On Saturday at the Lihu‘e Neighborhood Center, the early bird got the nishime. The Lihu‘e Senior Center’s kitchen crew whipped up the popular Japanese dish for the seniors’ annual Food and Craft Sale. “You need to hurry up,” said cashier
On Saturday at the Lihu‘e Neighborhood Center, the early bird got the nishime.
The Lihu‘e Senior Center’s kitchen crew whipped up the popular Japanese dish for the seniors’ annual Food and Craft Sale.
“You need to hurry up,” said cashier Marian Ogata while monitoring the doors to the center and the line of shoppers beyond, all waiting for 9 a.m.
“The people in the front were here from 8 a.m.,” she said.
For months, the seniors have been meeting one a week to prepare for this big sale which is a major fund raiser for their program.
Meeting on Thursday mornings, the seniors created a variety of quilts, yo-yo lei and numerous other hand-crafted sewn and crocheted items that lined tables set up inside the center.
On a separate section adjacent to the kitchen counter, mountains of foodstuffs were piled high on table tops.
At 9 a.m., the line surged past the doors and into the center, and people flocked to tables as the frenzied shopping began.
Among the throng, Cherish Yama-Gokan had three generations of her family, wheeling grandmother Umeyo Akama, 100, and checking out knitted sweaters for her daughter Haley Gokan, 5.
The choice was appropriate as a light mist fell on the scene outside.
“Even the rain can’t keep the shoppers away,” one senior monitor at the food tables said. “But that’s good because that means we have less things to pack away.”
Hands reached. Groups stopped to chat, but only for a moment — there was the search for the nishime.
“They ran out,” Jessie Agaki said to his wife, Marian. “We came early, but it wasn’t early enough.”
Masako Uyeda, the center’s program coordinator, said the event provides a major source of funding for programs.
“This is good because it’s the grab bag time of the year,” one shopper said.
“And you have to give something that’s handmade.”
In another section of the center, an easel laden with quilts was stripped bare within 20 minutes of the doors opening.
“We had a lot of quilts, and I’m glad they all sold,” Hilda Inouye said.
“We were worrying about not being able to sell all of them.”
Vern Paler, one of the later arrivals who came within 30 minutes of the doors opening, was not bothered by the fact the nishime was gone.
“This is still the best sale of all the senior centers,” he said. “I’ve been to a lot of them, and this is still the best one.”
For Haley Gokan, it was time to unwrap one of the Spam musubi for a snack while her elder generations decided which sweater was the best buy.
