Maui nostalgia
Aug. 15th, 2006 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primsongThis must be the year for folks to go to Hawaii - first solodancer, then our dear Tinidril will be getting to go to Oahu, and now my own family has a chance to go to Maui in September.
This is a complete unknown to my kids, but I can smell the salt, the eucalyptus, the harbor, the smoke of the burning cane... I lived there for a time when I was in grade-school... We will stay for a time at Lahaina Shores simply because I once lived there, it was where we stayed while we tried to find something like a house after my mom refused to continue living in our van. At the time it was still being built, and my dad leant his carpentry skills to it for rent reduction. I associate it with the smell of new lumber, plastic, carpet adhesive, paint. Now I know it is going to be a run-down 70s hotel, probably with a lot of the original stuff in it... but I will always remember it new.
I know Lahaina has been completely lost under development, chain stores, glitz. But I am hoping I will find enough shreds of the old half-deserted whaling town I knew to show my kids. The Banyan tree is still there, where my brother and I played... the old 'shave ice man' with his cranked machine that took slices off of a block of ice for us is gone, replaced with an electric machine in a shiny California-style shop, but maybe I can paint his shop with words for them.
I know Kaanapali is lost under waves of resorts...the windy, quiet place we went with our friends to dive is no more. But we can still take them to that beach.
The Upcountry is also suffering from development, the roads are no longer quiet, but here at last they will meet their grandfather who has not seen them since they were tiny. The eucalyptus still fills the air. Sigh. I had some happy and unhappy times there, I choose to remember the good.
What is it about nostalgia for childhood homes, I wonder? We can never truly go back to them, but there they are in our memories. I want to share it with my children, as if I want them to get to meet me as a child. Maybe we can play together that way.
This is a complete unknown to my kids, but I can smell the salt, the eucalyptus, the harbor, the smoke of the burning cane... I lived there for a time when I was in grade-school... We will stay for a time at Lahaina Shores simply because I once lived there, it was where we stayed while we tried to find something like a house after my mom refused to continue living in our van. At the time it was still being built, and my dad leant his carpentry skills to it for rent reduction. I associate it with the smell of new lumber, plastic, carpet adhesive, paint. Now I know it is going to be a run-down 70s hotel, probably with a lot of the original stuff in it... but I will always remember it new.
I know Lahaina has been completely lost under development, chain stores, glitz. But I am hoping I will find enough shreds of the old half-deserted whaling town I knew to show my kids. The Banyan tree is still there, where my brother and I played... the old 'shave ice man' with his cranked machine that took slices off of a block of ice for us is gone, replaced with an electric machine in a shiny California-style shop, but maybe I can paint his shop with words for them.
I know Kaanapali is lost under waves of resorts...the windy, quiet place we went with our friends to dive is no more. But we can still take them to that beach.
The Upcountry is also suffering from development, the roads are no longer quiet, but here at last they will meet their grandfather who has not seen them since they were tiny. The eucalyptus still fills the air. Sigh. I had some happy and unhappy times there, I choose to remember the good.
What is it about nostalgia for childhood homes, I wonder? We can never truly go back to them, but there they are in our memories. I want to share it with my children, as if I want them to get to meet me as a child. Maybe we can play together that way.
