When Debbie Kuhns describes growing up in Pearl City, she’s flooded with fond memories. Pearl City has experienced tremendous development over the past several decades. Still, Kuhns recalls the simpler times of her youth.
Debbie Kuhns in front of the famed Pearl City sign.
“It’s a great place,” says Kuhns, who’s served as an HMSA health plan navigator for the past four years. “As kids, we would go out and play all day long. The rules were to just get home before the streetlights came on. We’d roller skate, skateboard, ride bike all over Pearl City.”
Overlooking historic Pearl Harbor, Pearl City boasts a population of 48,000 residents. It’s grown from a sugar cane-driven community more than a century ago to an area that now features national big-box stores such as Sam’s Club, Walmart, and Home Depot. This is in sharp contrast to Kuhn’s childhood, when modest-sized stores and restaurants drove the neighborhood economy.
“Back then, we only had Holiday Mart and Foodland. That was it,” says Kuhns. “McDonald’s was the only fast food there at the time.”
Holiday Mart has long since been replaced by Don Quijote. The former Foodland location is now an H Mart. But back in the day, teenagers didn’t hang out at those kinds of places. Instead, they headed to the nearby roller rink, a product of the national craze in the ‘70s.
“I loved going to Skateland. That was the hangout,” exclaimed Kuhns. “We had so much fun! It was just a place where everybody would get together. We got to meet people from other schools. It was a really great place to meet new people and have a nice time with good music.”
Skateland closed in the mid-1980s and has since been taken over by M. Dyer Global.
A proud Pearl City High School graduate, Kuhns remembers her rebellious teen years attending class on the campus at the top of the ridge. “I was one of those kids who didn’t follow the norm, the one with the pink hair, wearing all the fun clothes,” chuckled Kuhns. “Back then, it was the sky high ’80s hair with the hairspray!”
Kuhns wrapped up her hometown tour reminiscing about the most famous restaurant west of Waikiki.
“Pearl City Tavern was a fancy restaurant on the Leeward side,” Kuhns shared. “The big attraction was the monkey bar, that big bar glass area with all the spider monkeys in it. The drinks they made for the kids would include a little plastic monkey hanging off the side of the glass. We knew it was a special occasion when we went there for dinner.”
Photo courtesy Hawaii State Archives
The Pearl City Tavern site is now a car dealership. And above, Honolulu’s Skyline rail transportation system now winds its way through the community. Though a number of Pearl City treasures of old are gone, Kuhns is able to look back at the days of her youth filled with gratitude. “It was a great place to grow up,” she says. “I had a great childhood, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Feeling nostalgic?
Check out e komo mai: a video tour of pearl city to take a trip down memory lane with Kuhns and and explore Pearl City, past and present.
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