Memories

Someone on a message board today asked what I would be doing right now if I could be doing anything I wished. My answer was that I would be back in Hawaii with my brother's friends at his retirement party this past summer.

Let me say first that I hated Hawaii the first time I was there. There were no trade winds and it was hot, stickly, and utterly awful. This time I went only because my brother was retiring from the Navy and he asked that I be there. I love my brother totally and agreed to go.

He rented a beach house for his friends and as a party site. My brother is what is called an ACINT (I think that's right) Runner. It's a higly specialized and very classified job in the Navy that has had only a couple of hundred members total, and usually not more than 50 at any one time. They are an elite group. I didn't realize how elite until I began meeting them.

I was literally blown away by how nice, how bright, how friendly, and how intelligent they all were. I treasured every moment of my time there (with very little exception). I got to talk to people who were my intellectual equal in every way and who regarded me as theirs. We were interested in the same things and talked politics and other things literally for hours. We drank, talked, laughed, and got to know one another. I can feel the bond with these people to this day and it brings tears to my eyes to remember how happy I was during that time. For one magical week in paradise, I was not lonely or islolated.

The house Roy (my brother) rented was right on the beach. We sat outside for the most part. We drank too much, ate too much, talked too much, and were reticent to say goodnight and part company. I can see it in my mind, but even if I couldn't I have a CD of hundreds of pictures of those times from a dozen different cameras.

I'm going to make a New Year's resolution right now. And this one I'll keep. I am going to build a website for us to keep in touch. Life is too short and too precious to miss contact with such people. Damn. I need a drink. I think I'll go hoist one in memory of the best people and probably the best time I've ever had.