THERE LIES LAHAINA

     Forty-two years ago I was taking a ceramics class in Santa Monica, California. A friend came in with a

deep tan and I asked, "Where'd you get the new look?".  She answered, "In Maui last weekend. My friends live in Lahaina, you should go visit them!".  And so I did.  The magical seaside Hawaiian  town became my home for a month. 

 

In the last 40 years many of the sugarcane fields have been developed

Ever since I've continued to think of it -nestled between the gentle surf and bright green sugarcane fields- as the perfect place to be.

     When it was destroyed by a raging fire last week-taking over a hundred lives- it was beyond heart-breaking.

      To me, Lahaina was Shangrila, "just right", a friendly, multi-cultural community. The weather was  perfect and the cool air, scented with frangipani flowers (we sewed them into a leis!). Heck, I even took a hula class and surfed for the first time.

 

      Saturday, June 13, 1981 was their annual holiday celebrating their great leader of the past,  King Kamehameha.  I joined my friends there for a 5K race in his honor. All entrants were required to wear fresh flowered headbands.

     Afterwards we enjoyed a grand parade down the main thoroughfare, Front Street.

 

From my "magical place" scrapbook

     

 

 

 

 

 

These lovely .young women in the parade really knew how to sew a flowered headband.

 

And now the historic town is no more, burnt to a crisp, perhaps a harbinger of things to come. 

 

Parade float passing the historic Pioneer Inn, now, reduced to cinders

 

     

 

     I do remember the extremely loud sirens that sounded regularly. Hawaii boasts having the largest system of outdoor public safety warning sirens in the world, alarms that blare in cases of danger.  They seemed to sound too loud and too often -at a set time on Saturdays- when I was there. 

      They were silent on the day of the fire. Those who survived it wonder why no one activated them. I do too. They were impossible to ignore.

      I'm sure something like the town of my dreams will rise again,  It'll take years but I probably won't see it happen. My Lahaina still exists. It will always be the perfect place and a happy Hawaiian memory.

                  _______________________

 (You can help by donating to "Maui Strong".  Here  is the link: 

https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong

A friend and me after a boat trip that took to visit Lanai, an island on the far horizo

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