The Beach Gang couldn't happen today. Somebody would surely call 911 to report juvenile delinquents in Waikiki. How many mothers would be willing to feed a dozen kids for breakfast, much less have them sleep over on the living room floor?

Other gangs I'd heard of from the 1930s were tough. But these kids can't remember getting into a fight.

Their gathering place was on Waikiki Beach from about 1938 to 1941 when World War II broke up the gang. In those days there was the Moana Hotel with Judge Steiner's house next door with the Chun Store in between. Then came the Waikiki Tavern.

The gang hung out behind behind Judge Steiner's. The boys wore their swimming trunks under their pants. They changed behind the hau tree and hung their pants on Judge Steiner's wrought-iron fence. Nobody thought to steal those pants but it ticked off Judge Steiner. He greased his fence with crude oil.

Most of the girls were in their teens, say 15 and 16. They didn't have sex with the boys. Alita Arkin, who was Vi Salve then, said the boys were like their brothers.

"They took care of us," she recalled. She said they sang a lot on the beach to 'ukulele and guitar accompaniment.

When they got hungry, Manu Bunker went to Chun's Store to buy French bread, pork and beans, and canned salmon. He used money that Allen Wehr and his pals made by collecting bottles and selling them at Central Market on Kalakaua Avenue at Lili'uokalani Avenue. Manu divided the bread among the members of the gang like Jesus distributing the loaves and fishes.

Saturday was big: first the half-hour "Hawai'i Calls" broadcast from the Banyan Court at the Moana, then the beach talent show on a crude stage back of Waikiki Tavern.

One week, Vi Salve won $5 in the singing contest because the gang cheered so loud. Tom Silva said they made her buy the beer for everybody.

This was the jitterbug time and they loved to dance on Friday and Saturday night. With four jalopies among them, everybody chipped in for gas. There were dances in gyms and armories and school cafeterias all over the island with 18-piece bands on the stage.

The teenage girls were too young to get into Pearl City Tavern, so Vi and Dolly Carter (now LaBard) and Nina Hamic (now Ralston) brought 10-cent rings at Kress and pretended to be married to older guys in the gang. On New Year's Eve they celebrated at the old Niumalu Hotel. The girls paid.

Sometimes the gang drove out to Nanakuli for a lu'au, went body-surfing at Makapu'u and slept over at one of the houses with kids lined up like cordwood on the living room floor.

Six are left. They had a reunion last week.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.