A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

Walking Tour,” or the “Ghosthunters Bus Tour.” 573 Consolidating his interests in 2000,
Grant opened “The Haunt: Honolulu’s First and Only Mystery Bookstore,” which was at
the same time a coffee shop, a venue for tarot readings, movie dinners, “small music
events, drama readings, magic shows, and the occasional book signing.” 574 Drawing a
faithful group of multiethnic regulars, passers-by, and the participants of Grant’s tours,
The Haunt shows how idiosyncratic and varied the attachment to this multicultural and
polyvocal place can turn out: A live broadcast of his Chicken Skin Radio Show from the
bookstore featured a Poe reading complete with the audience’s sound effects, a Pidgin
rendering of Local ghost stories by bradajo, and, with Grant admitting to his own ‘Celtic’
roots, a performance by a bagpipe player from ‘Celtic Bags and Pipes Hawai’i.’ Grant had
many more ideas, having just outfitted a lavish séance room on the second floor of The
Haunt when he became ill. He passed away in 2003.
Often, however, it is being away from Hawai’i that makes people realize that they
cannot help but belong there. Local migrants tend to realize how the place they grew up
in has infused them. In her 1995 novel A Little Too Much Is Enough Kathleen Tyau
evokes her Chinese-Hawaiian Local background by assigning a chapter each to the
making of a Local dish. The foods signify the islands’ multiethnicity. A young girl is
initiated to the secrets of cooking by various members of her ‘ohana, each recipe being
interspersed with advice or family history. Thus, the kaleidoscope of dishes makes up a
coming-of-age potluck for the protagonist, culminating in her mother’s farewell words
when she leaves for the mainland for her college education:
When I was in San Francisco, all I could think about was Hawai’i. Now that I am
here, I cannot forget San Francisco. I have to remind myself that I have not lost it.
573 “Through his popular walking tours and theater programs offered by Honolulu TimeWalks, he has
introduced thousands of islanders and visitors to the men and women from Hawai’i’s past whose colorful
and sometimes controversial lives have helped shape our community’s unique identity” (quoted from Grant
1995: 324). Several of his tours had been derived from a history series that Grant had started in 1986 as
“part of Kapi’olani Community College’s Interpret Hawai’i Program, a project designed to foster links
between the community and the college” (John P. Rosa, “Local Story: The Massie Case Narrative and the
Cultural Production of Local Identity in Hawai’i,” in Amerasia 26 No. 2 (2000): 93-116, here 108).
574 Quoted from Honolulu Advertiser, 01/25/2002. Among other events, I attended a Titanic dinner that
required formal wear and played upon the historic event in manifold ways. From the handmade menus that
stated “Our service is just the tip of the iceberg” to the dress-up pictures taken in which one participant
stuck out in T-shirt, shorts, snorkel, and lifebelt, Captain Grant once again had inspired creativity and
exuberance in his multicultural crew.
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