Post #203973 by bungy on Wed, Dec 21, 2005 6:55 AM

Aloooooha!!! I laughed and laughed with all your NICE welcomes!! Yes! Bamboo Ben alias Benjie was quite a character.. and ALWAYS went his own way!! Which he is still doing!! he may say he is getting "mana" from Eli (his grand dad).. but he is clearly going his own way, too! I have seen pix of his jobs and WOW!! I am thrilled with his work! Am going to be able to actually see his Kona job in San Fran soon.

Re Donn Beachcomber:
My dad, Eli Hedley, Beachcomber ,Yes! that was his title for all the life I knew him! and Donn Beach (Beachcomber) were partners for about a year, in a tropical Shop at 595 La Cienaga Blvd during WW11 in Hollywood. They both wanted the name of "Beachcomber" so Hollywood was too small for them.. and Donn went to Hawaii! They remained old friends and finally saw each other in the 1970s, at the International Market Place on Waikiki, where Donn had an office in the Banyan Tree!!! We were invited to lunch, and had stir fry and tropical (non-alcoholic) drinks high above the crowds with the soft,balmy breezes cooling us!

Re: Disneyland: I learned to sail when I was 12 around the Los Angeles Harbor area (that was in 1946!)and started crewing on larger boats between CA , Hawaii, South Pacific, Mexico when I was 18. In 1955, I signed on the 134' sailing schooner, Te Vega, out of New port Beach on my way to nearly 3 months through-out the French Oceana. We had landed in Tahiti, and I received a letter, General Delivery, from my family.. telling me that they had started a brand new biz in a place called "Disneyland".. The descripttion was so weird that I just put the whole thing out of mind!! How could my family, especially my dad, who was so uncommercial.. get into a regular biz??? Well, we sailed on to Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora, and on up to Honolulu, where I got to sail my outrigger canoe that I had picked up in Bora Bora for $100. at Ala Wai Yacht Basin! I headed home and was whisked from LAX to Disneyland, thrown behind a counter, showed how to run the register, and started selling! You never had to actually sell during those first few years, you only had to put a Disneland decal on anyhting.. and they pushed it with $ into your face!! From sailing in the Pacific and riding on the main mast cross tree of Te Vega, at sunrise and sunset.... to 28,000 customers pushing and shoving was a great culture shock!!!

Re Tikis at Island Trade Store in Bazaar in Adventurland:
We had a huge date Palm at our home that had died.. so dear ol' dad cut it down, and we all hacked and cut all the palms leaves off, and he proceeded to make a 14' high tiki. He didn't have a chain saw at this time.. so I guess it was with axes, hatchets, and hand saws! He had this friend who had a big truck.. and hauled stuff, so he got him to come downm and we all pushed, shoved, lifted, and slid that Tiki onto the old truc k. The guy was a real character, and had a real live lion who went with him everywhere! So, off we started to Dusneyland, where we had to unload it after 10 PM, when DL was closed! So we pushed, shoved and rolled that Tiki into place and there it stood for the 5 years of our shops ..Disney began not renewing leases as they came up.. more profit to them!) I don't know if the tiki was sold to Disney or who.. but I was sure glad I didn't have to help move it again!

Hope I haven't bored you all with these memories!! It was fun for me to be able to think of them again! Thanks!! Bungy
(by the way, on my birth certificate it says, "Lady Weldon"!!! Bungy is nick name... thank goodness!) And I love Bunga's greeting!!