Sure, pineapple is the fruit the tourists most associate with Hawai'i, but for a time, if you lived here, it was all about the guava.

Yes, and mango. But mango enjoys virtually the same popularity as it always has, probably owing to its short season. Crave it all year, get overloaded in summer, then around December, crave it again.

But for a time, guava was close to our hearts. It was the taste of an interisland Aloha Airlines flight. It was the flavor of the pink lumps of sherbet floating in the green fruit punch. There were pages of guava recipes in every 4-H club cookbook, from guava chiffon pie to guava shortbread cookies to guava Jell-O mold.

A generation of kids grew up on peanut butter and guava jelly sandwiches, never even considering grape jelly as part of the classic combination. Guava juice was what Mama gave you when you had a sore throat or a fever or were just starting to eat again after a bout of stomach flu. Guava equaled love.

Guava wasn't just a popular flavor, it was boundless in its practical uses, limited only by what one could imagine doing with hard wood and supple branches. The trunk could be turned for bowls, the branches cut for walking sticks. Guava made good fence posts and was great for smoking meat. The young leaves had medicinal properties. Long before water balloon fights, there were guava fights. Would kids today know how to make a slingshot with a guava branch?

Guava was so much a part of the culture that it was woven into stories. Kids used to scare each other at sleepovers with tales of the terrible "guava man" who lived in the forest and had sticks for arms and legs. "Guava man going get youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

Do city kids even call their country cousins "guava" anymore? (As in, "Ay, Dennis, put your slippers on to go inside the store. No act so guava. You in Kalihi now.")

Did the guava become passe?

Guava trees didn't die out, like the gamey old-style papayas that you just can't find anymore now that the new generation of milder-smelling papayas has taken hold.

Bakeries still have guava stuff. Meadow Gold and Govindas make great guava juice. Jamba Juice has Groovy Guava and Hawaiian Sun makes guava jelly that tastes 'ono with peanut butter. But where is the love?