wala'au

My childhood home was one of the few houses lived in year-round, down past where the road turned from paved to gravel, just before it dead-ended. On one side there is a reef sheltered lagoon with a beach, and on the other a sheer hill lush with mango, hau, bamboo and a larger mix of native and scrub plants. My pops kept his fishing boat out on a channel in the reef, and our small house sat just at the base of the hill nearly on the sand. One neighbor was auntie Kaui, a beautiful old Hawaiian woman in floral mu'mu. When we would bring her fish my father caught, she would give me and my sister treats. She used to tell us stories, like how she rode a horse to school in the days before they put the bridge in. A lot of the other kids where poor, so she'd hide the horse on the side of the road halfway and walk, so they wouldn't tease her for having one. Her school was underneath a big Banyan tree that is still growing. On the other side of our house there was the Ainu Family. For a while all the girls in the family danced Tahitian, at a restaurant called 'Tahiti Nui.' I could hear the drumbeats from the tape come through our screen windows when they practiced. They would host massive luau for any event, i used to love the opi'hi and the sushi. Being one of the only haole boys there, and being small and skinny compared to almost everyone else, I'd eat the load to prove myself. You get respect trying keep pace with the 300lb braddahs.
When i was in my teens we moved up the road to our new house. The home was bigger and my dad no longer parked his boat in the lagoon. I got to surf more, but i always missed the feeling of being at the end of the road.
Now I'm far away ready to move yet again, and flights are getting canceled because of snow storms. Totally different trip, but everything is an experience. We build on our experiences, so the more variety the better. Live and learn. Live with Aloha.
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