“Plantation-Style” talk story

at Kauai Museum Feb. 23 at 10:30 a.m.

Please join Kauai residents Aileen and Niles Kageyama as they talk story about growing up on Kauai “plantation-style” when the sugar industry dominated the island, when neighbors trusted each other implicitly, of “picture brides,” of Aileen’s parents’ colorful mom-and-pop general store and an overview of how the sugar industry shaped Kauai and the entire state of Hawaii for 150 years. The Kageyamas’ presentation will take place Saturday Feb. 23 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Niles grew up in Japanese Camp in Koloa on the south shore of Kauai, the town where the first successful sugar plantation in Hawaii was founded. Niles will share stories of what it was like to live in plantation “camps,” (housing provided to employees by sugar plantation companies), the sense of community that pervaded the camps and the fun children had with toys made from whatever they could find. Niles will also provide an overview of how the sugar industry shaped Kauai and the entire state of Hawaii for 150 years.

Aileen Kageyama is third generation of the Wada family, born on Kauai, businesspeople then and now. She will share stories of growing up in Lawai and anecdotes of working in her parents’ general goods store, located next door to a pineapple cannery, in a time when customers allowed H. Wada Store employees into their unlocked homes to make deliveries.

The conversation will be facilitated by Pamela Varma Brown, author of the book Kauai Stories: Life on the Garden Island told by Kauai’s People, a collection of more than 50 personal stories about many aspects of life, and includes the Kageyamas’. After the event, the Kageyamas and Brown will be available to sign copies of Kauai Stories, which is available for purchase at the museum.

Admission is $10; free to museum members. For more information, please call Kauai Museum at 245-6931.