Our Family History in Hawaii, cont...

GENERATION X Born 1961-1980

Rachel, Kimo and Keone Ball were born into the X generation in Honolulu. Although Carol had grown up in Central Maui, when she and her family returned to the Valley Isle, they joined the throngs of returnees to Maui who craved the cooler climes to which they had become acclimated while in college on the mainland. Country living in Haiku without the conformity of suburbia was a perfect locale for bringing up three lively youngsters. When the Ball family built their home in Haiku, vestiges of Hippie land and the Banana Patch still remained and living in Haiku was still a well-kept secret. They built their home on former pineapple land digging up the black plastic used for mulching out weeds as they tilled their flower garden. The Ball children played on the home acreage and in the irrigation ditches and jungles filled with tropical foliage. There was plenty of room to build slip’n’slides for boogie boards with black construction plastic, crafting obstacles to overcome with planks and other creations, playing with friends whom the kids had to import and invite to stay overnight. Nothing was more beautiful than a sun drenched day in Pauwela followed by gentle nightly rains. These Gen Xer kids grew up without needing summer jobs, and often had to stay for dinner at Seabury where boarders from off island still lived, when mom and dad worked late. They, like their parents, ventured off to Ann Arbor after Seabury; Rachel spent a summer abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris, Kimo continued his arduous path as a musician having been greatly influenced by his music teacher, Mark Kennedy at Seabury and Keone did a stint at the Nectarine Ballroom as a bartender, then spent five years as a small engine mechanic at a construction rental business.

In 1986 Rachel got her real estate sales license but when she returned to Maui with a degree in math, turned to running projects for construction firms for 13 years, finally forming her own general contracting firm, Phillips Construction. Obtaining her broker’s license in 2004 and GRI, CRS, ABR designations including top producer, Rachel serves as Vice President and Treasurer of Carol Ball Inc. as well as Broker In Charge and is an MBA candidate at UH Manoa. Her Community and professional service included service on the Maui County Board of Variances and Appeals and Treasurer of the Realtors Association of Maui as well as being a member of the Standard Forms Committee of the Hawaii Association of Realtors.

Keone earned his real estate sales license in 1996 and his broker’s license in 2000 along with CRB, CRS and ABR designations in the ensuing years. Serving as Principal Broker of Carol Ball and Associates and President of Carol Ball Inc., Keone also finds time to devote to community service. He presently serves on the Maui Planning Commission and formerly served on the Maui Police Commission for two terms and as President and Director at the Boys and Girls Club, among others. He served as President of the Realtors Association of Maui, Treasurer of RAM, as well as Director, and is a Director of the Hawaii Association of Realtors. He is an avid canoe paddler and manages to continue this sport which he has enjoyed since he was six years old with the Na Kai Ewalu Canoe Club.

Kimo Ball is a classically trained professional musician in San Francisco giving private guitar lessons to adults and children at the Haight Ashbury Music Center. He is a member of Jello Biafra’s Guantanamo School of Medicine highly esteemed punk rock band and spends his time playing gigs to rockers around the world. He returns to Maui for R’nR whenever he can and of course plans to come back home to retire. What a life. These Xers have the security of knowing that they can make a good living, truly appreciate what it is to live on Maui, and want to make sure that it remains Maui No Ka Oi.

GEN Z The Plurals, Me Gen 2000 +

Our grandchildren have a wonderful life. There are five of them, three from the Ball family, and two Phillips. We are so lucky that they all live here on Maui with us unlike some of our friends whose grandchildren are on the mainland. Some of them go to public school and some of them go to private school. In general the public school is overcrowded with classes much too large to give any individualized attention. The public schools that the children attend are determined by geography. The children who live “downcountry” go to a fairly new elementary school and Maui High School, one of two public high schools in central Maui. One grandchild goes to a school that at one time was a highly sought after public school. It has since fallen the way of overcrowding and administrative indifference.

Two grandchildren go to a private school, hopefully worth the equivalent of a college tuition that is paid to send them there. The grandchildren are true Plurals, digital natives hooked up to their phones, ipods, computers, and texting. They take trips to the mainland and can’t believe that their grandma was 18 before she set foot in Disneyland. Going to Tahoe to ski over Spring break with the family was as natural for them as it was for us of another generation to take a family trip to the Kona Inn when we were growing up. But I don’t worry about the future for these GenZers. My father told me that each generation should be better than the previous one. For years I thought that he meant that each generation should surpass the previous generation in achievements. But what he really meant was that each generation should have more advantages than the previous one did. Although my father never heard of Abraham Maslow, he knew that it is only after your basic needs are met do you have the luxury of invention. I want my grandchildren to be able to be creative, inventive, caring and self-actualized. I want them to build a rival to the Taj Mahal, find the cure for cancer, and bring world peace….and be able to do it all from Maui.

Carol Ball Inc. dba
 Carol Ball and Associates
RB 11347
Maui Mall
70 E Kaahumanu Ave Ste A6
Kahului, HI 96732-2176

(808) 871-8807 • fax (808) 871-2462 • info@carolball.com

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