What I am missing day 5....................

HAWAII in the 70's

Doug joined the Army six months into our marriage.

The first 6 months we were in Sierra Vista Arizona.

Then Doug got his orders to Fort Shafter, Hawaii.

We lived there for 2 1/2 years.

Here are some pictures of our time there.

We lived for the first year or so in the Ala Moana Hotel.

It has since been torn down and a new high rise put in.

This is Christmas at the Ala Moana.

I wore a lot of Mu mu's and no make-up [hard to believe I know]

What I remember about living in this apartment were the huge "Cockroaches" that you had to be careful not to sit on if you got up in the middle of the night to go potty. They could fly and made a snapping noise.......I hate Cock roaches!!!!

We did not have a car and Doug rode his bike to work.

We were poor and so we spent time "people watching" at the beach or at the Mall.

Doug had a metal detector and found rings and things on the beach while I sunned.

I just wanted to be pregnant after losing my first son in Arizona. Those were hard days of homesickness and sadness and disappointment.

However, Doug and I were also very happy inour relationship.

Here are some pictures of our carefree days before children:

Playing on the beaches on the North Shore.

Spending many days on Beaches. This one was Eva beach.

We spent most of our time on Ft Derussey Beach a Military R&R .

Our Apartment was very close to it.

They also had a little movie theater there. [Trust me, not fancy]

Picking up "PUKKA SHELLS" on the North Shore. I made me a necklace out of them.

We went to church here:

Waikiki Ward. This is the Honolulu Tabernacle where we met for church.

We often saw people we knew who were visiting Hawaii as this was the

only church on this side of the island at the time.

One of those visitors was Rod and Audrey Carver. This is myself, Rod and Audrey at the

Pali Look out. It is very windy there.

We moved to a new apartment on McCully Street:

There was this dive on McCully street called McCully Chop Suey. They had the best "Beef Fried Rice" ever. Today we order "take out" [Beef Fried Rice] from the "China Garden" on 12th street, it is very close to the same flavor as McCully Chop Suey. It always brings back memories.

It may not look like much but it was the Taj Mahal compared with the Ala Moana.

We still had cockroaches but the big ones flew mostly outside on the sidewalk. We had to keep EVERYTHING in plastic bags or the little cockroaches would get in....cereal boxes, cracker boxes, everything. We bought an old green car. Lime green. It was ugly, but it got us where we were going. Holly was born in November at Tripler Army Medical Hospital [it is pink].

My mom and dad came over just before Holly was born. We did the tourist thing with them.

This was during the years that mom dyed her hair.

This next one is one of my favorites:

Not because of the birds at "Paradise Park" ........

because my mom wore curlers in her hair and a scarf over them.

Times they have changed.

We did the "Kodak Hula Show"

The Polynesian Cultural Center, Sea life park, and many other places.

We were able to go to the Temple in Laie.

This is a picture of my mom and dad with Aunt R May and Uncle Horace.

They must have been on their way back from their mission in Tonga.

It was fun having visitors in Hawaii.

Most of my memories of Hawaii are of Holly. Here she is the day she was blessed. Mom had the little "Blessing" dress hand made for her. All of my girls and Holly's daughter Analyn have been blessed in itl

She was a beautiful baby, check out her dimple....

here are some more of my favorite pics of Holly in Hawaii.

I can't talk about Hawaii without mentioning my friend Nancy. She is the one that told us about the apartment. Nancy taught me how to love to sew. We did a lot of fun things together. She had a daughter 6 months older than Holly, her name is Michelle. We walked to Ft. Derussey beach 2 or 3 times a week and watched our girls play on the beach, picking up cigarette butts and coral and splashing in the water. Nancy was married to Mike, a Maori that danced in one of the professional shows. I would not have survived Hawaii and being away from my family had it not been for Nancy's friendship. After I had lived in the apartment for a few months, Nancy saw my "Mayhew Book" at our apt. and she said, I have that book!!! Turns out we are cousins. We have the same great great grandfather. Small world. Nancy and I keep in touch even now. Thanks Nancy for the memories............

Sorry about the rip in the picture.

One of the memories I have was seeing Doug's friend Phil

get Baptized in the Ocean on the North Shore.

This next picture is of some girls that came over from the mainland for the summer.

I include this picture because this is where we got Robin's name. The girl in the middle in the back had "Robin" for a name and we really liked it and used it the next time we had a girl.

I often wonder what happened to these darling girls.

This last picture is the day we said "ALOHA" to Hawaii.

Friends from Doug's Army office came to see us off.

Doug had to fly military and I had to fly commercial with Holly......

that flight is what started my "fear" of flying.

This is what I will say about Hawaii. Doug and I were never closer. He is an amazing man. He tried so hard to help me not be home sick. We both got "Islanditis" now and again. We never had the money to go to other islands, so Oahu is all we experienced. But living there was more about the people and less about the island itself. We made lasting friendships there and were close to the gospel. We depended on each other for our happiness. That is why I am missing Hawaii........but I don't miss the cockroaches!!!!!!

ALOHA !!!!