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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1956)
Is That So? Princess Kaiulani Hotel, Waik-I iki. Honolulu I was sitting on the porch of my room facing the beach, squeezing lime juice on my second half of solo pap aya, thinking: "The way visitors bureau has squeezed out every drop from the wringer on new stories, what'll I find to write about .... when all of a sudden it struck me like a ton of bricks. It" being an idea for a column. I picked up the telephone. " Give me the manager, please." Mr. Filoni came to the phone. "Joe," I said, "I'm up here in room 721 and I've just been hit by a coconut:" "Hit on the seventh floor by a coconut! This early in the morn ing. Impossible- Look, stay right there until I come up. No. better yet, I'll send a lawyer. I mean the doctor ..." "Nothing like that, Joe. You see, I looked out of my lanai (porch) and here is this big co conut tree staring me right in the eye. Now, your Kaiulani Hotel is less than a year old, right? And these grounds of yours are new, right? Now, tell me, how did you get all these big trees must be a hundred of thorn, and big ones, from 50, 60, 70 and even 80 feet tall ..." His voice dropped. "Is that all: Why we buy them. Just like chairs. This batch set us back around 510,000. Lots of money. But where's the story?" "Unless I'm mistaken, these trees you have out here may well be the tallest old trees ever trans planted, that's all. Get it?" "Well what do you know? Look, Gene, the man who trans planted 'em is putting in another batch a lot smaller ones, though just across the street right now for the Waikiki branch of the American Express company. I'll take you over." Real Tropical Lock 1Vlr. Filoni introduced me to Wilbert H. S. Choi, territorial commissioner of the Board of Agriculture, and owner of a nursery, who was directing a crew of 32 men. "This is old stuff to me," said Choi. "Figures we've put up at least 1.000 of these big trees, gives Waikiki a real tropical look." While talking he directed the boom operator. The man was lowering a 60-foot palm with its five-foot ball of roots and earth into a prepared, curbed hole in the sidewalk. Choi ordered it raised again, two men swung it around, and it was lowered again with the long stem tak ing off rakishly toward the busy By EUGENE BURNS . Ranger-Naturalist traffic. "I like to make 'em look like they are standing easy and natural." Once the tree was rested, four men rushed in, with wet sandy loam which had been "spiked"' with high-potash content fer tilizer. They tamped the soil in 4-18-56 firmly around the ball of roots "to prevent air from getting at the roots" and then soaked the area thoroughly with water. I asked Mr. Choi about the Princess Kaiulani planting. "I'm proud of that job. Big gest trees I have ever handled. Took a special truck with a trailer boom hoist. Some of those trees over there are 100 years old. That one," he pointed to the very tree facing my room 721, "is over 90-feet tall. Had a ball of roots maybe eight feet through. Took a five-foot-deep hole, weighed better'n 20,000 pounds." Architects Help "But how can you get a tall top-heavy tree with all its heavy 20-foot long leaves at the tip top to stand at that slant with such a small root system?" I demanded. "The architects help us. You'll notice they incorporate hooks right into the nearby buildings. That way, 20 feet up from the ground where no one notices, we use guy lines. We keep them tied up about five months. Takes about 100 days for the root system to become established, and take a firm hold in the loam." Joe interrupted. "Remember how we removed the lines? Then within a week we had one of the strongest blows I've ever seen. Blew in lot of windows and took off .some roots." ' "But we didn't lose a trans plant," said Choi. "Those coconut palm stems are mighty flexible. Can bend almost level with the ground. And the leafy top trims with the wind. And those roots get to be 20, 40, maby even 50 feet long. . . " "How many did you lose?" The Family Council Editor's not: The Family Council consists of a judEe, a psychiatrist, a newspaper editor, a women's page editor and two newspaper writers. These consult with clergymen of all faiths and denominations. All letters are held In complete confidence. EMILY He refuses to use my money. STEVE We don't need a new home. EMILY My husband and I are having a serious disagree ment that may affect our future and the future of our three children, the oldest of whom is 12. At my question he looked at Joe Filoni. "As I recall, two out of 80. And they're looking mighty healthy. Bearing coconuts already." "Which I have to pay a man to cut down so they won't kill my guests. . ." said Filoni un happily, but he brightened in stantly, "but I don't mind as long as I've got the biggest old trees ever transplanted. Wait until I tell my publicity director! What a scoop:" (Copyright, 1956, by Eugene Burnt) (Released by McClure Newspapers Syndicate) Free: By special arrangement with the editors of the Encyclo pedia Americana, my panel of judges will award each week to the readers who send me the best true-life nature adventure, the best nature observation, or the best question on nature and wildlife, a complete 30-volume set of this world-famous ref erence work in a handsome Seal craft binding. Each week new submissions will be considered. Sorry, I simply can't answer your many friendly letters. Please address your letter to: IS THAT SO! care Medford Mail Tribune, Box 575, Sausalito, Calif. I have just inherited a sub stantial sum of money. At the same time, my husband has had a promotion that gives him a large raise in salary and good prospects for future promotion. I have asked by husband to use my money to buy and furnish a new home in a good neighbor hood where they are good schools. There is enough in my inheritance for that purpose, and my husband's salary would be easily enough to run the house hold, since we would not even have to have a mortgage on our home. My husband angrily refuses. He says he will not use my money, that I can leave it to the children if I like, but it is his duty to maintain the home and he will not have a better home than he can aford. I would not press this if I were not worried about the ef fect our poor neighborhood may have on our children's future. STEVE My wife's fears, I am afraid, are just snobbery. I have seen children growing up into model people in the worst neighborhoods, and I know of brats and criminals who grew up in the nicest neighborhoods. I don't want my children to grow up in a home I cannot afford, and to come to look down on their father with contempt. I can wait for a fine home until I earn it, and I can't be lieve children as young as ours will be contaminated by the fact that a few of the neighboring houses need a coat of paint. My wife's inheritance was nothing she expected when we married, and I do not see why it should be permitted to change the whole course of our lives. THE COUNCIL Steve ac cuses his wifejof snobbery, but he may be guilty of an exces sivley tender and selfish pride. He Is not being sensible or prac tical when he argues that his wife may leave her money to the children upon her death, but may not use it for their benefit during her lifetime. The thought of profiting from his wife evidently tends, to un dermine Steve's sense of self respect. This should not be. It will do the children much more good to have the benefit of a Wednesday, April 18, 1SSS MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE FIVE good home in a good neighbor hood with top schools during their formative years than to inherit a financial windfall later in life. The fact that some slum children turn out well and some suburban children turn out badly is utterly beside the point. There should be some formula whereby Steve can reconcile his pride with constructive utiliza tion of his wife's money now. Perhaps the effective compro mise would be an agreement whereby Steve restores his wife's inheritance to her through the years, by putting aside a small sum regularly until it is made whole again. Steve should not give up his idea that he alone will support the family. But he should not refuse to let his wife invest her money where it will do her (as well as her children) . the most good in a home, that, of course, will always have a sub stantial value as real estate. 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