1982 Family Vacation

Each of the students in my eighth grade class (a group whose members probably compose the majority of Planet Haolewood’s audience) wrote a short paragraph in our school year book that was supposed to sum up how we felt about our cozy little school. I chose to relate a story about how in the summer after 4th grade my teacher instructed each of us to write a letter while school was out, photocopy it and mail it to everyone else in the class. That way each of us would receive 20 letters over the summer. Most of the class did not complete the assignment (you know who you are, people! I’m still waiting for that letter…) and of those who did I was apparently the only one who sent a copy to our teacher, Roger. On the first day of the next school year Roger thanked me and gave me a box on pencils to take with me as I set out to begin life in “the upper school,” which is what we called 5th-8th grade.

In the letter I wrote about my family’s trip to Kauai and about our hike to a beach. While we were at the beach it rained so much that the small stream we had crossed to get there had swollen to a raging torrent. When it was time to leave we had no choice but to cross the stream again and risk being swept out to sea. I held my dad’s hand tightly and I remember being very scared but we all made it ok. That was 24 years ago.

No one in my family remembered the name of the beach but it’s a small island and I have been able to figure out where it was. I’ve been there several times and crossed that very stream on days when it was not flooded. At the age of 10 trying to imagine what I would be doing when I was 34 is something that never would have occurred to me. Had someone asked me I probably would have responded with an indifferent “I dunno” and run off to play in the ocean. Where will I be in another 24 years? I dunno… I’m going surfing.