Anne Chapman

Anne Chapman was born in San Francisco, California, on June 11, 1911. She lived in Hawaii with her four children and husband for 41 years and she enjoyed playing golf.  She currently resides in Colorado, where she lives close to her family.

   Click image to enlarge

My Life In Hawaii

My husband, Tom Chapman, asked me one day if I would move to Hawaii. He said, “I like the weather, and I like the water.” I told him that I would go for two years. I was worried for the kids’ sake because they did not want to leave California—they did not want to move away from their friends and start over in a new place and in a new school. I really did not want to leave California for long because where we were living in Burlingame was such a nice place. It was on the peninsula where the weather was always good, and it was a short, fifteen-minute drive to San Francisco. 

After I agreed to move to Hawaii, Tom retired and sold his Buick Car Dealership in San Bruno.  We sold our house, packed up our bags, and I even took my cat along. Once in Hawaii, we ended up staying for forty-one years. It was the same dilemma as before. I did not want to make the kids change schools again, and Hawaii is a beautiful place to live. Once you’re settled somewhere, you do not want to leave. The kids made friends and attended school, and they did not want to leave either.

When we first arrived in Hawaii, we settled into a beautiful two-story, wood house in Diamond Head. The house was located about a half block from the Diamond Head rock and the beach. From there I could see the ocean from my upstairs living room.  Most of the people in Diamond Head had lived there for years and had come over from the mainland. It was a high-class area. It was one of the few areas on the island that a person could buy land and a house. The rest of the land was leased. 

Hawaii was an easy place to live with no pressure. The weather was always sunny and warm, and in forty-one years I never wore a coat. The water was magnificent. People were friendly and the children all quickly made new friends. We joined the Oahu Country Club, the Outrigger Canoe Club, and the Elks Club for a social life on the island. My husband was in business, which also helped to make friends. 

   Click image to enlarge

Punahou School

Everyone we had met told us that our kids needed to go to Punahou. The Punahou School was the oldest private school in Hawaii. It was considered the best and it went from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The kids from Punahou all graduated and moved onto colleges in the Mainland. 

When I decided to register my children for school, I packed my kids into the car. The school was in Manoa Valley, a twenty-minute drive down the freeway. Once we arrived, we saw the numerous white buildings on a large, beautiful outdoor campus.  I walked straight into the principal’s office a few days after the academic year had begun. I told Dr. Fox, the principal, that I was there to register my children for school. He asked me if they had taken their exams, and I told him they did not need a test, they were smart already. He laughed and remarked that everyone took a test to get into Punahou. My children all took their exams and passed. 

Unfortunately, there were only two openings in the school that year, so we chose to enroll our eldest and youngest daughters, Barbara and Sheryl. The other two children attended Thomas Jefferson Public School at Waikiki Beach. A year later, there was finally enough space in the Punahou School for the remaining children to enroll, and Buster and Sandra joined Sheryl and Barbara. 

The Punahou School was like every other private school—expensive. The cost of living was high as well. We discovered that Tom was not going to stay retired for long, and he went back to work opening a used car dealership on Kapiolani Boulevard, or Automobile Row, in Honolulu. 

During the next forty years my children all graduated from Punahou and attended the University of Southern California, except Sheryl who attended the University of Colorado. She was not going to go where everybody else went. My husband kept his used car dealership and life was good. 

Moving to Hawaii was something you would never think you would do, but you just do it anyway. I drifted like a wave into Hawaii with my family and forty-one years later I drifted out alone. I found myself forced to move to Colorado in order to be close to my kids. I’m still sorry that I ever left Hawaii. I came to a new place that I did not know anything about and where I did not know anyone. Things change in your life for no rhyme or no reason, circumstances come along and you change your lifestyle—you don’t think anything of it. It just becomes part of your life.  There is no going back and life is all about surprises; you cannot plan anything. Just go with the flow~~~