The Toyama Family stories begin on a sugar plantation on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island. Pieper Toyama shares his stories in the local “talk story” style. “Talk story” is a Pidgin English expression that means chatting or making small talk by sharing stories. Pieper’s stories focus on life’s small moments that often go unremembered. He talks about the putt-putt he rode to school, the big fish that fed Honoka’a School, blazing cane fires, the annual plantation Fishing Derby, his feisty mother, and his football-loving father. He goes beyond plantation days and shares stories of his first winter in Massachusetts where he met and married Lois Bredberg. He tells of raising his two daughters on the Big Island. His stories spring to life through old photos from his family album.

Part One is a collection of life stories from 1947 to 1965, when he lived on the plantation in Pa’auilo. Part Two shares his stories of life beyond the plantation years, from 1965 to the present. These are stories of his college life in Massachusetts and raising his family in Hilo and Kamuela.

Pieper Toyama

Softcover, 230 pp.