Fifty years ago, Hawaii became our last state. And although today its capital Honolulu boasts just under a million inhabitants, it used to look like the rest of 1950s America, except with a Polynesian flair, according to the New York Times’ Paul Theroux.
That rest of America included drive-ins and an agriculturally-based economy, sugar cane, to be exact. On my visit to Maui years ago, I watched the early morning smoke rise from the ground and dissipate into the clouds of Mt. Haleakela. What a beautiful, pedestrian practice in such an exotic land. Sigh…
Not all Hawaiians are embracing their state’s middle-age. Native Hawaiians still remember the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, and sensitive leaders have responded with festivities that focus on tourism, alternative energy, and Hawaiian rights instead of parties and parades.
Hmmmm…they might just have something there.
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