HAIKU MEMOIR TO BE UNVEILED
 
HAIKU ‹ A community-published memoir will make its debut at the Haiku Ho`olaule`a and Flower Festival, at a reception from 10 to 11 a.m. March 8.
 
The Haiku Living Legacy Project will unveil "Holoholo to Wen I Wuz: Kolohe Days in Haiku, Maui, 1930s-1950s," written by the late Louis Baldovi, a champion barefoot football player who went on to become a high school principal. 
 
The reception will be open to the public at the Haiku Ho`olaule`a, which will unfold from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. that day at the Haiku Community Center, 1008 Hana Highway, Haiku. The Haiku Living Legacy Project’s historical display will be open for the duration of the Ho’olaule’a, with Baldovi family members present for book signings.
 
A talk story session will be recorded from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the same day and same location. The theme of the session is the Old Libby Camp from 1930 to 1950. Bring your memories and join the fun. 
 
Present for the book release and for book signing will be the author's widow, Valerie Baldovi, and children from Oahu; his six siblings from Maui and the U.S. continent; plus other family members, friends and Haiku community members. 
 
Louis Baldovi played on the 121-pound Haiku barefoot football team that captured the Maui island championship from 1947 to 1950. He was the Filipino quarterback and running back on a team of mostly Japanese athletes, reflecting the predominantly Japanese population of Haiku in the early to mid-20th century. 
 
Baldovi's youth was delineated by pineapple acreage, railroad trestles, family evenings around the Zenith radio in the parlor, and avocado trees in the backyard gulch.
 
The book describes living, working and growing up in a multicultural environment. Baldovi's storytelling is flavored with memories of Filipino cockfights, Japanese O-bon festivals, Haiku School maypole dances, and the 1946 tsunami. 
 
He offers tales of night fishing at Honomanu; picking pineapples during a work summer on Molokai; facing the outbreak of World War II; and befriending 4th Marine Division soldiers, who camped at Haiku during the war.
 
He details boyhood games and pastimes: sword fights with panax-branch weaponry, slingshot battles with green-guava missiles and mock skirmishes in the forest while outfitted in scavenged military gear.
 
"I realized many heretofore-forgotten events were locked in my memory bank and needed to be told, not only to my grandsons but also to my children," he wrote. 
 
Baldovi later served as an infantryman in the Korean War, graduated from the University of Hawaii, and became the principal at Nanakuli High School and at Waimanalo Elementary and Intermediate School on Oahu. 
 
The book offers archival photos along with past and present area maps. It is available for $20 at Web site  haikulivinglegacy.com. Shipping is available for an additional $2 in Hawaii or $5 to Mainland US. Send checks made payable to Haiku Living Legacy Project, P.O. Box 1360, Haiku HI 96708. For information contact Marian Zajac at 573-5229 or e-mail mmzmaui@yahoo.com.
 
The Haiku Living Legacy Project, publisher of the book, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and perpetuate the historical legacy unique to the community currently known as Haiku. Proceeds will benefit the organization's efforts to create a permanent archive of historical data and photos accessible to interested people; especially students, teachers and researchers studying the history and culture of Haiku and Maui.