June and Hawaii

If you are marking your calendar, here's a couple of dates to note.

June 11 is King Kaehameha Day in Hawaii. Honoring the great leader who brought unity and strength to the many independent islands and groups. His spirit still reigns.

We read that iconic retailer and garment production house, Hilo Hattie, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October '08 and has been trying to work it out. Court hearing is scheduled for June 22 that will decide if liquidation is ordered.

This is a sad story. When we were there in '06 the free open air trolly ride through the city to the main store was so fun and the store itself was filled with shoppers and bright beautiful clothing, children's things, perfumes, foods, decorator items. Just waiting for the trolly with all the other nice people and chatting was a highlight.

We'll have the Hilo Hattie history one day soon. We did visit with the resident historian while there and have some very interesting stories. Although no one, that we know of, has documented the different label designs and dates. If you have, let us know. We know there are several that change over the years. We can guess the dates by the patterns and materials, but that's as close as we can get to actual dates on the label designs.

Aloha! Susanne