Beginning our Castro oral history project..

Tonight we taped our first oral history interview with Don's step-dad. I think it went pretty well, and I'm looking forward to the future interviews. One of Walter's stories involved his experiences of working on the sugar cane plantation. He quit school after the 8th grade to help his family - there were 13 living children (three had already passed away) - one of his jobs on the plantation was plowing the sugar cane field behind a donkey.

He told of how the sugar cane was as tall as the donkey, and as he walked behind the animal to plow the narrow section the donkey would sweat profusely, and the sugar cane would rub against the animal on either side, and hit against Walter as he went by. Walter said when he went home at night he smelled horrible.

Oral History

My father-in-law, Walter Castro, has finally agreed to allow us to tape him in an oral history interview. Actually, it will be an extended interview, as he has much information we'd love to record!

He is actually Don's step dad. Don's real father died of cancer when Don was just a little boy, and his mom married Walter a few years later. (Note: our kids had 2 Grandpa Walts, as my father was Walter...yet we called him Walt, not Walter.)

Walter was raised in Hawaii, on the sugar cane plantation. His mother was born in Hawaii, her family moved to the Islands from Portugal. His dad moved from Puerto Rico to Hawaii as a small boy. And while Walter's last name is Castro, according to family history it is not their real name...that is one of the many stories I hope to uncover.

Walter lived through the infamous Hawaii tidal wave, and literally held onto a tree, after getting the younger kids to safety, and was unable to move to safer ground in time.

It should be interesting!