Early on our first trip to Hawaii the agent took us to Hanauma Bay. Beautiful beach. It’s where a lot of Elvis Presley’s movie Blue Hawaii was filmed. Being new to Hawaii and not being properly warned we all ended up with a sun burn. Me, Gary and Hoot weren’t too bad but poor old Leon really did a job on himself. It may well have been the first time he had ever been in the sun with his shirt off. He was white as a sheet. I didn’t worry about him much because he spent most of the afternoon sitting n the shade. When we got back he looked like a lobster. We swam some but. I for one quickly learned I wasn’t much of an ocean swimmer.
I am going to back up here a little. Remember I told you about a band we followed into Yakima? The Checkmates. We had ran into them several places and had got acquainted with them. Matter of fact the first time I went out with Susan was to Lake Tahoe and they were appearing there at Harvey’s Casino. I could see why the people in Yakama,liked them so much ,they were great. They were a five piece group. The guitar player and bass player did nothing but play their instruments but the other three were all over the places they had a front man that looked and moved a lot like Sammy Davis Jr., an organ player that was a fantastic singer and entertainer and same for the drummer. They were in Hawaii the same time we were and some of them would come to the club to see us. Later back in Reno we worked with them but that’s another story.l
Our day to day life in Hawaii had settled into a routine. Everyday was pretty much thesame. Sometimes we would find time to take a motorcycle ride. Maybe over the Pali highway, or sometimes to the other side of the island. Toward the end of our stay one of the wait staff at the club put a party together for us. Introducing us to all the local food and drinks. Most all the employees were there and it was lots of fun…I don’t think I have told you about the club owner. He was a character right out of New York City. He always wore a hat,smoked a cigar, had a mustache. His name was Al Viviana it was rumored he was former Mafia. I don’t know about that but one night he did say to me when he was upset about something, ” I was with murder incorporated 25 years and never had as much trouble as running this damn place”. So I don’t know, but he was a funny guy. Man he ran a tight ship. You, as a customer either drank the minimum or got the heck out. On weekends the minimum was two drinks per set and lots of time he would tell us to shorten our sets. When we first got there we learned beer was $1.50 and bar drinks were the same. We thought that was outrageous and it was high for 1966. Man that place made the money.
The club was just a few Blocks down the street from Ft. DeRussey, which was an army rest and recuperation base. The Viet Nam war was raging at the time so lots of guys from the war would be in the club every night. We got acquainted with a lot of them and I’ve always wondered how many we met didn’t make it back home. Sometimes I would get really sad visiting them. Some of their wives met them over there and spent the five days with them. Peter Jennings of ABC news did a piece there in the club. He interviewed some of the troops and filmed scenes in the club including us as we played. I don’t know if it got on the evening news or not but we never saw it. We even met a few Oklahoma guys on their way to Viet Nam. Sad.
Towards the end of our stay I realized I had been in Hawaii all this time and didn’t have much of a tan. Couldn’t let that happen. I started getting up about an hour early and going out by the pool to tan. I think I started with thirty minutes and worked up to an hour but by the time we left I had a good Hawaiian tan.
One night I had run and errand on Gary’s bike and was heading back home. This was after work. I came up to a stop sign, stopped and turned right. Or I thought I stopped. I was pulled over. These little bikes had the kind of kick stand that you pull the bike up on and it actually sets a bit of the ground. I had killed the bike put it on its kickstand and was trying to convince the cop I had stopped. He just continued to write a ticket, suddenly the bike just toppled over. I’ll never forget the look he gave me it was like ” buddy this just ain’t your night” It was funny later but it wasn’t then. I just stopped paying traffic tickets. When I left Hawaii I think I had close to $300 in unpaid tickets. I forget the total number of tickets I got over there but it was six or more.
As we approached our time to leave travel arrangements were made we were going to regroup in Reno but first we were gonna take a couple weeks off. We were exhausted.
Next: meeting a daughter for the first time and a trip back home
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