Why Am I Comfortable Today?

  
While driving along Palm Circle on Fort Shafter, I was brought back to another time.  It was here I experienced Hawaiian life first in 1969 as an army brat. This base was named after General William R. Shafter who liberated Cuba in 1898. It is also the oldest military base on the island.

  
Many of my Alabama family and friends will appreciate the hound’s tooth dress my mother made and wore on a beautiful hawaiian day when dad received honors for his army career on the island. Over a quarter of a century before this photo was taken, Fort Shafter was hit by Japanese bombers who targeted its artillery. It is on the field above where you see the young service men and women raising our flag that we sustained casualities.  The famous movies Pearl Harbor and Tora, Tora, Tora were filmed on location here. 

   

Above you will see the second post I lived on. This base is the largest outside the continental United States called Scholfield Barracks.  I captured in this photo buildings that you can see if you were to watch the classic film  From Here To Eternity.     

  
 
Mother always dressed my sister and I up in clothes she made for us while living on the Hawaiian bases. Who would have ever thought a little over 25 years before this photo was taken Japanese pilots would warm up their guns above us before bombing our Army Air Corps pilots’ home base Wheeler Army Airfield?

  
 
Perhaps Hawaii’s most famous scenic picture I took is of Pearl Harbor itself. It is underneath this structure you can see the remains eerily of the sunken Battleship Arizona. It is this tourist spot visited  by millions that led to the United States entering WWII. 

I hope you enjoyed learning  alittle history not only about your blogger, but about the Hawaiian Islands.  It is good for us to understand why we are comfortable today as I titled this post, but also to keep in mind that our defense needs to stay our priority if we want to continue to stay that way. 
 

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.