The seventies were great. I loved it before they built the freeways. Cane was King and Pine was Queen. The road signs said Haleiwa and Waialua. Not "North Shore". They closed the road whenever they burned the cane fields because of the thick smoke. The whole island would smell like molasses. I loved it. You had to always be careful of the cane-haul trucks crossing the road in the country but the pineapple trucks hauling fruit into the cannery in town were a hazard too. Especially for a motorcycle rider. Speaking of the cannery - Oooh Hauna! The population of Oahu was under 300K.
The eighties were a blast for me. Fun job in Honolulu, a fun crew to run with...
Everything was changing. Freeways, hotels and condos were sprouting up everywhere. The cane and pineapple fields were gradually disappearing
The nineties I buckled down and got to work; Bought my boat, met my future wife, got married; started bicycling to work because of the traffic.
The Twenty double ought decade: Bicycles stolen (Twice), boat burglarized, confronted by homeless persons while jogging, a moke pulled a gun on me in the harbor and fired a round in the air...
The population of Oahu was then approaching triple what it was when I first arrived.
DELETE
DELETE
DELETE
Anyone can see what it's like now. No more offensive odors to bother the tourists. Cane and pine fields replace with condos and strip malls. Lots of subsidized projects to satisfy the politicians and the economy lives and dies on tourism alone.
It makes me incredibly sad.
2.20.21: Many more exposed! Resignations CONTINUE! Pray!
Please let me know if you want on or off this ping list.
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I agree completely. I first lived there in 1970 for about a year and came back in 1978. Finally moved in late 80s and visited about 20 years ago as I have many old frends there. It’s completely different. When I first lived there the only big hotel in Waikiki was the big pink one, everything else mostly bungalows and small apartment buildings. I used to hike up where they put that highway over to the other side of the island, near Like Like hwy. Picking false pikaki and ginger for leis off of the old Pali highway. No clue what it’s like now.
Tourism destroyed Hawaii and the corruption.
Years ago I read some local little weekly with an article about how HI used to be almost self sufficent in goods - exported rice and oranges to CA, grew cotton, had a factory that wove it and made clothing, and cotton mattresses, dairy farms. and so on.
To me it’s a pretty hell. Pretty to some eyes, Big Island is pretty but mostquitoes, those awful frogs, and etc.
It’s a memory to me.