Katherine Bukoski Viveiros

"We got this work as maids. Those were the only jobs available. I went to the haole camp. There was a line of houses where all the big shots lived. Not the managers, but the assistant managers, of course, and lunas and the office managers. I worked for Mrs. Daisy Romane. After the Romanes went away, then I got a job with the Ahrens. I used to cook and houseclean for them for many years. I went to O'ahu to stay with my sister at the Waipahu Sugar Plantation. When the assistant manager, Mr. Fricke found out I was there, he asked me if I would like to work. So I worked for them for - oh, I stayed away about four years working for them as a cook. He was promoted to Wai'anae as manager. I went down along with them. That's the first time I learned how to cook on a wood stove. We had wood stoves at home, but I was too little to do the cooking. The managers have their great big home. And the yard was, golly, so big. Very secluded place. It ws way up the hills. I stayed there about 3 months, and I got home sick. I was too young and too afraid. So, I said, "I going to leave this job."

"Katie" Bukoski Viveiros was born April 4, 1909 in Koloa. Her parents were among a handful of immigrants from Poland who came to Hawai`i in 1898 to work in the sugarcane fields. She worked as a house maid for various plantation managers and later worked at the Kaua`i Pineapple Company cannery. During World War II, she worked as a nurse and continued nursing at Koloa Hospital until its closing in 1947. Mrs. Viveiros still resides in Lawa`i.