Captured By Your Presence

Dedicated To My Sons:

In a yearning desire to bring my happy and sentimental past to life again, my family traveled with me to my childhood world of Hawaii for my 50th birthday. Such nostalgia is easily brought back to my inner being as my sons experienced my old life. They too were “plunged” into instant gratification of a world they may have never known if not for my insistence to vacation there.

It is with wonder bringing dreams come true for me to be with my kids in Hawaii. Living in Hawaii for four years as a young person with my own parents was the epitome of pure joy. How can you describe something to someone else unless they experienced it themselves?

Immersing my life’s past to my children’s’ present time in Hawaii makes for a true experience now merged forever.

Showing a whole new world to them is like painting on canvas. The artist’s strokes begin with a lone girl enjoying the sand on the beach. As the artist’s rendition begins to evolve, two other figures are captured in the drawing. They are my own boys on each side of me laughing with love that comes through with each stroke of the artist’s handiwork.

This life can only get better as merging a past with its present brings on amazing memories into the future.

Childhood Recollections

1972 in Hawaii. My mother was cool with that fluffy thing on her head!

Driving my husband’s car to the Jeep dealership for an oil change while listening to the radio, I am taken away to oblivion ( my childhood) with the sounds of The Doobie Brothers’ 1972 smash hit, “Listen To The Music”. I feel a smile coming on my face naturally.
My girlfriend and I are sitting on the curb waiting for her brother to come pick us up after school. We are in the 4th grade. He arrives in a topless mustang. Her brother can not be much over 16 and he was cool. He knew it and I did too. We hop in and he turns on the radio while we drive off. I am 10 years old and my long hair is blowing in the wind to The Doobie Brothers’ 1972 smash hit, “Listen To The Music.” We live on Schofield Army Base in Hawaii with palm trees all around us. My friend’s brother is definitely trying to show off. He says, “I bet you never heard anything like that before. Have you?” The truth is I had not. My LP collection did not include The Doobie Brothers at the age of 10. I was loving the beat.
As I dropped the car off and headed into the Jeep dealership’s lounge to sit down, the radio in the building started playing you guessed it “Listen To The Music.” The band sings, “….What the people need is to listen to the music….it is a way to make them smile…” I feel a smile coming on my face naturally.
As the mustang eases up to the curb of my military housing where I lived, my girlfriend’s brother says, “See ya later and let me know if you need a ride again.” I stared at him and then said bye. I ran into the house and went upstairs and looked at my record collection and immediately came downstairs to my mom and declared, “Can I get a new record next time we go to the store?” I do not remember what she said, but I do remember my LP collection started having some diversity after that car ride and I was loving the beat.