HikeArizona.COM

Gatorade in glass bottles
Sleeping bags that were as-big-around as a spare tire
Salt tablets instead of Gookinaid/Vitalyte

joe bartels wrote:

Jim Lyding wrote:Hiking to the top of Squaw Peak in a cotton t-shirt that quickly became soaked in sweat, and shivering in the wind @ the summit even though it was 90-degrees.

Been there, done that

Only valley people would shiver in 90 degrees with a wind. You should try 15 degrees, having a wet base layer, and 40 mph winds.

Dean Yeager wrote:Only valley people would shiver in 90 degrees with a wind. You should try 15 degrees, having a wet base layer, and 40 mph winds.

Brutal, on many levels.

azbackpackr wrote:The best thing about visiting my boyfriend at work was checking out our favorite surf spot at Scripps Pier, which was a stone's throw below his office balcony...

And Blacks Beach just up the way....
When the North swells hit, the waves are the size of condominiums; a really scary place to be. However, the unshaven naked hippies roaming the beach make it even scarier.

Hey azbakpackr...
You said you lived on the Big Island. Remember when the surf spot called Banyon Tree actually had one growing on the beach in front of it. I also remember going to Velzyland before there was a housing development there. Primo Beer tasted horrific. Sneaking into the Crater Festival to see Styx and Journey and...(the rest is a blur).

Geezz I feel old. But at least this prompted some good memories. :thanx:

When were you there? I was there, without once leaving the island, from Oct. '78 to Sept. '86. I do remember the banyan tree. I heard some sicko killed the ones on Alii Drive in Kailua town. He pounded nails into them or something and it killed them.

I remember when Black's was everyone skinny dipping, including families, 10,000-20,000 people at one time, and it was fun. That was in the mid-70's.

I loved body surfing at Scripps. I never liked the shallow water, shore break, or coral in Hawaii, so I took up snorkeling instead when I moved there. I hate shore break. Give me 12 foot deep water under 4 foot swells and I am happy. That is what was great about Scripps...

Last time I caught waves was on a visit in Aug. 2001--my son and I went to San Onofre. He's stationed at Pendleton. Air temp 80, water 78. He said, "Mom, I can take you to a beach where there are no people." I said, "No way, it's Saturday!" What you do is, you walk down one of those trails and then you walk along the beach quite a distance, so you are in between where the trails go down. Yes!

pencak wrote:

azbackpackr wrote:The best thing about visiting my boyfriend at work was checking out our favorite surf spot at Scripps Pier, which was a stone's throw below his office balcony...

And Blacks Beach just up the way....
When the North swells hit, the waves are the size of condominiums; a really scary place to be. However, the unshaven naked hippies roaming the beach make it even scarier.

Hey azbakpackr...
You said you lived on the Big Island. Remember when the surf spot called Banyon Tree actually had one growing on the beach in front of it. I also remember going to Velzyland before there was a housing development there. Primo Beer tasted horrific. Sneaking into the Crater Festival to see Styx and Journey and...(the rest is a blur).

Geezz I feel old. But at least this prompted some good memories. :thanx:

Stick with Kona Brewery brews when you're visiting the islands. You won't be sorry.

I don't drink. But I used to joke that locals (in Hawaii) could be kept alive by the 4 P's: pork, poi, Primo, and pakalolo.

("Paka" is Hawaiian for "grass." Lolo is Hawaiian for "crazy." "Poi" is this sort of pink pudding made from pounded and cured taro roots, and tastes a whole lot like library paste.)

And rice, of course. Can't forget the rice. 50 pound bag of it on every grocery cart. Go to McDonald's, they ask "you want da fries or da rice widdat?" NO, I am not kidding! They really do serve rice at McDonald's in Kona! And at the school cafeteria, and at the hospital when I was a patient there. (Great food at Kona Hospital, by the way! I didn't want to leave!)

Everyone used to talk about "okolehau" too. Okolehau is moonshine made usually with sugar cane (as I recall.) "Okole" means pumpkin in Hawaiian, and "hau" means "flat." (Hope this doesn't do a pumpkin on me.)

Don't forget about Spam and moco loco

azbackpackr wrote:Go to McDonald's, they ask "you want da fries or da rice widdat?" NO, I am not kidding! They really do serve rice at McDonald's in Kona!

They served kimchi at the McDonald's in Taegu, Korea. I still refused to eat there....

All this talk has me looking forward to this summer... and lumpia... misubi, poke, etc my wife makes... Three wonderful weeks away from the blast furnace!

I might, even go surfing... Ok, there's no 'might' about it.

tailfins
push-button transmissions (the first car I drove was a push-button Dodge)

Ah yes.

Carnation ice cream on Central Ave.

El Camino with the manual transmission shifter on the steering column.
Listening to Black Sabbath on my reel-to-reel.
Urethane skateboard wheels were something new.
A full on wood shop class in both Jr. High School and High School.
A full on metal shop class in High School with a smelter, milling machines, lathes, you name it. I made the wide skateboard trucks from scratch (copied the one's my friend bought.)
Ceramics class in High School with an industrial kiln.
Unfortunately, kids have almost none of that excellent stuff we had back then.

azbackpackr wrote:When were you there? I was there, without once leaving the island, from Oct. '78 to Sept. '86.

Summer of 77 on Oahu (that's when I went to the crater festival then ejected from a school not to be named in Lehui, for pakalolo and "girls in your dorm room" related offenses.) Sold everything I had for that trip and it was worth every penny.
1980 on Oahu and the Big Island briefly.
1982 - Oahu, Big Island, Maui, Lanai briefly (that's when I caught Honolula Bay maxing out.)
1988 - Kauai (hiked the Na Pali Coast)
1990 - Oahu, Kauai, Molokai (honeymoon with the now ex-wife.)
After that, 20yrs of nose to the grindstone work, so as to obtain possessions that are downright meaningless.

I surfed on spots on all the islands except Lanai and Molokai. The Na Pali hike (being this is a hiking forum) is a must do in your lifetime.

big_load wrote:tailfins
push-button transmissions (the first car I drove was a push-button Dodge)

My grandfather had a 57 Caddie with the real big Fins. The air conditioner was a rotating fan in the middle of the dashboard. Being a little kid, I got to stand in the middle of the front seat and enjoy that breeze from the fan. Kiddie seats? Seat belts? fuhgidaboutit!!! My Uncle had a DeSoto that we called die-itis, cause it always died.

When I was that young, my dad had a crank-start Citroen 2CV and I was strapped in with a stand-up harness.

cathymocha wrote:Carnation ice cream on Central Ave.

Ahhh - now that is a great memory. Just north of Camelback on the west side. Not as good as Mary Coyle Ice Cream at 15th Ave & Thomas.

Anyone remember the old Trader Vic's on 5th Ave & Craftsman Court or the old BB Singer's on 3rd Ave & Marshall? I bartended there in the mid to late 70's. I filled in shifts for friends at Lunt Avenue Marble Club & John's SOB Room - a disco. When I filled in shifts, I wore whatever shirt or nametag they had handy so you might have known me as Tony, Frankie, Eric or Jerry.

And in those days, you could smoke in a bar !!!. It was more dangerous being a bartender back then cause if I p*ssed somebody off, they could throw an ashtray at the back of my head. You learned to crank up the situational awareness at last call. Bartenders these days, are just punks. But I'm sure the guys from Prohibition Days probably thought the same thing about us. ;) If they p'o-ed somebody the Tommy guns or Burp guns might come out of a violin case. OH WAIT - hey big-load - isn't that's what it's still like in Joisey

pencak wrote:

azbackpackr wrote:When were you there? I was there, without once leaving the island, from Oct. '78 to Sept. '86.

I surfed on spots on all the islands except Lanai and Molokai. The Na Pali hike (being this is a hiking forum) is a must do in your lifetime.

I've hiked Waipio Valley to Waimanu Valley, before it was popular or had permits. (When I saw recently you have to get a permit, I was kind of shocked. Who goes to the Big Island to go backpacking?) As I've said elsewhere, I lived out on the land most of the time I was over there, in various open-air shacks, one of which I built myself, another I helped build. My 3 kids were born over there, one of them in the cabin.

Al_HikesAZ wrote:

big_load wrote:tailfins
push-button transmissions (the first car I drove was a push-button Dodge)

My grandfather had a 57 Caddie with the real big Fins. The air conditioner was a rotating fan in the middle of the dashboard. Being a little kid, I got to stand in the middle of the front seat and enjoy that breeze from the fan. Kiddie seats? Seat belts? fuhgidaboutit!!! My Uncle had a DeSoto that we called die-itis, cause it always died.

We had a '53 and a '57 Caddy--my dad drove the '57 until it wouldn't run then bought a '67 Buick Wildcat, which my two brothers promptly took out somewhere to see how fast it would go. (I guess it was astonishing...) I was glad the Buick had seat belts. I was scared out of my wits more times than I care to count when my dad was driving. He used to run stop signs and stop lights because he "didn't notice them." (I'd guess he was having TIA's or mini-strokes even before we knew he was having them.) I learned to use seat belts as a teen and have never stopped using them because of those experiences. No one had to explain the laws of physics to me.