We’ve had many messages and inquiries of how we selected our locations. I chose locations for this shoot based off of childhood memories in Kona.
My grandfather Frank Silva is the last original surviving cowboy and the last ranch manager of Greenwell Ranch.
We grew up in Kalukalu, the area so many people refer to as Kealakekua. My grandparents house was the big house on the bottom corner of Konawaena hill. To the south of Konawaena High, our Aunty Alice and her family lived in the last cowboy house on Cowboy lane (right across from Konawaena Elementary) and our Uncle Chico lives just north of the Kona Historical Society across of Puanani’s Florist. We were well seen running and playing in between our family house boundaries. We were safe.
As children, we would raid our parents’ ashtrays in the station wagons and truck for loose change. We would walk the streets from Kamigaki Market for 1 cent gum balls to Chris’ Bakery for $1.25 bag of 6 malasadas to the 50 cent ice cream cone and hours of playing Pac Man and Battlestar Galactica at Crazy Mary’s.
We would play hide and seek in Episcopalian Church graveyard,m and pick wild berries in the pasture until we heard our Aunty Alice’s whistle and we had until she counted to five on her hand to get into her yard... about 100 yards away, we ran like demons!
We had all access as ranch kids to the whole area... except we never dared to go to the Kona Historical Society because that’s where our Papa would volunteer to do interviews, tell stories about ranching and clarified name and locations on that mountain. And God forbid we never wanted our Papa to get a call that his darn grandkids was caught goofing off on the KHS porch.
So what better chance than than to include the old stone and mortar style building with green shutters and a bygone era....I asked permission and a couple of days later, received an ok.
We added our own props and extras to create the ambiance we envisioned. The 100+ year old trunk is my great great grandmothers trunk brought here from Portugal when they migrated, the rocking chair was a friends we borrowed and the buckets of flowers came from local farmers and friends.
...And if you look really good there is an old lantern I found at an antique shop years ago.
These are my memories.... I am a kupa of Kona. Born and raised.
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