Summer of '69

      There were two major events that occurred during the Summer of ‘69 that I will always associate with my time being in Hawaii, because I had learned of them during that memorable period of my life.

    One of our beach trips began on Saturday afternoon, July 19th.  Charlene and I were fortunate with our rides and arrived at the beach in time to enjoy the surf and sun a few hours before we watched the sun dip into the Pacific.  Again we slept under the million of stars sparkling above us, near the big boulder on the edge of the sand and were lulled to sleep by the constant low pounding of the surf.

    There was a fancy new big hotel built right beside the Hapuna Beach Park, and when we woke up hungry on July 20th, Sunday morning, we hiked over to the hotel for a breakfast.  I remember that morning because as we ate our over-priced breakfast in the fancy restaurant, we learned that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Adrian had become the first men to walk on the moon.

    The other big event that happened while I was in Hawaii was Woodstock.  While in my life before the Peace Corps I followed music very closely, once I was in the training center in Pepeekeo without media, I was totally unaware that the “Three Days of Peace and Music” had even been planned.  When I read about it in one of the weekly news magazines I was somewhat dismayed about missing it, knowing full well that even if I would have known about it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to attend it, but it sure would have been a great opportunity to see so many of those  musicians that I loved.          

        While I was saddened at missing Woodstock, I had some compensation, all I had to do was look down at the blue Pacific to realized that I was very happy to be where I was.

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