Quiet Day Saturday with Memories

Saturday was another chill day. I thought I was going to feel great but that didn't quite happen.

Instead of hiking or taking a nice long walk, I took a dive down memory lane.

I decided to look at the photos my brother scanned from Dad's slides and shared with us online in a private album. 

My brother picked out slides from my Dad's enormous collection of photos that covered many years of our lives. My favorite ones are those of us  staying together in Hawai'i on the Big Island. 

My Dad had an friend at work who had a vacation home. Dad saw some lovely pictures of it and asked if he could rent it and take our family on a vacation. My dad's friend said sure and quoted him a price. Dad took him up on the offer.

He then told my dad it was in Hawai'i not in Florida. Dad wasn't fazed. Apparently he said yes and our first big adventure began.

Hawai'i became a state in 1959. This was 1965 [I think]. Around Christmas Dad had us sit down and watch a TV show. Unusual, because my Dad worked in Advertising and never insisted we watch the 'Boob' Tube.

A commercial for United Airlines came up with Hawaiian music in the background. The voice over said, "Guess what Tom Rogers is getting his family for Christmas! A trip to Hawai'i!...Fly the Friendly Skies of United!"

We kids sat stunned. 
Heck, I didn't even know there was a place called Hawai'i. 

Mom got our schoolwork from our teachers since we went during the school year. Mom was probably the hardest teacher we ever had. 

But here is what I recall.

My sister and I were inseparable. We played endlessly 'on the rocks'. We scoured the tidal pools and made up stories and pretended to be horses. We'd trot across the rocks in flip flops to lead our imaginary herds to safety.

We would build coral homes for our trolls to live in and then redo them after the tides washed the coral away.

It was a place like no other. Sometimes we would just sit and watch the waves crash into the lava rocks.

The photo below is of my sister and I in orange. The neighbor next door had gotten a great job at the newly built Mauna Kea Beach Hotel up the road. He had a Luau to celebrate and everyone that lived near was invited. Even us Haoles. [white people]

My sister and I are peeling cooked flesh off the pigs head.

Here is my mother in one of her beautiful dresses. I recall my father doing this 'shoot'. We kids were giggling. Dad was fussing with his camera. We were probably making faces and being idiots. But wow. It was an amazing shot with the sunset. Mom looked like a goddess.

The photo below is of my dad pointing out the island Maui to my sister. I'm sure my brother took the shot for Dad. He rarely was out from behind the camera.

We made trips to see the volcano. The road we drove on was called the 'Chain of Craters Road'. It wound around different sleeping  volcano craters. 

I recall Dad saying he wouldn't want to live near this area, he was sure that the Volcanoes  were not sleeping. He was proven right a few years later.

Mom took on a part time job to help pay for our rental. She caught the bug of Deep Sea Fishing and we booked at least one trip a week while there. 

I can say one thing mom was pretty ingenious. She packed our clothes in coolers. On the way back, the coolers were filled with dry ice and Mahi Mahi, along with Tuna. Our clothes were sent home in the mail.

We spent all year budgeting and saving for our yearly trip. I suppose folks wondered if it was all worth it. I say. Yes. We skimped on many things so we could go and spend a month on an island.

Our last trip was when my brother was a Senior. College tuition and life changes ended our trips. We had a good run. Nine years of summer adventures like no other.

The photo below is of myself on the left as you face this photo. My mom on the right. Spitting images of each other right?

However, that was not the end of that story.

In 2001, my father was legally blind and no longer drove. He wanted to go back to Hawai'i. My brother asked me to chaperone Dad on a two week trip to Hawai'i. 

It was another memorable trip. I took so many photos of Dad. This time I was the one behind the camera.

We went on crazy adventures together. At that time the wild donkeys of Kona were still wandering freely and there was a movement to find them a sanctuary as they kept getting hit on the highway.

I made some phone calls and inquiries and ended up talking with the head of their version of the DNR on the island. I inquired at coffee shops and other places on how to find and photograph the donkeys. It paid off.

We found them. 

I wrote a lengthy article for Mules and More Magazine and a sent a copy to the Governor of Hawai'i. 

[Eventually donkeys were captured and moved to a Ranch to be cared for not my doing really, but it was exciting to do some legwork while I was there with Dad.]

Dad passed away in 2005. When we talked on the phone before his death, the subject turned to Hawai'i and how happy he'd been there. How he wished he could be in Hawai'i forever.

In 2010 I went back with my son and his first wife. I carried Dad's ashes with me and ... well. He got his wish.

I'm with my Dad on this. Hawai'i was a magical place where we created and lived some of the calmest and loving times as a family. 

The rest of our summers were spent in another remote place in Wisconsin. We'd live with mom in a small cottage on my Grandparent's place and garden, fish, and play. No TV, no phone, no hot water, and no bathtub. 

Before school began, we'd pack up our canned and frozen produce to take back to the suburbs and adjust to Suburban Life. 

There are so many warm and wonderful memories of being on the island together.

I'm a lucky one. My parents gave us experiences that not many other families got to have.

I got to spend 9 summer vacations on the Big Island. I got to spend the rest of my summers in a remote location where I learned skills from my Grandmother and we essentially ran a bit wild with my cousins. 

Maybe it was all the different places and adventures I'd had through my childhood that makes me yearn to travel again.

Me in the 1970's
with a stray dog

My last trip to Hawai'i. Sunset over the ocean on a drive back from seeing the volcanoes with my son.

The sound of the ocean
Soothes my restless soul
The sound of the ocean
Rocks me all night long...

Last night in my dream
I saw your face again
on the white sandy beaches
of Hawai'i.

IZ 
White Sandy Beaches of Hawai'i