The Clinton chronicle. (Clinton, S.C.) 1901-current, August 20, 1970, Image 9
RETURN TO THE HAWAIIAN ISLES
Clintonians Find Changes
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. and Mrs. David Mixon
recently visited in Hawaii where they lived 22
years ago. This is an account of their trip and
their reactions to the changes in the islands. Dr.
Mixon is an optometrist in Clinton.)
BY DR. DAVID MIXON
My family and I recently re
turned from a visit to the Hawai
ian Islands where my wife and I
lived in 1947 and 1948. Our
daughter was born in Honolulu
in 1948 and we ,had planned Jo
take her for a visit to her birth
place when she finished high
school, but due to pressure of
business was unable to do so.
This year I was named a dele
gate to the National Optometric
Convention being held in
Honolulu, so we decided to take
our vacation just prior to the
convention and visit some ofthe
other Hawaiian Islands.
My wife, my son and myself
left Greenville-Spartanburg
airport at 8:15 a.m. and arrived
in Sacrimento, California the
afternoon of the same day where
we spent a few days with our
son-in-law and daughter, Lt. and
Mrs. Jerry Holland. Oui
daughter finally decided to go
with us to the islands, so the
four of us boarded a plane in
Sacrimento and left for the
islands. We flew for five hours
and fifteen minutes, then landed
at Hilo on the island of Hawaii.
Hawaii is the largest island of
the group. It is also the newest
island of the group. All of the
Hawaiian Islands were formed
by volcanic eruptions and the
island of Hawaii was formed
last and still has active
volcanoes.
VOLCANO
We spent the night in the city
of Hilo, then toured the island
the next day. We spent a couple
of hours visiting the historic
sights along the coast, then
headed inland and up the moun
tains for the volcanic areas. We
had lunch on the edge of a
volcano crater where the temp
erature at the top of the ground
was 120 degrees four feet below
the surface the temperature was
160 degrees. There were many
fissures in the ground and when
It rained, which is quite frequent
the rain would of coarse enter
the fissures and would return
to the surface as steam. We
had liffich, saw a movie of re
cent volcanic eruptions, then
headed for a volcano which had
been erupting two to three times
a week for the past three to
four months. When we arrived
at the volcano site, it was cold
and raining but my daughter and
1 endured the weather until the
molten lava began to flow. We
considered ourselves fortunate
to be able to view this once in
a life-time event. The eruption
was not violent. There were no
explosions with lava shooting
into the air, but rather the
molten lava overflowing the
crater and flowing down hill.
This area where we stood and
watched the lava flow had been
completely covered by an
earlier eruption this year and
had burned the trees off a couple
of feet from the ground but still
did not completely kill them be
cause some of them were
sprouting again from the stump.
PARKER RANCH
We drove beside the Parker
cattle ranch which is the second
largest ranch in the world being
exceeded in sire only by the King
ranch in Texas. We also saw
movie actor James Stewart’s
Black Angus ranch, after which
came the Macadema nut farms
and coffee plantations.
We visited the Black Sand
Beach which was formed many
years ago by lava flowing into
the ocean. Upon contact with the
salt water it explodes and turns
into sand, though many hundreds
of years of lucking it will ivent-
ually turn white. Although the
sand is quite black it doesn’t
dirty the feet any more than
white sand.
The next day I played golf on
a course that had been built in an
area which was completely cov
ered by lava from a volcanic
eruption. Most of the lava had
been removed, crushed, and
used in building roads. However,
the ground was still quite hard
beneath a thin layer of top soil
which had been hauled in. To
compensate for this, the fair
ways were watered and a type of
grass used which gave a carpet
about two inches deep. This
meant that you had to allow for
the deep grass so as not to hit
under the ball, it also meant that
you got no more than a few feet
of roll on your drive. These
things coupled with very high
humidity, which prevented the
ball from traveling a long dis
tance in the air, made the course
a challenging one for me, a duf
fer, a very frustrating one. How
ever, better golfing was to come
later on one of the other islands.
We left the Island of Hawaii
and 19 minutes later landed on
the island of Kaui. We had
a swim in the ocean, then
bathed, dressed and watched the
hula dancers while having dinner
at our hotel.
We saw hundreds of acres of
sugar cane and stopped at one
place where they we re gathering
it. When the cane is mature,
which takes about eighteen
months, the fields are set on fire
to burn the blades from the
stalks then the stalks are cut
and loaded onto trucks by steam
shovels. The trucks dump them
into the irrigation ditches which
floats them to the mill and
washes them as they float along.
We were told that the sugar
cane workers are among the
highest paid laborers on the is
land, the average laborer
making thirty dollars a day.
Next we visited a most inter
esting place along the coast
called The Blowing Horn hole.
It is so called because waves
from the "cean have formed a
large cave, at water level, in
the rock and finally forced a
hole straight up through the rock
about fifty feet in all. When the
large waves come in from the
ocean they fill the cave , trap
the air inside,-—f finally the
air and water escape through
the vertical hole. The escaping
air makes a noise like a ship’s
fog horn and the water escaping
through the vertical hole causes
a gyser many feet straight up.
FERN GROTTO
We took a ferry boat ride up
a river to a cave called the
Fern Grotto where ferns grow
from the roof of the caves. Dur
ing the journey up the river, we
were entertained by native
music and song and were shown
the area were scenes in the T. V.
series, Gilligan’s Island were
filmed. The background for
several other movies were also
filmed here. In one of the small
towns on this island, the towns
folk have planted beautiful flow
ers on the side of a rocky slope
about a hundred and fifty feet
high as a community project.
These flowers bloom the year
round and are bright reds,
orange, lavender, etc. They re
minded meofClintonintheearly
spring when the azaleas are
blooming. Thus, this craggy
slope which would have been an
eye sore were it not for the
flowers, was one of the
prettiest places we saw.
We left the island of Kauii
and in 18 minutes landed on the
island of Maui to disembark and
take on passengers before pro
ceeding on to Honolulu. Time did
not permit us to tour the island
of Maui which I am told is one
of the prettiest and most inter
esting. In 25 minutes, we land
ed at the Honolulu International
Airport which is now the comb
ination of the army’s Hickham
Field and the old Honolulu
Municipal Airport. We were told
that it is one of the busiest air
ports in the world with a plane
landing or taking off every two
minutes. We were able to view
Diamond Head, Waikii Beach,
Honolulu and Pearl Habor and it
was at this time that I realized
t
DR. MIXON
that it was not the same place
we had lived 22 years ago. The
largest building on the island at
that time was the Royal Hawai
ian Hotel, but I was not able
to locate it from the air due to
miles of skyscrapers from
twenty to forty stores high. A
representative from our travel
agency met us at the airport and
took us to our hotel, the Hilton
Hawaiian, which covered twenty
acres of land and normally has a
larger population than the city
of Clinton. Business sessions
and seminars were held early in
the morning and ended about one
o’clock in the afternoon which
gave the greater part of the
afternoon for recreation and
sight seeing which we took ad
vantage of. My son, David, has
always been a surfing enthusi
ast and he was delighted to be
able to surf at Waikiki Beach.
SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
One afternoon we rented a car
and went back to the street where
we lived when our oldest child
was born. When we lived there
twenty-two years ago, it was a
quiet residential section near
the edge of the city. Now one
of the freeways is only two
blocks away, many of the homes
have been torn down and re
placed by huge apartment build
ings and hotels and the largest
shopping center in the world
under one roof is located near
by. We visited the hospital where
our daughter was born and again
saw the dramatic change. The
hospital is now about four times
as large as it was when our
daughter was born and directly
across the street from the
hospital where there were sev
eral acres of vacant land there
are now several large hotels.
W'e took the outer freeway and
after driving for about fifteen ,
miles, passed what used to be a
beautiful lake of more than one
hundred acreb surrounded by
mountains except on the ocean
side where you could rent a
boat and fish all day for a dol
lar. Alas, the lake is no more, |
it has been drained and filled
and there is now a housing de
velopment being constructed
where the lake was. We drove for
about five more miles and the
freeway ended and here for a few
miles only things were nearly as
they used to be. There were
beaches and hills with vantage
parking areas without any homes
or other buildings in view. Near
the top of the mountain we took
another road to a scenic place
call the The Pali. It is said
that an average of forty thou
sand tourists visit here each
day. From this mountain van
tage point, one can see the blue
Pacific Ocean, the flat land near
the ocean, the foothills and the
mountains all at the same time
in a sub-tropical climate, al
though it is usually quite cool
here on the Pali and the wind is
usually strong with clouds only
a few feet above your head which
of course obscures the higher
mountain peaks. The wind comes
in from the ocean directly into
the bottom of the precipice and
having no other place to go
shoots straight up. When I was in
the islands years ago, I used to
bring an orange or potato crate
up to the Pali with me, pitch it
over the side, and in about a
minute, on a windy day, it would
be forced back up and past me.
One day we took a boat tour
of Pearl Harbor and Ford Is
land, located in the middle of
the harbor, which were de
vastated by the sneak Japanese
attack on the morning of Decem
ber 7,1941. Many thousand men
of our navy and other armed
forces lost their lives on this
infamous morning. Many ships
were sunk and the skeletons of
two of the sunken battleships
are still visible. Many members
of the crew of these ships were
entombed in the ships when they
sank. Over one thousand memb
ers of the crew of the battleship
Arizona are entombed in this
ship alone and for this reason
and to pay homage to all who
were lost as a result of this
attack, the ship has never been
de-comissioned and a monument
has been built above it where a
color guard raises and lowers
the Stars and Stripes each day.
Ironically, a Japanese ship was
undergoing repair in Pearl Har
bor. We were reminded by our
tour guide that Japan is now one
of our strongest allies.
I was privileged to play golf
a couple of times on the first
golf course I ever played. Yet,
it wasn’t the same. Now each
fairway has two greens. One
green will be used for three or
four days, then the other for a
period of time. The greens are
always in great shape when al
ternated and cared for properly.
A sheer, like myself, gets a
little nervous coming in on hole
number 17, and eighteen because
less than 100 feet from these ex
tend tall hotels and if you should
hit high and slice yuu could
easily hit someone on the 40th
story balcony of a hotel.
MAKAHA COURSE
I write about the next golf
crouse I played, The Makaha, at
the risk of being called a liar,
but it was so interesting I shall
take the chance. The Makaha
course is located about 35 miles
from Waikiki beach beyong
Pearl Harbor, there are two
beautiful 18 hole courses here.
We played the longest one. I had
heard some people talking about
playing golf where, when they
were putting, the ball would
break up-hill rather than down
hill. I thought someone was try
ing to pull a practical joke. I
had played only a few holes when
I thought the ball should break
in one direction when, in fact,
it seemed to break in the op
posite or up-hill direction. I
didn’t say anything but on the
next hole it did it again and
everyone started talking about it
at the same time. Being an op
tometrist, I started studying the
landscape including the moun
tains which surrounded the
course, except on the ocean side,
for something which would cause
optical illusions but was never
able to find anything that would
account for the apparent
illusion. It was not until I was
back in Clinton and was talking
with Joe McGee that I found the
reason for this unusual phen
omenon. Joe said he had also
played on greens where the ball
broke uphill and that it was due to
the type of grass used. The
blades and stems of this grass
always grow towards a lake or
body of water if there is any
in the vicinity and thereby steers
the ball in this direction. I ac
cept this as being a logical
explanation.
Our stay in the islands seem
ed to come to an abrupt end; we
boarded a jet and in about five
hours were back in San Fran
cisco, after a thirty minute lay
over we flew on to Sacrimento,
California where our son-in-law
met us at the airport. We spent
a couple of days with them in
sunny California where the tem
peratures was 108 degrees but
still not so uncomfortable be
cause of the low humidity.
We boarded another jet at
8:15 and arrived in Charlotte,
N. C. at 4:45 where our friends,
John and Mary Daniluk met us.
The trip had been wonderful,
but it was great to again view
the familiar rolling hills of the
Piedmont during the auto ride
from Charlotte to Clinton. As
I think of the trip and the very
few hours it takes to fly across
our nation, I wonder if one can
realize the great expanse of our
great nation. I have traveled
across this nation four or five
times by train and it seems so
much larger traveling this way
than it does when you fly that I
wonder if the young generation
can appreciate its size as well
as we can. On the other hand,
I suppose I should also wonder
if I can appreciate its size as
well as could those who in
earlier days traversed the
nation in covered wagons to
settle the west.
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