Hawaii is almost mystical in its natural beauty and is located 4100 kilometers from anywhere, right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But for those million or so lucky people who live in Honolulu, it is a small home town in an even smaller state, the fiftieth in our union…a “foreign, exotic place” according to Cokie Roberts.
A couple of weeks ago Bernie and I took TheBus to the Haleiwa Art Festival as we have for many summers. (Haleiwa is where you find Matsumoto’s shave ice if you have ever come to visit us.) I said to her “I didn’t realize our mayor was so tall.” She looked puzzled and asked “where is he?” I said “standing right in front of you.” Mufi is the “big man around town” said his body guard.
So when Barack Obama flew into HNL in his private jet, it was a pretty big deal. Many of us received an “invitation” to come to the beautiful public park right next to the airport to see him so we called our friend Roseyn (who, by the way, knows just about everyone in Honolulu) and arrange to take TheBus down to see him. (We all have senior bus passes…costs us $30 a year).
Barack (or Barry as he is known to his friends) is easily the hottest number on the planet right now. But to the locals, he is just a Punahou grad coming home to visit his Tutu (grandma). We are impressed by the big airplane though. Barack attended Punahou for six years and graduated in 1979. Bernie and I taught at Punahou for six summers so we know the place well. Anyhow, we took TheBus down to see him. We waited in the hot sun for a couple of hours until he arrived. He gave a twenty minute speech. Along with his campaign platform he said he wanted to sit on the beach and watch his girls play and that he was going to get some shave ice and a plate lunch. Michelle was with him.
Now we walk our dog Anna on the Kailua Beach every morning. Anna loves the beach. In Hawaii, every dog is related to every other dog. Anna is known as “little miss welcome wagon” by fellow dog owners. “Everyone loves Anna” one said. We walk for three miles every morning from Kalama Park to the Kainui canal end and back. A house along this stretch recently sold for $22M to a “foreign investor.” Anna loves to poop in front of that one. Kailua has been ranked as the “Best Beach” in the world in a number of travel books. So it was no surprise that Barack and Michelle choose to spend their week in one of the big houses on Kailua Beach. It also was not hard to figure out in which one he was staying. Two HPD officers are stationed at the corners of the property on the beach and the local news crews are camped out on the beach at a respectful distance. Yesterday, someone sitting with the reporters waved us over. It was Roseyn, of course. This is one of the reasons she knows everyone in town. But to date they had not seen Barack or his family.
This morning we parked at our usual spot at Kalama and started down the beach with Anna. All was quiet at the Obama digs. The news crew wasn’t even around. We walked to the end of the beach and had Anna “touch the wall” as all the beach runners are in the habit of doing. On the way back we approached the Obama place and a little dark skinned girl popped out from the yard followed by her dad. The two started walking down the beach and were soon joined by another little girl in a yellow bathing suit. Two secret service men followed at a reasonable distance. The trio stopped to talk with a neighbor who had been sitting with her husband in her beach chairs. As we walked by with Anna, the Obamas continued their walk down the beach about twenty feet from us. We looked over, smiled and waved, Barack smiled and waved back. We continued on our way.
In a world of over six billion people, on the little island of Oahu, hardly visible on the map, Bernie and I had a moment of encounter with a man who will likely shape the course of human history. Not such a big deal in a small town like Honolulu. We will be back to Kailua Beach tomorrow to walk Anna.
August 12, 2008
Postscript: On November 4, 2008, the American people elected Barack Obama, Punahou '79, the 44th president of the United States. God bless America!
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