"Corky" Bryan - Hawaii Cattlemens Council

CB: I went… let’s see… Kauai until ’74.LW:Okay.CB:Seventy-four… And so I was thirty-one when I…LW:one…Wait, wait… and you were there… and you worked for Midkiff part of that time. And then the otherCB:And then I worked for Mrs. Rice.LW:Mrs. Rice.CB:Kipu Ranch, yeah.LW:Mrs. Rice.CB:Yeah. Pat Rice. She was a trip.LW:Why is that? Tell us about Mrs. Rice.CB: She had her flaming red hair and she was… you know, I really liked her. I really did but she was acharacter and she wasn’t afraid of anybody or anything. You know, she survived the ’46 tidal wave. Heroriginal house was right where Kalapaki Beach where the hotel is now, that’s where their home was. She hadher one year old baby, her son Robin and her hanging on to a telephone pole. You know she said I survivedthat son of a bitch I can survive anything. And she talked just like that, too. (Laughter.) She was a character.She was really cool. And so I worked for her for four years and I really wanted to stay there but it was… fivehundred mother cows and it was a small deal and it was really, really nice. We made grass fat cattle real oldstyle. But I just wanted to do something more, and so I had an opportunity… actually I ran into… they wereclosing down the Kohala Sugar Company and I ran into the guy and he… I don’t know how the heck I… forsome reason I was talking to this guy and he worked for Castle and Cook and asked if I wanted to come up…just wanted to ask me about… they were putting a lot of that cane land into pastures… he wanted to knowwhat I’d… had won some SCS thing for putting in pastures at Kipu. That was a lot of fun. And we replaced allthis uluhi fern… we set that fern and ever seen uluhi burn? Whoa they explode… they just… whump…