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

 

Night of the Fireflies...

I haven't been out to see the fireflies this year...well, that is until Saturday night. The skies have been smokey and the nights have been chilly. I decided to go ahead and look for them last night.

They were numerous!

View back towards the house...

This was just at 'Blue Hour' when Venus was visible in the sky. Our home is just to the right of the pines.

Fireflights/lightening bugs prefer the tall grasses and the woods. If you don't have an area that is unmowed, you won't see as many. I stood at the edge of our yard and took this shot of the meadow on the other side of the fence.

For anyone interested in how this was done. I used my Olympus E-M1 Mark iii which has a 'Starry Sky' Auto focus to help focus things in the dark. I used a setting called LiveComp. I set the LiveComp up to a 4 second exposure for 4 minutes. That means that each 4 seconds that passes by, the camera records any changes to the light and adds it essentially as a layer over the previous exposures for 4 minutes. ISO was set at 1600 and I had to modify the white balance.

I know that sounds like Greek to many folks, but there it is...

Setting it up and figuring out where to point it is the hard part sort of. 

I stopped while heading to the ridge:

The Driveway...

Tigen Road where I noted that the lightening bugs hung out along the long grass in the ditches.

At the mailbox...

And then I took a 'selfie'. The lights from the town 3 miles away was rather intense and gave the sky an odd color as the humidity, haze, and smokey sky increased the odd oranges. 

Could we please get some rain????

Sunday is Father's Day. So I leave these two photos of my father.

Young Dad:

I'm guessing this might be a clue as to why I love photography?

Dad in 2001 when we were in Hawai'i together.

Missing Dad

Fathers Day came.
Fathers Day went.

I had a hard time with Father's Day.
I lost my dad shortly after Father's Day in 2005.

He was a character. A different sort of a fellow, I guess.
He had an enormous sense of humor and was willing to always help me with photography.

He came up with this wonderful pose of himself talking to a statue on a bench in Hawaii during our 2001 visit.
*Wouldn't it be quite funny if you took a photo of me talking with this fellow?* he'd asked, *People will think I'm quite dotty in the head won't they?*
Dad promptly sat down and began to appear as if he were talking with the statue.
Charmed and embarrassed, I took the photo.
At the time I was grateful that the streets were fairly deserted as it was early morning.

Another time we were watching a sunset near the very 'primo' Kona Village Resort...Dad asked that I take a photo of him.
He told me, *Make me look noble!*

He crossed his arms and took a stance.
Indeed he did look noble.

In 2000, when I visited him in the Spring [I think that date is correct], we went up into the Blue Ridge Mountains where he had me take a photo of him...
'heaving a rock'.
I wear that vest now. Dad gave it to me after that trip. He felt it would be used often by me.
Indeed it is. It is a vest with tons of pockets, perfect for a photographer.

I miss him.
I think about him often.
I wish often to speak with him and show him my work and what I have accomplished.

But, I think he knows somehow.

So here is to you Dad.
Better late than never, eh?
Happy Father's Day.
You look Noble!!

Hawaiian Memory

Flashback.
Hawaii -- October 2001.
Dad and I had just finished breakfast at the Volcano House. We'd had pancakes and eggs, of course this was not the food that was supposed to be on Dad's diet, but we had splurge from his regular oatmeal breakfast.

We decided to step into the trinket shop and browse before heading out to take a tour of the volcano craters. I found a couple of post cards and was checking the price of film. Remember ... this was the pre digital era for me.
I'd decided I had enough film with me to last the day and aside from purchasing some bottled water there wasn't anything we really needed.

I walked up with Dad to the check out.
Dad even with his macular degeneration disease which had made him legally blind...spotted the candy bars.
*I want a Butterfinger,* he said.
*Dad, you just had pancakes, you don't need a candy bar.* I edged up to the counter and smiled at the clerk.
*I want a Butterfinger.* He repeated just a touch louder, and began to reach for the candy.
*You don't need one,* I sort of hissed at him, dropping my cards on the counter and handed over two water bottles.
The lady smiled at us and asked, *Find everything okay?*
[I hate it when they do that!]

Dad took it as his cue.
*My daughter won't buy me a Butterfinger candybar,* he quipped, *Isn't that mean of her? Her poor old dad just wants ONE candybar and she won't let him have it.*

I looked sideways at Dad. Oh geeze. I reached down for the Butterfingers and dropped two onto the pile for the clerk to ring up.

*Now that is a nice daughter isn't it?* Dad said, smiling his old man charming smile at the clerk, who of course smiled back and nodded.
*But now she'll probably make me ride in the trunk back to Kona...* he paused for effect, *...like she did on the way here because she said I wasn't behaving.*
He clutched the now paid for Butterfinger ...
and started to slide out towards the door.

The clerk stared at me as if I was from Mars.
I was seething...or embarrassed...or

When I hit the parking lot on Dad's heels he was laughing. I couldn't help it, I unlocked the Dodge Neon and burst out laughing too.

We slid in together and I turned to him. *You know, I should make you ride in the trunk! What if that clerk thought I was abusing you!*

Dad grinned, happy to have gotten one over on me and happier yet to be the recipient of a Butterfinger.

So now I cannot see a Butterfinger without thinking of Dad 'riding in the trunk'. I cannot think of the volcanoes in Hawaii, without thinking of that moment in the store when my Dad got one over on me.

Butterfinger.

Hawaii 2001 revisited

I spent a good part of last night thinking about my adventures with dad in Hawaii and some of the 'funnies' we had together.

Dad needed a cane to help out with his balance a bit. He did not go anywhere without it. One night I got dressed up in an old Hawaiian muumuu that had been made for my mother in 1965. I picked out the green shirt that dad had gotten from the very same trip. We were retro styling! I think we had a special dinner date that night, something a little extravagant. We headed out the door from King Kam's and started down Ali'i Drive. When we got on the rough sidewalk near the 'breaker' wall, water was splashing and things were a bit tricky for Dad.
He realized he didn't have his cane. I reached over and put my arm through his. To which he immediately pulled away saying-- *Oh don't do that, people will think I'm an old fool who can't even keep his balance.*
I had to think quick.
I was not going to have him fall and get hurt, yet I wasn't about to go back to the hotel either.

So, I put my arm firmly in his and patted his hand.

*Say, you DO know we are in Kona where NO one knows who we are. If we stroll nonchalantly down the street arm in arm, you know what all these folks are going to think?*
Dad said, *I'm an old fool and you have to hang on to me.*

*Nope,* I said, * they are going to look at you and then look at me and wonder. What the heck does that smart dressed elderly guy have that he has a young gal on his arm? They'll say 'wow, look at him, he's got something special'. In other words, Dad...*
I leaned in close and spoke into his ear. *They are thinking you are one hot fella to have a girl like me!*

Dad grinned ear to ear. *How about that?* He took my arm and we strolled down Ali'i Drive.

He forgot his cane more often in the evenings, after that. And he sure smiled a lot.