 Aloha mai kākou and welcome to another episode of Roots Hawaii. I'm your host Walter Kauai-Ai up. Joining me today is my very special guest and dear friend, Mildred Hong Wong. Aloha Mildred. Aloha. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. I know even as a senior citizens they tell me that they they're busier when they're senior citizens than when they're working. Is that true? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean what kinds of things do you find yourself doing? Well I have been doing things for the community as far as having fashion shows, putting on the entertainment part of it, doing church activities and doing genealogy work. Genealogy work. Doing temple work. All kinds of things. All kinds of things. Always busy. Well that's why you're planning weddings. Planning weddings. Okay so if I have someone that wants to get married I just come and see you. You're an official wedding planner. Well you know Margaret Mildred is the youngest of 16 original Fong family children and now this is the Fong Hing and Alina Fong family, a very established Chinese Hawaiian family deep rooted in Hawaii and a very successful family in business and entrepreneur efforts. And so I'd like to make our show all about the work. You know you talked about genealogy work and we have on the table here displayed several books that you've put together for your family and the book that we want to particularly refer to and I'm going to ask our engineer if he can. There's a nice shot and so this book right here that I'm holding is entitled Elizabeth Alina Say Fong and can you tell us who that is? Well Elizabeth Fong is my mother. That is your mom. Right and I was fortunate to have lived with her all of my life from the day I was born till the day she passed on and from living with her I was able to gather all the information I've had to put into these books about her life. So can I ask you a question? So there were originally there were 16 children and I think your oldest brother is that right passed away and so when he was young from baby I guess. Oh yes yes my first the first brother that I had no one really knew him in the family because he was the first. And so your mom literally raised these 15 children and where your dad must have been a hard worker to take care of mom and of in the one in the two to 15 which child were you if you don't mind my asking? I'm the second to the youngest. You're the second to the youngest. That must have been a really special opportunity especially you know at that time in your mom's life she said she had years of experience raising children and so you know there you were to be able to participate with her and she had all of this experience. You know how did your mom did she have a favorite amongst the children? Oh we were all her favorite and this is one of the outstanding trait that she had she never took treated anyone any differently and we all felt that we were her favorite. She loved every one of you all 15 of you. That's unusual that well I'm not only unusual but that's you know having raised three children myself that can be a challenge you know I mean it's it's there's a natural human tendency to know perhaps favor one over the other and it can be for a variety of reasons. So you know to learn that your mom favored no one loved all 15 of those children including yourself equally that must have maybe that you know I've known people long before I met you and your family. You know associations in the music business particularly with Kahawanulake and Antimike IU like the Kumahula they referred they talked about Gramma Fong that's how they referred especially Antimike, Gramma Fong, Gramma Fong and I thought who is there when I finally met your family I met you then I put the pieces together so what was it about because I know Antimike very well what what drew Antimike to your mom what was their connection? I think they had a kind of a spiritual connection they both love to help people and they both love people so when you're connection when it's that kind of connection you you bond very easily with people of like values yes yes Mikey IU was a wonderful person she was and so knowing you know having known Mikey I never had the fortune of knowing your mom Gramma Fong but heard a lot about her I'm gonna ask our Rob our engineer to if he could post up the first of eight photographs there we go so Margaret I mean Milger excuse me I keep saying Margaret Milger can you tell us who these people are? Well in the picture at the right is my grandfather uh my maternal grandfather and on the left is my maternal grandmother and at the bottom is my mother oh that's your mother so that's when she was about six years old okay right so cute um so your grandma your maternal grandmother she was pure Hawaiian yes he was a pure Hawaiian lady tall strong and I was kind of afraid of her because she was very quiet but very snowy you know so I was I'm gonna imagine she spoke Hawaiian oh absolutely and the phrase I remember a lot is Cooley Cooley you know kids running around Cooley Cooley yes well we have that many children but she was a nice grandma she didn't say very much okay maybe we can have Rob put up our next picture now we want to um be sure that the audience knows that these pictures come from this book yes so all of these pictures uh that our viewers are seeing today on today's show all come from these books that were put together by this wonderful woman Milger Milger Fong Wong and so this book uh many of these pictures and for this one for example this is Wong Hing yes this is my father when he was younger and when he was older as a businessman I need to very quickly tell you about him he came from China at the age of 19 and started working in a family home for one of the big businessmen here and he came over as a laborer really but he wasn't put out in the fields because I guess he could read Chinese and he could do that so they allowed him to be a house manager in one of the big boss's homes upon Mott Smith somewhere my mom I remember my mom telling me that so he worked there for two years and when he completed this contract they were allowed to either return to China or stay in Hawaii and do their own thing so my father decided to stay in Hawaii and open a laundry and open a Topsui house and became a bondsman and went into real estate and did all that yeah I give him a lot of credit for doing that because you know he didn't have very much but to start with but he went on and eventually met my mother and married her and raised a family of 16 well I'm going to ask Rob to throw up the next picture because uh there and we want to keep that there for so that picture uh that was one of the businesses his laundry business and can you pronounce the name you'll pronounce it better than I could it says wall hop outfit I think yes can I see that yeah that was his store on New Wano Avenue and Bethel Street I think it was somewhere around there and I don't quite remember that store because I wasn't born at that time I don't think that that's a picture of your mom yeah that's my mom when my dad met her he was 16 and he was about 35 and he decided he wanted to marry this Hawaiian woman because she seemed like she was very mature for her age and so they got married and I see you have it says right there this is the first family portrait and you shared with me a cute story about this so which you're the little one sitting right oh yes yes I remember when I you first showed me this picture I said to I said to Milja I says how come you didn't smile and she shared this cute story so if you don't mind sharing it with our viewers because I look at it you're smiling it was a great thing to take pictures in those days you know you have a photographer there and and my mom cut my hair just before we were supposed to sit from the picture and I was so upset and angry that I could never find myself I could never make myself smiling and and every time I see that picture I tell people just remember to smile because it'll go with you through life that's funny that's really cute and all all 15 of you are in that picture yes 15 of us you know I mean when you it's so precious to have these kinds of portraits you know for I mean because when you think of it this portrait was taken in what year 1936 about 1936 can you imagine for all of the you know your mo'opuna and all of the little ones now if this wasn't available it would be so much more challenging for the family you know to kind of give them an insight as to not only their family what they appeared like back in 1936 but when you look at those pictures you see what Hawaii looked like at least you know you look at dad's business his laundry business we all know what Nuono and Bethel looks like today and you look at that and like wow it's not even close to what it looks like and so you know it's a step back into the past and I always when I go when I've done my own genealogy and I rummage through family pictures like that I I just sit there and I would stare at them and try to recount perhaps what it was like back in that day our next portrait okay we have several pictures going on here so different I guess different years that I see what's about that home it says the Victoria Street home okay we were raised in a home on Kinawa Street and the war broke out December 7th came on and immediately all these huge mansions went on sale because the businessmen who knew who had who owned these homes immediately packed up and flew to the mainland because they thought the Japanese were going to come over and take over Hawaii but my father then needed a home for the 16 children 15 children that were growing up and so we went house hunting I remember going house hunting with him and we went to several homes but this one turned out to be the best that fitted our our family because um this house was owned by um Stanley Kennedy family of Hawaiian Airlines yes uh and he packed his things up I remember when I first went into the house there were sheets all over the furniture all his personal belongings were gone the house was empty the garden was really beautiful because they had gardeners there to take care of things and the trees we had 11 mango trees there but when I first went into the house I just felt like like a little princess because the the garden was so beautiful I mean I'm looking at this is the front of the home and I imagine the back must have been just as beautiful yes it was on about an acre of land wow and so we had this huge garden on the side which I would just run all over and see the beautiful hydrangeas did you know that hydrangeas grew in stock I did yeah they grew in tall stocks and at the end of the stock I would see these hydrangeas at least I think they were hydrangeas but they were beautiful pink flowers all over the garden well what wonderful memories um so I guess there's something to be said from growing up in a large family with a lot of brothers and sisters just I mean you didn't pretty much have to go to too many places to have fun and activities and find things to do as opposed to growing up in a house of just yourself as a child or maybe having one sibling and not getting along with that one sibling that could be very lonely um so I see we have different portraits here so the first one on the top uh are right uh 1942 family portrait at all of these were at the Victoria home then we have one on the bottom left which was taken in 1952 and then on the bottom right taken in 1955 I guess like you said earlier was a big deal to have a professional photographer come in and gather in those days yeah it's so different now with technology um we miss out on these kind of opportunities uh perhaps because because of the effort that had to be put forth to gather a professional photographer was coming in it was a big deal it was you know today with our our smart devices it's not that big of a deal and so not that much attention you know hopefully we don't lose this well we could go on we we're going to take a short uh break from our talking story with our special guest uh Mildred Wong Fong about her family history here in Hawaii and the and the Fong family uh I'm your host Walter Kauai uh for Ruzawae we'll be right back hi I'm Rusty Kamori host of Beyond the Lines I was the head coach for the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years and we're fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championship this show is based on my book which is also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about leadership creating a superior culture of excellence achieving and sustaining success and finding greatness if you're a student parent sports or business person and want to improve your life and the lives of people around you tune in and join me on Mondays at 11 a.m. as we go Beyond the Lines on Think Kauai Aloha. Hi guys I'm your host Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. and this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism so we go through recipes some upcoming events information about health regarding your health and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle eat healthier and have fun at the same time so do join me I look forward to seeing you and Aloha. Lillian Maikako welcome back to Roots Hawaii I'm your host Walter Kawaiaya and we're here having a great time talking sorry about family history and family genealogy with Mildred Wong-Wong so we left off on that last portrait that showed that that wonderful Victoria home before we I asked Rob to put up our our fifth picture there I want to take a look at these precious books and talk a little bit with with Mildred about them so these books that we're looking at all you you were the one that took the time to gather and I mean to go and find the pictures and stories and put it all together I was fortunate to have inherited this big box of documents baptismal certificates birth certificates death certificates for my parents my father my mother my sister who passed at a very young age and left no family and I felt she should be remembered and even of my husband so I had all these pictures in this box and as I'm getting older I'm wondering what's going to happen to it I took it from Hinau Street to Victoria Street to Diamond Head Street home and then now to my home in Manoa and I'm beginning to think what am I going to do with this and I don't want it all to be thrown away I decided to put them into books and what I did was just set the pictures down that I got and all everything put them in chronological order and the stories that came to my mind with the pictures is what I wrote in these books you'll notice that there are words in here that go with the pictures and and every picture is documented something is said about the picture so that my descendants right 15 generations from now will know about what these pictures are but well I I want to on behalf of your family I want to thank you for for doing that it's a courageous work but to my to the viewers out there this is something you know we live in a in a world now that more and more people are trying to discover their ancestors and when they do discover they begin to gather and when we say gather they're gathering just what Mildred talked about gathering pictures gathering documents and then taking the next step of connecting everything piecing everything together and you might ask yourself for what purpose well she just identified the purpose and that's for generations to come long after we're all gone you know that you've you've put an effort you've made a sincere effort to preserve your own family history and I think if I can speak on your behalf and you can please chime in that this is what you know Mildred wants to share with with the viewers out there that this is really important that all of us in our own families we all have stories to tell about our growing up where we grew up it's not about the money we had or we didn't have it's about the experiences of discovering each other and all of our family members and so thank you so much for all of your work I'm sure your family must have appreciated all of this effort yes we when I did these books we printed over 50 copies and each of my brothers and sisters each one has a book and some of them got books for their children but I hope to put it online somewhere so the generations that come later can still get sure sure now as we were driving to the studio this morning Mildred asked about that and so we shared with her that we're more than happy to help her there is the technology today and the ability for us to as she said to take these original records that these books were founded on and to preserve them forever because original records original pictures are not going to last the test of time so one way that we can preserve them is by scanning and digitizing them and even for family's personal use okay if I could ask Rob to place up there we go all right so we alluded in our introduction about the success that this family has had I mean you would imagine that with 15 children at least somebody's going to find success in business but in this case almost every one of you found success and so I want to talk a little bit about what we're looking at here Margaret so I see on the top I see on the truck it has the word ACME I barely remember ACME as some kind of like mattress company right yes my father started with ACME mattress company and it grew into becoming Sealy mattress company which the family took over and ran the company and so with that you know it helped our family to survive I remember Sealy mattress I mean I don't know of my generation who does not remember Sealy mattress so I'm going to ask the question of our audience and I'm going to wait for the response and anybody remember where that Sealy mattress picture where it was geographically located on the island of Oahu anybody I'm waiting for that yes correct thank you anti-coline airport right lagoon drive am I correct yes very good anti-coline drive good job all right so I'll ask Rob if we could put up our next portrait there okay so we talked about the the first home being on Kinau and then the war breaks out and a lot of these businessmen decide to pack up and move in fear of what may occur in Hawaii and you folks bought this your dad mom and dad bought this before we went to Diamond Head we had to raise that big home and we built two large condominiums that exist there today Victoria Mansions and Victoria Plaza okay so the home is no longer in existence so we developed those two and are enjoying our home now after that we moved oh when we knocked the house down on Victoria Street what year was that do you remember that was in 1968 oh 1968 the year I graduated from my school we knocked the house down and then we went to live in the first condominium we built my mom and I went to the top of the penthouse of Victoria Mansions then after that we moved to Diamond Head because she got tired of staying way up high she wanted a better view out of Diamond Head well she wanted something on the level for so that my children could enjoy and not be afraid of them falling off of the top of the building so as of as your mom so your mom moved I'm assuming that your dad was had already passed oh yes he passed in 1954 and so mom moves out to the Diamond Head home and I understand that that became like the gathering place but not just of your family an extended family but even for non family members who just loved your family would gather that became like the gathering place but before that the big Victoria street house was the biggest gathering place because it was a larger home and I recall having even the armed forces servicemen entertaining them there really the house was very open my mom always had this Hawaiian koma mai feeling and come in anyone can come in of course today it's kind of scary to do that different times but in in those days it was come on in eat what we have and I find myself doing the same thing whenever people come over I say did you have something to eat would you like so and then I have to catch myself well I grew up in the same fashion and you know it's wonderful for your own children to have grown up in that environment because they'll probably carry they're doing the same thing and their children likewise we get photo number seven there Rob okay so another picture of that beautiful home wow this I love this picture because there you really get to see unobstructed that front portion of the home absolutely beautiful that's how it looked when we moved in those beautiful royal palms wow absolutely today today at the mansion the condominiums you'll see just about two or three there wow I mean how old were you when it was so 1960 I was 11 you're 11 years old I mean were there any sad feelings about you know I mean knowing the memories and everything that went on in that house for for so many years for all of you it must there must have been a part of your hearts that were sad to see the structure come down yeah yeah okay we get our last photo there it's I wanted this to save this for last because you know this is this is the matriarch of the family I mean this is grandma Fong as we you know lovingly refer to in her wedding dress I assume this is on her wedding day um that was 1910 1910 and how old was she was 16 16 and how old was she when she passed 93 93 I mean she she lived a full and prosperous life raising all of you I'm sure she's looking down from heaven and seeing all of you and all of her posterity and just being overjoyed with with all of that that's you know when we talk about roots that's the roots we talk about we all have roots to connect with um and so I want to take this opportunity as our time has gone by uh Miltree thank you so much can I just say to the audience viewers please talk to your family today if your parents are alive get all the information you can from them so you won't regret later oh I could have asked for this and that and spend time talking to them because there will be a time when they won't be there and with all that information take your pictures and line them up in chronological order and with your mind stories in your mind and the pictures you'll be able to do these books very easily okay you heard it from someone that has done it herself uh I want to thank Mildred uh uh Fong Wong for being here and taking time and not just for being here today but for the years of sharing with us about her family and their success uh we could we could go on and on today thank you for joining me here Roots Hawaii my name is Walter Kauai Aia and until we meet again everyone take care and Allah