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The first sign on Friday evening, December 26, was a little flicker of the lights. I remember saying to my wife, Sally, I wonder if someone hit a telephone pole somewhere down the highway. Then a few minutes later the lights went out — then soon enough all over Oahu. Yup, for the second time in two years the complete island of Oahu went dark as HECO totally shut down:

People were stuck in elevators, the airport was basically shut down, traffic lights were out, of course. Stores closed early, a lot of gas stations couldn’t operate. In short, it was a disaster.

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My wife, Sally, and I went to a graduation party last night for our nephew, Gabriel Kai Chan, combined with a birthday party for his sister, Jenna’s three-year-old, Kyra. Their mom, Ida, is Sally’s youngest sister and pal. We often have extended family gatherings at Ida and Peter’s house because it has a very large living room that was packed with family, friends and neighbors. The menu for the evening was Hawaiian food, which should have tipped me off . . . because there was this really ono [Hawaiian for 'delicious'], or at least I thought so — as did others, red Chinese-style char siu [barbecued pork]… (more…)

In the early 1990s the management team at the Polynesian Cultural Center was trying to develop a series of “special events” to help overcome one of the periodic downturns in the visitor industry: The idea being to offer something new or different that would encourage people to visit, including some of those who have been before. Interestingly, the PCC’s Haunted Lagoon spooky canoe ride in October 2008 and the current A Gift for Sadie Christmas canoe ride are recent examples.

But I’m thinking of our earlier efforts, some of which are still going strong — the Samoan World Fire Knife Dance competition being the best example. Others were one-time hits… (more…)

I’ve done tons of writing over the past 35 years, and have been a relatively successful freelance writer for the past eight years (prior to that I usually wrote as part of my regular job assignments)…but I’m actually interested in all the digital media: web building, still and motion imagery, web movies, etc.

Check out one of my latest web videos on the Polynesian Cultural Center’s Christmas canoe ride.

In my last post, I mentioned the fact that I used to buy gas for as little as 12¢ a gallon when I was a teenage driver in Salt Lake City…which reminded me that just a few years before then, in the 1950s, I could buy a single-scoop ice cream at the Harris Dairy on 21st South for 5¢ — or two scoops for 10¢, which was half the price of similar offerings at the famous Snelgrove’s Ice Cream store. Of course, in those days milk men in distinctive, boxy milk trucks delivered glass quart bottles of milk and other dairy products right to your door. If I remember correctly, this went on into the early 60s. (more…)

The other day in Honolulu I was so surprised to see  gas at Costco — the one by Honolulu Community College — only cost about $2 a gallon for 87-octane, that for the first time in a long time I sprang for premium grade…and it only cost about $35 to fill up. This reminded me… (more…)

Thousands of people have been paying tribute to Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, at age 91 the oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he passed away on December 1, 2008…and because I had the great privilege of knowing him personally as my bishop over 50 years ago, I would like to add my own small homage: (more…)

Many aspects of living in most parts of Samoa in 1965 were very different for a person who grew up in an urban American environment. For example: (more…)

In my “Mutiny in Samoa” entry, I referred to the fact that by 1965 most Mormon missionaries in Samoa flew between American and Western Samoa on a Polynesian Airlines DC3. New policy called for missionaries to fly whenever possible, but I still remember when I first arrived in March of that year President John Phillip Hanks came came to Tutuila to meet me and conduct mission business on a relatively small boat, about 60-feet long, that left Apia the evening before and arrived that morning in Pago Pago. (more…)

I want to publicly thank Christian Wilson of Laie for his generous assistance in helping me organize the back-end of my new blog. Chris knows a lot about computers and is one of the best SEO [Search Engine Optimization] people around: He frequently donates his talent to friends and various organizations throughout Koolauloa. (more…)