On The Way

It's ALOHA Friday

in Hawaii!

"Great events make me quiet and calm,

it is only trifles

that irritate my nerves."

Queen Victoria

See the little Prince leaving his royal parents and going into the Hawaiian

AfterWorld?

Lobby mural in the Leiopapa a Kamehameha Building (State Office Tower). 

235 South Beretania Street, Honolulu,

  named after little Prince

 Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha;

 Born to King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma

 on May 20, 1858,

 he was only four-years old when he passed away

 due to meningitis on August 27, 1862.

 The spirit of the young prince, affectionately known to the people as

 Ka Haku O Hawai'i "The Lord Of Hawai'i,"

is said to inhabit the building named in his honor to this day:

Leiopapa a Kamehameha translates to"

 "The Flower Of His Father Kamehameha."

Much hope rested on this little boy whose godmother was

Queen Victoria.

Hawaii still loves protocol and pageant.

This is the Brothers Cazimero's Christmas Show

at the historic Hawaii Theatre

"You can become a winner

only if you are willing

to walk over the edge."

Damon Runyon

(for Robert Cazimero)

Iolani Palace by Night.

Electrified by Edison himself, years before the US White House.

Honolulu's citizenry gathered right here

at eve to watch the lights come on all at once,

a bit of magic we take for granted today.

 "Our children

 (and elderly parents! cloudia)

 give us the opportunity

 to become the parents we always wished

 we had."

Louise Hart

By Day

"Morality may consist solely

 in the courage to make a choice."

Leon Blum

In Gingerbread!

"And I had but one penny in the world. 

Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread." 


 William Shakespeare,
 Love’s Labours Lost

"The child with his sweet pranks, the fool of his senses, commanded by every sight and sound,
 without any power to compare and rank his sensations,
 abandoned to a whistle or a painted chip, to a lead dragoon, or a gingerbread dog,
 individualizing everything, generalizing nothing,
 delighted with every new thing,
 lies down at night overpowered by the fatigue, which this day of continual pretty madness has incurred.


 But Nature has answered her purpose with the curly, dimpled lunatic.
 She has tasked every faculty, and has secured the symmetrical growth of the bodily frame,
 by all these attitudes and exertions /an end of the first importance,
 which could not be trusted to any care less perfect than her own." 


 Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meanwhile. . .

May you delight in everything that comes today.

May the child in you stir

and awake

for a season of Wonder

and radical Hope.

That is my wish for 

YOU.

        What is YOURS?  cloudia

Riding with Dad

Aloha & Welcome to Waikiki! The trade winds are back today.

Bliss!

Today I had to drive out to Mapunapuna and pick Dad up.

“Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!”
William Butler Yeats

A "Funny" guy, he could be stressful to others. But I knew we'd have a lovely ride together.

“I think the thing to do is to enjoy the ride while you're on it.”
Johnny Depp

I loved to see him laugh, and I really enjoyed sharing my town, Honolulu, with this "city boy" from the streets of Philadelphia who had lived on the rural Big Island of Hawaii for years. Here he is with Mom enjoying the Lunar New Year's Lion Dance blessing.

“Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.”
Franklin P. Jones

So I drove out the H-1 this morning and picked him up.

It was a quiet ride. I did most of the talking.

He didn't criticize my driving, or suggest a better route.

He wasn't preoccupied with a list of "things to be done" and "things to worry about."

We stopped at the drive-through at Wendy's, and parked under a tree while I had lunch. He didn't want anything.

I remembered that some of the best times we ever had were in cars, including those diminutive English Fords he used in his route. He drove through the various ethnic neighborhoods of Philly selling dresses, housewares, and small luxuries to housewives on the installment plan. They bought some, they paid some; Poor Italians, Poles, "Negroes" (as polite folks called them then). He knew every corner in our "city of neighborhoods."

And everybody knew my Dad, albeit under a variety of "street names." I remember:

"Johnny the Dress Man."

for one.

Sometimes, like over winter break from school, I'd ride beside him, piled in with all the "merchandise" and all the notebooks, tools, and empty soda bottles that made up his "office."

My schoolmates remained safely in suburban ignorance, but I knew the grit, cobblestones, trolley tracks, corner "tap rooms" (bars/pubs) factories, and older housing stock of the city." I also knew that everyone was not Caucasian.

At Christmas the housewives clucked over me, and fed me cookies from every culinary tradition in town! Not my favorite Chinatown, though, as that was still a mysterious and impenetrable enigma broached only for "Chinese" food (the nectar of urban life!).

When I saw this exact "salesman dad/ride-along-kid" vignette on-screen in the film "Avalon" I felt as though I was watching a home-movie! The time period, and Baltimore row houses were PERFECT!

Later, Dad got up before dawn to deliver fresh-baked Italian Rolls from the Amoroso factory. This was his transitional period. I remember riding in the big truck, and learning how HEAVY bread could be!

"I wake the birds up every morning," He said, and it was true!

A changing society saw America's cities burst into flaming Summer "race" riots.

It was a far cry from my "Martha & The Vandellas (female vandals?) 'Dancing in the Streets' growing-up years. I was SO proud that they sang "Philadelphia PA now" in the list of places where folks were "dancin` in the streets!"

Now, even we no longer felt safe in certain areas.

Yo, Philly!

I'm very glad I knew that vanishing, blue collar city of breweries and lunch buckets before the decay of the 70's, and subsequent gentrification, changed my grandparent's red brick city forever.

So today I ate "street food" in the car like we always did.

Dad didn't mind.

I thought of all these memories, and more.

There was even a tear shed.

Though the Hawaiian music station was playing on the radio, I seemed to hear DooWop being sung by some kids on a corner somewhere.

My Dad, the poor kid from the streets of West Philly (neighborhoods, corners, high schools are important)

awoke his most recent mornings in sparkling Waikiki.

"Not bad for two kids from the city!" He'd tell Mom.

Last Fall, we watched the Phillies (complete with Hawaii player Shane Victorino!) win the World Series from Mom & Dad's "beach apartment."

After the bread, he got into the janitorial business.

Many were the exhausted ultra-early morning, or ultra-late at night, rides we took through our sleeping city together, surrounded by our mops, and rags, and keys. I still have a proprietary love of buildings that Kona couldn't satisfy. Luckily, my Honolulu has a gracious crop of many storeys and vintages!

Often we'd stop somewhere to grab a bite to eat, as today. I thought of all those rides as I ate: rides to school, to hospital, "down the shore" and even college visits. There were tense rides, and fun rides.

Winter & Summer; youth and middle age.

Today I had my last ride with Dad;

Bringing his ashes home to Mom

and to Waikiki. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia

The very BEST Age

Click on photos to enlarge! Sea Turtle, Beth Eisenberg

“You had me at hello.”

Jerry Maguire, Film

"The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose."
Heda Bejar

White Ginger

Love is being stupid together.
Paul Valery

In the classic Hollywood film, GIGI, the immortal Maurice Chevalier sings a very wise song called: "I'm glad I'm not young anymore."

There are lyrics like: "Will her friends like you; Will yours like her? Ah, I'm glad I'm not young anymore!"

Me, I enjoyed being young.

In fact, it took me a long time to outgrow my toys. Though preternaturally mature, I submerged myself in imaginative play to a late age and propitiated my dolls like touchy little gods.

How would I one day hide my play from a husband & children?!

The day came, of course, when I "outgrew" childish preoccupations, or rather forgot them for adolescent ones.

Clothes & poses,

Midnight roses

Love's neuroses

Ah! I'm glad I'm not young anymore!

A wonderful freedom accompanies maturity, I think.

You've peeked behind the curtain.

And if I want a cookie, I'll HAVE one!

So don't bemoan your age - what ever age it is!

Celebrate your simple fact of your existence,

Perhaps by savoring

a cookie ;-)

A L O H A! Cloudia