I got this shot of Honolulu, looking out towards Diamond Head in July of ’79. During that summer, we moved from Washington, DC to Subic Bay Naval Base in The Philippines, but the journey was as exciting as the destination since we had a three-day layover in Hawaii.
I was between 2nd and 3rd grade, but all through 2nd grade we had studied Hawaii. I learned all about the various islands, King Kamehameha, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, and had even tried poi. We were in Arizona visting my grandparents when we found out that we were going to get to go to Hawaii.
I was very young, but I remember it all very clearly. I think it was the combination of spending a year studying it before actually getting to go that had the effect of searing it all into my mind. Unfortunately, I was recovering from chicken pox and had some kind of infection on my foor that prevented me from getting to go to the beach, but we saw quite a bit of Oahu anyway.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
What a small world! I moved from Falls Church, VA, to Subic Bay about the same time. We stopped in HI, too. Luckily for me, I got to live in HI for 3 years in my early 20’s (since I was only 1 when we moved to the PI). I wonder if our parents knew each other. We lived on base for about 2 years.
I’m Lenwood’s girl, by the way. I visit your blog from time-to-time, and I always enjoy reading your thoughts and seeing your pictures!
Liz, Thanks for visiting. We actually lived in Springfield, VA. You’ll have to ask your folks if they knew mine. I don’t know your last name or I’d ask mine, but my last name is Brush and my dad’s name is the same as mine.
James, this is very late indeed – I missed this post the first time but somehow came across it by accident while googling something else — I have a great aunt/uncle who also lived on Oahu (along with my cousin-once-removed) for years, and then returned to West Springfield. Small world. (They overlapped with my grandparents’ 20 years in Honolulu as well – which got me hooked).
Nothing wrong with a late comment. It makes me go back and look at old posts. It is a small world. At a Christmas party last year, I met a woman whose kids had started school at my old elementary in Springfield.