Flannel Shirts and Flowered Bonnets

This painting I did a few years back from a photo I'd taken in 1986. These workers are changing trucks at a labor station in Puunene. When I discovered the station, I felt as if I'd found the best kept secret on the island.

Early every morning the cane workers would show up on work trucks by the hundreds.... gather and talk for a few minutes then climb onto a new truck. That truck would carry them and their crew to whichever field they were working at the time. Because of their clothing and their unique language ...all chattering at once to quickly catch up, and the way they arrived and then disappeared in a matter of minutes, made it all seem surreal.

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