I remember Charles Jacobs Sr. as a coordially gregarious and very active person.  His sisters always described him as "handsome". He was a dedicated Merchant Seaman being a carpenter and Bosun during his career of forty-four years.  He loved to sail the oceans and fished whenever possible from those vessels he traveled on. 

 

In his career, he sailed around the world and circled the globe eight times. As a very young teenager, my father took me aboard to tour the ships of President Lines and the Matson Line. We shared lunch in the cafeteria ("mess hall") with other merchant seaman, toured the boiler rooms, viewed the massive diesel engine, and experienced a glimpse of what it was to be out to sea for extended periods of time.  These ships carried a limited number of traveling passengers as well.  We also visited the Merchant Marine Seaman's Hall in San Francisco located on Harrison near the west end of the Bay Bridge.   

 

He would return home from his many trips bringing foreign coins/money, musical instruments, fine gold-inlaid China dishes, figurines, porceline nick-nacks, flatware, exotic fabrics and linens, furniture, etc., the list is endlessly interesting. One of my most favorite items was a harmonica that I received as a pre-schooler.  It had that sound that was similarly produced by that group named "Harmonicats"....unfortunately, I never quite reproduced more than a note or two in comparison!

 

Charles Sr. would share stories of his days at the University of Hawaii and playing as a lineman on the football team.  He vividly recalled the many trips to the Mainland and the competitive games with Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Though he spoke proudly of his years at university, his main passion was the sea which he eventually followed and cut-short his matriculation at the University of Hawaii.

 

His other passion was horse races!  There is not a racetrack in the world that my father has not visited or thought of visiting at one time or another. This passion was also shared by his three sisters: Lorna, Naomi, and Momi.  This love of horses began when he lived and road horses in Hana, Maui. He would affectionately recall driving cattle on the backside of Haleakala from Hana through Kaupo towards Ulupalakula. Of course, as a young paniolo will do, he raced his horse back in those days and worked summers at the Hana Ranch.

 

Charles Sr. shared the stories of his father being the Kahului Store manager, and latter the one that first planted "rubber tree plants" on Maui and a manager of the rubber tree farm in Nahiku, Hana, Maui.  The US Census (1910) reaffirmed that fact. His father also had the first "soda works" in Hana. The latter development made them very popular with all the other neighborhood kids in the area! As adults, his sisters would always tease him about playing the song "Isle of Capri" on the guitar and break out in laughter when any one of them mentioned the name of that song in his presence. Seems there was some "insdie knowledge" of an very affectionate past associated with that tune.

 

He recalled the time him his two sisters, older sister Josephine and younger sister Momi, appropriately dressed in formal attire to attend Queen Lili'uokalani's funeral services at Honolulu, Oahu in 1917 at the age of ten. They traveled from Hana, Maui to Oahu to attend the services in Honolulu.