I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to write about your wonderful experiences and feelings about the big isle. See my mother worked for years at both the Sharaton and mauna lani hotels as a house keeper and waitress. My father was a carpenters foreman who worked for years on those hotels in the 70's and 80's. My parents only planned on a one week vacation, from Alaska to the big isle. When there week was OVER my dad picked up the phone and sold what he could in Alaska, the rest is history. My mother never left this isle once she got here, as she use to call it HOME.
For myself growing up here like anywhere had its positives and negatives. I grew up some how feeling that being white was different and that haole's were not always welcome. Many times as a youngster I would be shut down, or picked on, or even taped and tied up all because I was the white kid. The braces didn't help, or the permanent red nose and freckles. Once I went to high school and college on the mainland most of my best friends happened to be black. Maybe we had more in common?. Once I finished school I wanted to come back home and visit my parents here, I bought a round trip ticket from D.C to Hawaii and back. Within a half hour of my landing here in hilo I met this young lady at Kens house of pancakes who was working her tail off. I sold my round trip back for $300 and paid rent with it at Reed's bay apts. My wife and I moved in together that very first day, 22 years later the rest is history.
We worked hard at various jobs and careers here for the next 10 years until we decided to have our first child a boy. The same year in 1999, We also decided to buy an acre and stop paying rent. We decided to buy in leilani for several reasons, the main being my wife's parents owned a home already here. The property was affordable, school was close, roads were good, convenience to town played a part also. Now we have three other blessings in our lives all boys as well, With our fifth child now on her or his way, it makes both of us question home one more time?. We are very blessed living here and having worked and paid for everything we have. Our greatest concern though is that our boys may not have the same opportunities we had to live here, for the cost of everything has just blown up. Well thank you all for reading, sharing and most of all BEING neighbors.
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Gypsy, I have 3 boys and have the same concerns. I try and get them to do a lot mathematical thinking and problem solving. I am steering them towards NewZealand/Australia for future jobs, as those economies are still cranking. Anything involving accounting, or petroleum engineering are good bets. Here on island, there are some technical jobs up at the telescopes, or involving the ocean. Of course, being a dependable electrician would probably pay just as much.
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I was one that never had any interest in even visiting the islands. I hate the heat, and I assumed it was hot here. My husband and I came here on our honeymoon, and I felt so much better. When we returned home (to Minnesota) I fell right back into my rut. I felt like I was just trying to stay alive everyday. So... We made the move. I feel like I have some quality of life here. This island is very healing... For body and mind.
I love it here! Though I feel the only downfalls here are... The crime, and the doctors here are not up on my disease.
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I came here in my mid-20's... to Maui.
Came back when I turned 30 to the Big Island. Haven't looked back but a few years ago during the boom thought of moving to Mulege, BC. Thought passed and here I still am.
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Have scribbled before on what got us here, but new eyes and new stories leads me to post. I first came to O'ahu as a young Navy boy in 1959, on a troop ship (USS Gen'l Billy Mitchell)out of SF by way of San Diego where we picked up 2000 Marines on their way to Korea. One day layover in HNL, I remember it fondly. On to Yokosuka Japan where I bussed to Atsugi and caught a flight to Iwakuni to join my squadron, VP28. Little did I know they were already packing to return to Barber's Point at the end of TAD. So the rest of my Navy stint in quiet rural area. Our big deal was to go to Fort DeRussy and enjoy a beer or go to Int'l Mktplace and listen to an amazing guitarist (whose name escapes me as I write). There were seven hotels on Waikiki Beach, 35 mi speed limit over the whole island, I remember the statehood vote and much distress among the Hawaiians I knew who opposed it.
When I got out (by the skin of my teeth -- Berlin Crisis was stopping all discharges before I even left the facility, discharge in hand) I returned to old home area for school at San Jose State, where I finished BA and MS degrees, Stanford for a PhD, then 2 years as a dean at De Anza College, two years as Asst Prof at Ohio State Univ, then back to Calif where I settled in Menlo Park and spent the next 32 years. Two wives and various states of offspring experienced in the process. Honeymoons in Hawaii brought back the smooth feeling in my body of being in the right place, but the motivation to move hadn't hit yet.
By the third honeymoon in '98, things had changed. My once quiet and relatively isolated home in Stanford Weekend Acres was invaded by new construction, SUV-driving matrons yakking on their phones and almost running me down as I biked to all my chores and appointments.
By 2003/4 started looking around for a new place to land. Up in Sierra Foothills to be near son and family? Santa Cruz to get the marine environment? New Zealand? Mulege or Santa Rosalia in Baja Sur? Vancouver Island to be near former neighbor Bob? Looking at each of these presented various impediments, not the least for my wife the accountant to have systems she knew in place and a language that she could understand.
As I had often mentioned Hawaii as a good candidate to the immediate dimissal by my bride, who felt that 2500 miles in the middle of the Pacific was just too far from anywhere, it was a big surprise to find her searching Hawaii Information Service on breaks at work. Our one trip to BI in 2000 had awakened her to the possibility of this island being acceptable, and she came up with a list of 25 or so properties to look at, West and East side both. So in '05 we came over, list in hand, and diligently searched each candidate - nothing appealed. We were about to give up and put an offer in on a condo in Kailua when the realtor mentioned that there was one house, not quite in our price range, just came on the market, and based upon our preferences expressed in all our viewing, might be something we'd like. Well, it was something akin to magic. Walking down the drive, I marveled at the colorful landscaping. Entering the house was like seeing a vision incarnate. We put in our offer that day, made it work with two mortgages for awhile, and moved here 'permanently' in '06. It is home. -dwajs
-dwajs
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We moved here for two reasons: surf and coffee.
Now that a decade has passed, at least our friends and family have stopped asking when we are moving home. We are home.
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I love this t®opic!
Gardening is 1, 2, and 3 on the list.
Having grown up in MN, I'm through with the cold. Year 'round growing is the new bomb. Suck it mainland. Ooooops, that was uncalled for.
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First came to Oahu in 1957, 9 years old. Lost an engine in the C-54 on the way there. Couldn't reconcile the cartoon island, you know da kine, sand with two palm trees, with the reality of Hickam Air Force Base. Lived in a bungalow on Lilioukalani St. two blocks from Kalakaua. Third grade, wore no shirt, no shoes to school. Just shorts. Pineapple juice breaks beneath monkey pod trees at school. Barber's Point a year later. Loved the keawe forest and sugar cane fields. We had a horse, fed it keawe beans. Learned to catch shore crabs with a forked stick and string, picking them up by the eyeballs.
I have been trying to get back ever since.
Just closing on a house in Fern Acres. I love gardening, snorkeling, playing guitar. I'm tired of chopping firewood. I love papaya for breakfast, lau lau at the Keaau market, poke at Suisan. One instance of aloha erases multiple s**thead drivers. Just saw 20-odd ukulele players at the Makuu Farmers market on Sunday. Might just join up if they'll accept a 12-string player. Love Hawaiian music. Love the community, Punaweb. Thanks again Rob.
bamboo2u
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My best friend was raised in HPP, and I had always loved hearing their family stories about the island (I was very, very close with her family), and always was drawn to Hawaii because of their experiences. My then-boyfriend and I first moved to the BI to follow my first 'real' job offer, fresh out of college. My job was hard and the pay led me to believe we couldn't make it long-term in Hilo. We moved back to the mainland because it was tearing up apart, and we were young and a little scared. At the time, I was not able to separate that feeling of being deeply unsettled by my emotionally draining job with how I felt about the island. I don't think the two were a very good combination for a newcomer.
We returned a second time after the same friend I mentioned died of terminal cancer. We were grieving her death while also planning our wedding, and on a whim, I contacted my former employers about coming back to work in a different position. I got the job, but yet again, it wasn't the right fit, which I realized after about 6 months. What I should have known is that the island and I would work out better if I didn't continue to work for the same emotionally taxing, manipulative people I had struggled with before.
This time around, we would like to raise our family on the island. It isn't always easy for haole kids, but there are struggles everywhere. My husband grew up in a beach side community, and forever reminisces about being a barefoot, shirtless child with salty hair & sand in his bedsheets. We'd like to give our future children (and ourselves) one more shot at this, and hopefully this time have more financial stability to do so. I'll be certified to teach in 6 short months, and have an interview in January for a 2014/2015 teaching position on-island.
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moving to Oahu in the 80's and Maui in the 90's ... Not sure where I was going to end up. But Puna always seemed to hold some sort of magical type of attractant for me. I think it was the rain and lush green that did it. The thought of living on a breathing active volcano helped too.
I was in the Hawaii Army National Guard and most of the time we do our training over here... I kind just thought it was for me ... Weather of course (clean air/water) helped out as well.
The first shot I bought 3 acres in fern forest sold... bought 6 acres in orchidland sold now .3 acre in HB. Well, I'm thinking I might be here for the long haul this time around. Time will tell. Tho, buying on the down turn really helped the second time around here.
I now have a small home I enjoy a lot. lot's of papaya and banana's ... Orange, lime and avocado trees doing well even a few coconut trees. so... I don't have a mortgage and living the dream so to speak.
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