Imagine a person from Hawaii relocating to Los Angeles in 1969. Unless that person had friends or relatives living here, he would have to venture out on his own to locate local eateries that served up good old Hawaiian style dishes, or any restaurants that had any type of Hawaiian entertainment.
Maybe once in a while, if he was lucky to notice an event in the Calendar section of his newspaper, he could spend a day at some Polynesian Festival that summer.
It made for a lot of homesick time during the transition.
Fast forward to 2013. A recent surfing safari on the web turned up the following island style events:
- Lehua Kalima in concert at the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts in Whittier
- Aunty Geri and Mehana performing at Bob's Okazu-ya in Gardena
- Upcoming First Annual Pacific Islander Heritage Night at Dodger Stadium
- Happa Restaurant announcing Andy Bumatai and Augie T. in Gardena
- Jim 'Kimo' West, slack-key guitarist at the Coffee Gallery in Altadena
There's no room for missing back home anymore. As our parents' would say to us keikis, kids, 'go outside and play'. We truly have no reason to mope around on weekends, or even during the week, anymore.
Hawaii is here, wherever we are.We bring the Aloha with us. It just takes time to grow our recognition of it in other places.
If it gets tough at times, there's always the ninth island of Las Vegas awaiting our Aloha with open arms.
Just bring money, kala.
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