HAWAII STORIES
“Memories Messages”
The Reminder Missives… started arriving last week—
- “USF is excited to be back in Hawaii to connect with alumni and current families… (Mark your calendar) … Thursday, April 4…”. (POST CARD)
- “Mr. Abalone!!… arriving on Cruise Ship in June. Details later. YOUR DIVING PARTNER (ha-ha)”. (TEXT MESSAGE)
Then Followed… the classic movies, and travelling songs of long past—
- “Play it, Sam! Play As Time Goes By.” (CASABLANCA, 1942)
- “On the road again; Just can’t wait to get on the road again; The life I love is making music with my friends; I can’t wait to get on the road again”. (WILLIE NELSON, 1980)
- Sanford Murray (78, retired advertising executive)
“You got me on a couple of those ‘Memories Messages’… (One), I did recently receive a mail-piece regarding this year’s annual reunion with my college graduating class—1967, USC; and (Two), my other recent memory spikes included… watching a TV news clip on the Vietnam War; recalling MY ROTC U.S. Army Officer Commission I received on graduation day; and hearing a WILLIE NELSON classic song…!!! (Whew—a lot on my mind at this time).”
“So, here’s ‘my memories story’— Following graduation from USC, a couple of my pals and I received military orders for Officers’ training at Fort Knox, KY with immediate tour of duty assignments to Vung Tau Airfield, South Vietnam following completion of our training at Ft. Knox. And because back then we were so ‘Brash; Bold; AND… Young’, we decided to take that famed cross-country drive (in my 1963 Chevy Impala Convertible), to Ft. Knox, via U.S. ROUTE 66. Yes, you got that right… Before going to that VIETNAM WAR ZONE, we first wanted to go… ‘On the Road Again’.”
“SUCH AN UNFORGETABLE MEMORY”
- Clarence “Macho Guy” Kekuewa (75, retired radio personality)
“Great stuff, Sanford…!!! As for me, my recent ‘memories jogger’ was receiving a text from a long-time college friend (JOHN MATHIAS) who now lives in Claremont, CA. He texted that he and his wife were coming to Hawaii for vacation this June. The memory-kicker was his calling me, MR. ABALONE… a funny reference of the time he and I visited my uncle who lived in Redondo Beach— oh, I guess this was in the early ‘60s. Anywayz, it just happened that abalone harvesting (legal back in those days) was in season, and my Uncle Stanley wanted to go diving for abalone around the Dana Point area.”
“Being that John and I were both ‘seasoned Hawaiian spear-fishing, skin-divers’, we decided to join-in the ‘Abalone Adventure’, a first-time experience for us both… Long-story, short— (1) we didn’t realize that although this was Summer, the coastal water temperature in the area was 59-degreesF (compared to 80-degreesF in Waikiki Beach waters)!!!; (2) we were Hawaii-born, skin-divers (so no divers wet-suits for us)!!!; and, (3) we had to learn to dive observing the flow of the tall ocean kelp to get to the Abalone on the rocky ocean floor (otherwise, get tangled in the kelp before getting up to the surface)!!!”
“Let me tell you—there is nothing like sitting around an open bonfire with abalone on the fire pit while you’re trying to get—WARM.”
“MR. ABALONE, INDEED!!!”
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STORY SUBMITTED BY:
E. Tiwanak
IMAGES PROVIDED BY:
Puanani/Internet
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