I once worked at a Photo-Finishing Company with this semi-retired old guy who’d also worked as the maintenance man for a local high school in his earlier years. Back then, he’d see countless unused composition books and legal pads tossed away at the end of the school term, so when he’d come across one, he’d pick it out of the bin and use them for his own projects. Years and years later when I was working with him, he still had a whole bunch of them along with his mechanical and technical books adorning the overflowing shelves of his Workroom.
Well, Old John has long since passed on, but I still had a couple of those notebooks he’d given me back in the day, and one day I pulled one of them out to jot down notes of some Photo Order I was doing, and was surprised to find that this particular notebook John had saved had actually been used by a student- I guess since three-fourths of it was still usable, John saved it anyway.
Flipping through the old Notebook, I was amazed to find it was a Writing Assignment Journal where the students had to write down what was going on with their lives on a daily basis to get them in the routine of writing. Looking closer, I found that this journal was written by a young girl in 1977-78!!! And flipping through the pages of the assignment, I found it to be an AMAZING, PERFECT TIME CAPSULE of everyday Hawaii life in the Seventies!
Some excerpts:
December 16,1977
Tonight, I went out with friends to Pearlridge, it has really improved since the last time I was there. After shopping, we went cruising around.
January 21, 1978
Tonight my friend and I went out. It was a choice night! First of all we ate dinner at the snack shop in Waikiki. We were just cruising around then when our friend got off work we ate again! Then we went back to his house and watched Cable-TV. We saw the movie “Demon Seed”. We stayed up almost all night. It was a trip!
January 23, 1978
Tonight we went out to see “Saturday Night Fever”, but it was sold out. So we went to the movie “Which Way Is Up?” It was a really good movie. It was really funny!
After the movie we ate at Chunky’s then we came home. I also went to Kahala Mall. I was going to buy this dress but it would have fallen apart the first time I washed it, so I didn’t get it.
January 26, 1978
Tonight we went to the movies again. We wanted to see “Saturday Night Fever” but it was sold out again. So we saw “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”. The movie was okay. But you had to wait for the end, that was the best part. It was pretty good though. We ate at Chunky’s then I came home.
When I got home all the lights in the house were out. It was really hard to brush my teeth by candlelight. Have you ever tried brushing your teeth by candlelight? Let me tell you, it’s hard.
January 27, 1978
Tonight we saw “Saturday Night Fever”! It was really good. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again. We also watched “A Star Is Born on our friend’s Cable-TV. Tonight was a lot of fun!
February 3, 1978
Well, tonight we went out. First we ate at Zippy’s, then we went to Waikiki. We were going to Tiki’s, but we changed our mind. So we ended up playing nickle machines. We Had Fun!
March 6, 1978
Today We went to Paradise Park. We watched the bird show it was cute. The last time I went I was about 8 or 10 years old. That was a long time ago. But it was fun. The Birds learned new tricks!
March 27,1978
Tonight we saw the movie “American Hot Wax”. It was really good! It was about the man named Alan Freed. He Started playing Rock and Roll on the radio. It was an old-style version of Saturday Night Fever! We ate at Zippy’s then we went to Green Velvets and played machines. It was a pretty good night.
I'm telling you, it was such a TRIP to read through this old journal and read of all the places referred to therein that have long since passed on, and hearing about all those movies that we now know as classics being talked about as they came out really knocked me out!
Those of us who grew up here in the 70's will have much to relate to in these pages, it just takes me back to MY childhood, for even I remember going to Paradise Park, and remember quite well the buzz surrounding the renovation of Pearlridge back then! Ah, so many memories!
Reading these entries, I'd sometimes wonder just who this girl was that wrote this journal, but as it was SUCH a long time ago, and John the Maintenance Man is no longer around to give me any clues, it seems we may never know! Whoever she is, I thank her for giving us such an interesting glimpse of 70's Hawaii Life!
