MauiShirts Blog

It’s not the joy of giving….It’s the joy of getting.

Blackie

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

 At this time of year, we are inundated with reminders that we must give gifts to our loved ones. 

Many of us have been told that it’s not the gift but the thought that counts.

What if we just give thoughts instead of gifts to our relatives and friends?  Would our loved ones still think they are loved?

     Humbug Blackie Gadarian   

Any similarity of the clinched fist cartoon to a resemblance of Blackie is pure coincidence.

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

All of us look forward to Thanksgiving every year.  Although many of us find the turkey tasteless, we love to eat the stuffing, cranberries and trimmings.

It never seems to come out even.   The turkey becomes leftovers for a long time.  We are all stuck with leftovers, so there is no point in inviting anyone over to dinner after Thanksgiving.

We all know what is on the menu:  Turkey, turkey, turkey. 

Maui Blackie Gadarian

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

The Maui Visitors Bureau reports that visitors are staying away this year because of the economy. That’s bad. However, even sharks are staying away from our beaches. That’s good. But how did the sharks find out about the economy?

Humble Blackie Gadarian

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

I always wondered why men’s shirt buttonholes are on the left side of the front, and women’s blouse buttonholes are on the right side.

Various theories have been expounded: One is that in the past, ladies were dressed by servants, and buttons were usually on the back of the dress. It was easier for the right-handed person to handle the buttons.

Another is that men’s tunics had the left side on top so that if the man had to pull out his sword, it wouldn’t catch on the shirt.

The traditions have continued to this day, even though the reasons are lost in the past. It is the same for Hawaiian shirts: men’s shirt buttonholes on the left front, ladies on the right.

If we all went topless, we wouldn’t have to worry about it. However, our friend in the Hawaiian shirt business would go broke . . . and Maui Blackie would lose his blog!

Support Maui Shirts!

Maui Blackie Gadarian

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

Headlines:  "Kissing Up" and "Politicians Puckering Up"

It happens every election.  The politicians kiss our okoles to get our vote.  After the politicians get elected, we the people have to kiss their okoles to get them to do what they promised us.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Headlines:  "Speeches Don’t Stick" and "Candidates’ Words Gone Quick"

It’s election time again.  Political candidates make speeches that sound wonderful.  They go on and on.

However, these speeches are like a Chinese dinner.  It’s great at the time but it doesn’t stick with you.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Headlines: "Political Campaign Rhetoric Takes on a Different Meaning" and  "Hungry on Purpose"

Here we are again in an election year.  Candidates will be talking about many problems they would solve if elected.  They will speak of millions of citizens going to bed hungry every night.  I am one of those citizens.  I am on a diet.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Headlines: "Tis the Season for Even More Political Promises: and "Who Tells the Best Lies?"

It’s election time again.  Politicians are making promises that they know are outright lies.  We, the public, know they are lies.  But we vote for the politician who tells us the most appealing lie.

We deserve what we get for being gullible again.

Maui Blackie Gadarian  

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

An election in Hawaii is different.  Most of us voters are listening to the candidates.  We are examining their qualifications.  We are checking their characters.  We are noting their promises.   We are carefully inspecting the candidates so we can vote for the most qualified ones.

However, on Election Day, the Portuguese will vote for the Portuguese candidate.   The Japanese will vote for the Japanese candidate.   The Filipinos will vote for the Filipino candidate, etc., etc.

That’s how it is in Hawaii.

Humble Blackie Gadarian

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

I have seen many heavyweight people who had tattoos put on their bodies when they were younger and thinner.  Some of the tattoos were obviously small birds or geckos.  Not any more.  Now their tattoos look more like distorted chickens or alligators.

Young people beware:  what may look fashionable on you today may not look so great tomorrow.

Maui Blackie Gadarian

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

Many couples I know have criticisms of each other’s habits at home.   It’s natural.

One prominent habit is that usually one half of the couple squeezes the toothpaste tube in the middle instead of squeezing the toothpaste from the bottom of the tube.  This causes a lot of friction within couples.  Sometimes they get nasty with each other.

The toothpaste companies would be doing a great service to humanity if they would make toothpaste tubes with a cap at both ends.  That would solve the problem. 

This is my humble suggestion for domestic bliss.  

Maui Blackie Gadarian

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff

Article in the Lahaina News, July 24, 2008 edition. Written by Norm Brezane / Beyond the Beach.

LAHAINA – The best word to describe orange-shirted Blackie Gadarian – 87-year-old machinist, former bar owner, jazz buff and irascible writer of pithy letters to local publications – is colorful. 

Growing up in New York City, Arsene Gadarian won the moniker “Blackie” because of his thick black hair (now entirely gone).

After World War II, Blackie started Blackie’s Boat Yard in Newport Beach, California, later opening a second one on Maui in 1979. To paint his new boat maintenance buildings in California, struggling Blackie got some strange, lead-based red paint for free. A year later it turned an ugly color, and Blackie was told the only new color he could paint over it was orange.

The orange buildings became a trademark and orange shirts followed, worn the last 29 years on Maui. (His closet now has 40 of them, and none of another color). Wife Sara drives him around in an orange golf cart and truck with an orange stripe and logo. Sara usually wears light blue shirts.

Blackie is most famous around these parts for Blackie’s Bar, an infamous hangout on land that once stood in the middle of his boat yard near the current Shell station across from Lahaina Cannery Mall.

To build his bar, the innovative Blackie bought the top of Windsock Lounge, well-known as the place to go have a drink before boarding a plane at the old West Maui Airport at “Airport Beach” in Kaanapali.

Blackie wanted the bar, which he put on a truck and hauled to Lahaina, because it was the stomping ground of  renowned bartender “High School Harry” Given, revered for his powerful Bloody Marys. Blackie’s Bar kept the Bloody Marys and also added Sara’s famous, home-cooked meat loaf sandwich ($5.50).

To continue to read the full story click on the picture of Blackie  …  

Part two:

Sara: It’s Blackie against the world.

BEYOND THE BEACH By Norm Bezane

LAHAINA – Soft-spoken Sara Richardson Gadarian, who has lived here for nearly two decades, has been married to “lovable, humble Blackie” for 48 years.

When they met, she said, “I saw a feisty man – tall, dark and handsome. He had a wonderful sense of humor. He made me laugh and he loved music and the beach. And he was a wonderful dancer who could do the Lindy Hop.”

The marriage has survived, in part, because Sara – owner of an infectious laugh – has a sense of humor, too.

Behind the rough, gruff, seemingly unapproachable facade of former Lahaina bar owner Arsene “Blackie” Gadarian is “a man who is extremely gentle with the people he loves,” Sara said.

“But usually it is Blackie against the world.” 

Many KPOA listeners were introduced to humble Blackie by radio commercials featuring the iconoclast himself.

“Blackie’s Bar is for grownups. Leave your kids and dogs at the hotel. This is your wonderful, lovable, humble Blackie,” he would say. 

Visitors to the beer, burger and jazz joint just north of town were first accosted by a special sign. 

Blackie explained, “Most tourists used to be told that the streets of Lahaina were lined with free coupons. And everything was aloha. We had a sign that said, ’Aloha is a two-way street.’

“If you come here and are nice, we are nice. If you come here and are (unprintable), we will be (unprintable).” 

Above a long stairway lined with photos of old shipwrecks, there were more signs and more rules:

“PROMOTE SAFE BOATING. STAY ASHORE AND DRINK AT BLACKIE’S BAR!”

“No pipe or cigar smoking permitted. Keep your feet and legs off the chairs.”

“IF YOU ARE NOT DRINKING, YOU ARE LOITERING!”  

Blackie’s own drinking was supposed to be legendary, but he had a trick up his orange sleeve.

Customers would buy him drinks, and he would pour the contents down a convenient drain when they weren’t looking. He claims his other secret was having more than two drinks actually made him sick.

On jazz nights, Blackie would open the show with a monologue. Now, with the bar closed since 1991, he’s taken to baiting tourists – he does not call them “visitors” – many evenings at Leilani’s on the Beach. 

Blackie, with a cane, and Sara stroll in. Bar patrons scatter, and the two get stools.

“What else am I going to do? I am not going to sit home and throw bread to the birds,” said Blackie.

Outrageous things come out of Blackie’s mouth all the time – best left unchallenged. Yet, for anyone who loves to debate issues, the cantankerous Blackie is a joy. 

Once accepted, he’s fun to talk to, because he is well-informed and a self-described “news junkie.” 

Obama? “If he can’t stop smoking, how is he going to stop the war?”

Development? “We have people who gripe about too much development. ’It is too crowded.’ When I was born, there were 120 million people in the country. Now there are 300 million – what are we going to do?”

At 87, Blackie Gadarian shows no sign of stopping. In orange shirt, when and if he reaches the Pearly Gates, he must remember one thing:  “No loitering.”

blackie Customer's Communicate Blackie's Blog Stuff