May Day Dad

Jun 13, 2005

My far-away father is great at bridging the ocean that separates him from the rest of his family—he’s in Hawaii while the rest of us are here on the Mainland. Here’s an audio clip of the voicemail message he left for me last week: Son, I love you”.

And here’s a message (edited for spelling) he sent to all the aunts and uncles:

Subject: Typical weekend in Hawaii

Will things ever change here? Friday we met at the King Kamehameha Statue to watch the lei draping on the statute in anticipation of the celebration the following day. There were about 50 leis each about 25 to 40 feet in length. The fire department takes each one aloft and gently drapes them across the outstretched arms of the statute. During each lei draping a beautiful Hawaiian song is sung and on many songs a group of about 40 gorgeous little hula girls 6 years to 12 years danced in front of us. They are the most professional twerps I have ever seen. They were the same ones that tore up old hard-hearted anti-war Joey’s heart last Sunday.

Dot and I then ran down to Waikiki and had a cold beer at the Planet Hollywood sidewalk cafe. Then onto the street for the music and food. We had giros from our local Greek Restaurant. They were very good.

Dot heard some taiko drums in the distance and ade a beeline for the drummers. It happens that there was a Pan-Pacific Festival in town at the same time as the king’s birthday. A group of Japanese drummers put on quite a sensational drumming show. Then a high school marching band fro Houston, Texas showed up and presented a number of songs with real gusto. Think drum line and Harlem influences. Real wonderful young people who did a wonderful job for an very appreciative audience.

Saturday Dot went to the parade Aand I worked to catch up. In the afternoon a swim and a 4-hour nap.Then a great evening and this morning I woke up enthused to do a 13-mile run. I got out two miles and had an attach of sciatica that put me into a walk and a limp. I finally made it to a flower shop then caught a bus to get back in time for a soak in the hot tub. I straightened out, went to the grocery store to get ingredients for my
Caribbean Sweet Potato Salad recipe that I learned at the local community college cooking class and then off to the other side of the island to find 4 kids that we mentor. They came back to the new apartment, liked it a lot and we swam all afternoon. We filled them with hamburgers from our outdoor poolside grill and
then gave them peach pie and fatboy ice cream bars. I then drove them back home and made it back in time to do the salad ingredients. I am waiting for tomorrow to put the thing together. I will let you know what I think of my maiden voyage in the kitchen. Hint—the salad dressing is the hardest and the
cooking of the Okinawan yams, the yam and the sweet potato is the hardest thing to do.

More later. I wish my life was not so boring …

Honolulu Hal.

Anton Zuiker ☄