in the air". It is the only service where the ittle guy has it over the officers. As I inferred, in the Air Corps, things are loose....until one day comes a NEW militaristic Gung Ho 1st Lt, Company Adjutant (assistant to the commander). His first order facing the entire Company was everyone to adhere to Army discipine, military courtesy (salute officers), dinner between 5 and 6 pm dressed in class A uniform with ties. Hey dinner is not like at the Kahala Hotel, its in a quonset HUT on base for crist sake! No eat if you late. As if the Chefs and KP guys care whether their fine dining ball room closes at 6pm or 7t....they love their jobs...loafing most of the day with nothing to do. How long does it take preparing to make 10 pots of Stew? Salute all officers when they appear?.. even if you are a mechanic hanging upside down fastening cowls on airplane engines, or hands dripping in oil removing an engine part. Well lo and behold this called for good fast action. All planes grounded until the dumb ideas of the Adjutant were rescinded! You see, the crew chief of each fighter plane (my outfit) takes great pride in their "baby", the plane. They often work overtime without praise, money, incentives or whatever. They try a hard as possible to keep their baby in "ready to fly" condition. If a plane is not ready to fly the crew chief MUST Red L:ine the plane's LOG, indicating "not FIT to fly" under any circumstances". Not even the Commanding officer can lift the Red Line status. So grounding all planes means no plane to fly. In this case, the mechanics are ON STRIKE for a better word. So day after day, no planes moving anywhere. The Officers get antsy....they NEED to fly 4 hours minimum a month to earn their FLIGHT PAY; 50% of their base pay. The officers start complaining to the CO. He ignores them...then with time getting short, the CO meets with the Head of crew chiefs to find out what was happening. He is told the Adjutant has to rescind ALL of his demands on Company personnel. When the Orders were rescinded, every plane was available and fit to fly. However, I believe some of the pilots low on seniority did not get their 4 hours in and lost pay.. |
| Big on SportsBig I simply grew up playing games whenever possible, day or night. After my grandfather, who took me wherever he went, walking Front St. in Lahaina, to the butcher and other shops where his friends were to chat, and then to the Chinese Temple/Hall and grounds on Front Street where he was President of the Chinese Society for years died, my grandmother permitted me to run off to play in the park only 3 minutes away to make friends and play. In one corner of the park was a Sumo "stadium", bleachers surrounding the Sumo ring. Every year Sumotori from Japan held a 3-day tournament there. Awesome! Our football was paper and or rags or both tightly wrapped to form a cylinder which could be passed and punted as with a football. It was our game, touch and/or tackle football. Then came new basketball courts built by the plantation co. The Plantation's Athletic Director (yes) organized a basketball league for all kids. What a treat! Then a softball league...super visiting teams in country West Maui. (Lost my Dad's high school Kamehmeha HSl ring there. Everywhere we went we walked. Only 2 boys had bikes (parents "rich"...ofc jobs) Swimming and spear fishing was good and fun. Every summer 3 of us pals hiked up to Lahainaluna HS on the mountain slope and into the lush valley and running stream. On the way up the tree iined road we hunted Doves using sling shots, the shots being steel slugs punched out to make holes in steel plates by Pioneer Mill which was across the street where I lived with gramdma, Mom, uncle and 3 sisters. The birds we were lucky enough to get, was our lunch cooked by the stream. Each morning the schools Phys Ed teacher's wife (both from the mainland) left a quart of milk on the doorstep of their teacher's cottage for us. That was neat and generous of her. Leaving Lahaina for high school in Honolulu was super for the opportunity to play football, basketball, softball and baseball daily until 10pm at "light out"". My goal to play sports at St Louis HS was not realized, settling for City parks leagues. Barefoot football was fun, more so because the coach lived across the street where the tough guys hung out and trained in the garage turned boxing gym. My good friend, flyweight, lost every fight by knockout...and earned the nickname from me, "Canvas Back". The coach saw to it that the guys watched over me. I trained with them and was their a sparring partner...beating one in the only fight I had as a favor to the coach to substitute in a Navy sponsored event at Pearl Harbor. Mom did not know. She would never allow if she knew, When I arrived in HNL Mom asked that I attend Maryknoll HS for a year and register at St Louis the next year...they having moved suddenly to HNL was a surprise and little money...tuition was less at Maryknoll. And I was to find a job, which I did. Found out later tuition at St Louis was $7, Maryknoll $3. Eat your heart out today parents! Next yr came and Mom said I could register at St. Louis. I declined. She asked why, and, "What about sports?" I said its OK I'm in the City leagues, and I have some good friends. I did. 4 of us went everywhere together weekends and Summers....unless we had jobs to do. 3 of these friends knew in 9th grade the careers to pursue.. It did happen. My best friend surgeon Dr. Benjamin Tom. Jim Rapoza, Santa Clara, electrical engineer/inventor. US Army had Silvania Corp send Jim to install and teach maint. on his invention at Schofield Army Base fpr 3 years. Richard Murakami became Bank Mgr and into high finance. Me, yes Physical Education! Ben has been my Dr. forever, since coming home. I use to accuse him that his preference for a career was because he loved to cut meat at his father's butcher stall, Famer's Mkt, King Street. I learned better, cutting people up is the last resort...I know cause he told me when he found the best surgeon to work on me in San Francisco that in the last second before going under I could say NO. What then I asked. He said I was to be blind in 2 weeks and dead in 2 months! I thanked him for the option! Now comes Alfred Espinda, parole officer, asked by David Lum to "help" him start a basketball team at Maryknoll HS my SR yr. When David did not show up, Al introduced himself as an assistant....but David never showed up.. permanently and forever in EVERY SPORT but baseball...David Lum NEVER showed up as a coach. Al accepted as a volunteer with such loving dedication in every sport at Maryknoll and coached for years thereafter. THANKS COACH. Al selected me as team captain, an honor I considered precious given the kind of person Al Espinda was, together with his loving and caring wife and self appointed team mother of Al's teams. Military Germany Basketball to be remembered...Air Force League Europe. Turned out for the base team, selected starting point guard. Game 1, tip off we get rebound and I liesurely dribble toward a zone defense, stopped several steps from midcourt and let fly a shot..good!! next 5 possessions I dribble and 5 more BOMBS IN A ROW GOOD!. i made the sports page in the STARS & STRIPES. The remainder of the season were were defensed BOX AND ONE... one on me,4 man zone my team mates.. Baseball, starter 1st base. At one try out I heard this guy tell the coach he was a 1st baseman... the coach responds, 'Forget it, you'll never take his place." Wow! Football, starting Fullback and defensive left end. Harold Han, ILH all-star IOLANI...on visiting team arrives...HI "locals" on both teams fooling around of football field...I challenge Harold 100 yds with 15 yard handicap. He beats me by 5. Next day, game....as defensive end I intercept a pass and run 40 ydssto score...post game I rub it in on Harold 'n teammates..."How is it you guys couldn't catch me?" We won 6-0. Barry Ontai, my cousin, ILH All-Star, Kam School, Army team, Frankfurt. During the game my team mate says, "Hey, Barry Ontai is on this team." Sure enough I recognized him from the sideline. In I go on defense, Barry has the ball gains some 15 before I tackle him and say, "Got you Barry, what you doing here?" Big smile on his face, knowing there was going to be blast of a party that night. Unforgettable for the number of drunks scattered on the floor. Party we did! Incredible is the fact that I made every basketball, football and baseball BASE team as a starter. Except for my fist yr football and basketball teams where the intelligence Officer was my boss. Making the teams at my 3rd Base, Erding AF Base meant Special assigned and boss was the team coach. Simply report to practice at 2pm-4:30 and games.Most guys played golf in the mornings, the rest of us were free to do anything else...bowling, service club, recreation. For that reason I opted NOT go on LEAVE (90 days accumulated) and visit Europe because if I did I would miss the tryout for the next sport and not on the team for the season, I loved to play too much! Playing with the teams was my job, and loved it! At Portland University I had a full time job at United Airlines 3:30-11:30pm. Went to classes in the day and slept a lot at my 3 times a week 8 a.m.classses. he wa
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