Gods, I miss Hawai'i

[Shop99er]

In 1975, I was sent to Hawai'i by the Navy. In 1978, I left, of my own volition.

That was the greatest mistake of my life.

If I could have a re-do on my life, I would have never left.

I miss the people, the cultures, the food, the beaches, everything.

If a Kahuna reads this, I am humbly asking for a prayer to the Gods of Hawai'i for my wife, Debbie and I. We are fine, I'm not asking for a special favor. Just a blessing from the Gods.

Haole that I am, I do believe in the Gods.

Mahalo,
Mark Whitehead

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: Gods, I miss Hawai'i

Count your blessings, you may not be in paradise but you've got a family and such, plus, Hawaii's not going anywhere soon, save a nuke attack... so you can recoup your loss when you're ready. I know if I'd have left in '78 and not come back I wouldn't even want to be alive, so you've made it intact to this point and the islands are just a flight away.

[JAvendan]

Re: Gods, I miss Hawai'i

mark,

have you not been back since?

my wife, older daughter and i first visited as a family in 1999.

i loved it!

since then my wife, both daughters and i have visited about 3 other times and will be going back next year!

we always look forward to going, especially me

so, if you have been back since... maybe time for a vacation!

good luck and aloha.

joel

[memorylane]

Re: Gods, I miss Hawai'i

My family got there about the time you left Mark, 79-82 courtesy of the good old Army. I was only a kid and despite people thinking the military pays better than it does and having to sit on couches that didn't even have cushions, it didn't matter, we were in paradise!! Drove us nuts to overhear someone gripe at being "stuck" on that rock with nowhere to go, etc. Really??!
I had a school girl crush on a soldier on the base I lived on and more babysitting jobs than I could almost handle and almost didn't truly appreciate what I had til I got older.
So, in 04, my younger brother and I bought our own RT tickets and shared an off waikiki room and rental car and explored the island again and this past March (and for WAY more bucks for the RT tickets, I brought my two boys to show them what I have always raved about all their lives. The first thing they asked was if we could go live there, LOL! To save as well as be able to spend on other activities, we even camped out on the beach at a church camp I found online. You can get there if you really want money wise, you just have to be savvy and willing to forgo the luxuries of a room you would hardly be in except to sleep for instance.
In some ways, anyone has to be realistic and realize it is not entirely unlike your own town with the handful's here and there that toss there trash around and don't take care of what they are blessed to have but there is also hundreds of ways to overlook it and see only the beauty.
When we were on our last night, I found a homeless person panhandling on Waikiki bvld and offered him our 3 sleeping bags and a tent the size of most people's living rooms so just maybe, I'll be blessed and able to come back and do it all over again or even stay next time as well (even if it is by way of living in my conversion van which is fine by me, LOL!).