Beginning on November 1, 2024, which is the date of my mother’s first letter from her Hawaii trip 84 years ago, I am serializing day by day, the book,
Cecilia
King’s Extraordinary Senior Trip, which you can obtain from Amazon in either Kindle or paperback.
I hope you enjoy the upcoming nine-months in Hawaii 1940-41. You can order the entire book from Amazon in either paperback or Kindle format,
click
here.
Honolulu Sunday, March 29, 1941
Sunday –
What a gala opening the Hickam Field Club had last night! Never have I ever seen such a gorgeous place as the gigantic Officers Club there.
We skimmed through the lines of M.P.s at the gate on my pass – so didn’t have to wait while they looked through the hundreds of entrance permits for our names.
Wandered through miles of modern new houses, lovely boulevards, airplane towers – their condition blinded noncom quarters look like generals quarters on other posts. Finally got to Manday’s
– and joined the party of about forty – Navy, all branches of Army & civilians were there. The Ryans house is marvelous – has quite an air of “Gumps” with hand blocked bamboo prints on draperies and chair covers.
And all the lovely clothes! Honestly the most handsome bunch of people I have seen. Mandy had on a beautiful white fine organdie, with all-over embroidery and gorgeously shaded rosebuds – and
a garland in her hair.
We all rushed over to the club to beat the serving deadline of 8:30 – rove into the circle at the entrance, were beautifully handed out and the MPs took the car. Inside an immense hall, dressing
rooms either side, then into the main lounge – all mirror, new leather (white), carpets, glass, and indirect lighting. The lounge alone would
more than cover the area of the courthouse block at Searcy, to give you an idea of size. It is truly the most immense, exquisite thing I’ve ever seen anywhere.
Across the lounge, down steps, into the outside dance floor, in a semi-circle, the edges lined with dinner tables sheltered by bamboo sheds – the walls were a solid “wall” of palm leaves. Dishes
all had “Hickam Tower” pictured on them – dessert ice cream had the same mold. An Hawaiian orchestra played through dinner and until twelve – two hula dancers for floor show.
I sat “just off” the foot of the table, & practically between the devil & deep blue sea – Max & Bob Dunlop to be exact, were on my left and right. Some fun – but I costed through the evening
without any unpleasantness, not that Max would have been so cordial had he known I date Bob about four times a week. So it really worked out very nicely. Randy, Holland & Bunker – the all powerful DeRussy trio were there stagging. I have a date with Holland
next Sat. night. Saw jillions of people I knew at every turn. It was such fun. And my green dress certainly added one more to the array of lovely clothes on parade!
Want to receive TOM BUTT E-FORUM delivered to your email address?
Click here to sign-up to receive the E-Forum. Tom Butt is the former mayor of Richmond, CA, having served 27+ years until January of 2023, eight of those as elected mayor. Tom Butt is an architect and founder of the 50-year
old Richmond architecture-engineering firm Interactive Resources. He serves on the board of two Richmond nonprofits,
Rosie the Riveter Trust and
East Brother Light Station, Inc. Visit the
Tom
Butt website for additional information about Tom Butt’s activities and a digest of past E-FORUMS going back to 2000,
http://www.tombutt.com. Subscription to this service is at the personal discretion of the recipient and may be terminated by selecting “unsubscribe from
this list” at the bottom of this email. This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental,
political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section
107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|