Ho, I remembah wen I was one keiki and da New Yeahs in da aina! Ho, no can sit still heh! On New Yeah's eve I like go outsai and play wit da fayah cracahs li'dat. Dis da one night dat us kids can stay up late. Ho, we wuz like wild pigs running around yelling cuz we so happy we stay up late and stay all daawk outsai. My fadduh wen go buy plenny spocklahs and fayah cracahs from da stoah. He buy plenny small kine, but my eye git real beeg wen he open da package and insai stay da beeg kine fayah cracahs. Us kids like da beeg kine fayah cracahs cuz make mo noise. We go take da package and den go separate all the beeg ones so dat we can light and chroo um one at a time li'dat.

But da bes kine wuz da one wit all da beeg fayah cracahs dat stay on one long, long string li'dat and at da end git da beeg bag of dat silvah pawdah. Da pawdah stay in one red paper covah and git label wit pake writing on it. Hooooo, das da bess kine heh! My fadduh wen make one spechul hangah fo hang da beeg one. He wen get one long stick wit one nail on da end. Den he wen balance da stick between da side of one trashcan and one cement block. He wen go hang da beeg one on da nail and jass wen da clock stay 12, my fadduh would light da end of da beeg one and run! Us kids would be covering ouah eeahs, laughing and yelling da whole time da fayah cracahs stay popping li' dat. We like fo see who can make noise loudah den da fayah cracahs.

Wen wuz all done, we go help my fadduh sweep up all da papah. He go poot em all in one pile and early da next morning we go look chroo da pile to see if get any dat nevah pop. Wen we fine da kine dat nevah pop yet we go light um. Sometimes dey would pop, but sometimes dey nevah cuz dey stay all wet if wen rain li'dat.

Ho, doss wuz da gud ole daz! Now I stay oldah and no like all dat noisy fayah cracahs. Oni like watch um on da TV! :)

I was born in Wahiawa and raised in Pearl City on the island of Oahu. I now reside in Massachusetts just several minutes north of Boston. I'm happily married with two nani daughters, one in high school and the other in college. After being laid off from work as a process engineer due to company downsizing, I made the decision to make my hobby of soap making a business. I missed the "island ways" so it was with this inspiration that I started East Coast Tropics which specializes in handcrafted soaps made of Hawaiian luxury oils. I also enjoy both digital and non-digital photography.