I'm trying to trace the route of the Circle Island bus in my mind. It went down Hotel Street. I'd read about that one. It was where the soldiers picked up hookers.
Just beyond there was a street with a used comic book store. Tom spent a lot of time and money there. It was really a fascinating store. I could find stuff I read as a kid.
I probably have the order wrong, but the bus went by a huge park like area called Blaisdell Center, I think, maybe arena. I think they held a giant flea sale there now and then. I could be mixed up on that. I do know they held a lot of music events there. I never went to any of the events there. I thought about this and I think the flea sale was held at the football field, probably in the parking lot.
The bus would pass by or maybe through the entrance to Pearl Harbor/Pearl City. It also passed though Mililani or maybe just let folks off at the corner there. In Mililani there was a big mall I think, with an over head tram way to the other side of the mall.
We went here to get our phone because it was the nearest store to us where you could get a phone. I think you had to buy your phone even then. They didn't come out to the apartments to install anything. They just told you where to plug it in and they turned the account over to your name.
Once I went here with Toni and her little girl but it was a long time later. She wanted to get her infant daughter's ears pierced. I just thought that was so weird.
After Mililani we would pass by a garden complex. Here, a lot of locals would rent space for a tiny garden. Each garden was about the size of a small room. Sometimes I got off the bus here just to walk around and look at the wonderful things growing there.
I tried at one time to grow tomatoes in Styrofoam coolers on our tiny porch. I was amazed to discover a huge tomato hook worm that had managed to scale the wall to find my crop. I was also amazed one morning to find my plants pulled from the boxes and tossed. Somebody told me that more than likely pot heads saw my greenery and not knowing the difference climbed up there to steal them. They must have realized it wasn't pot and threw it in disgust.
There was a law in Hawaii at that time that you could own a marijuana plant until it reached a certain height. Then the cops would bust you and confiscate it.
After the garden area it was a mile or so into Wahiawa. Sometimes I'd get off the bus in town. There was a Burger King and a Goodwill store at the bottom of the hill. I'd get me something to eat if I had enough cash and then check out what was in Goodwill. This was a fine store at that time.
I would buy huge bags of mill end fabric pieces for forty nine cents a bag. I never knew what I had till I got it home. It was fun and I was saving the bright fabrics to make quilts.
Then I'd trudge back up the hill to home. I would pass a plaza with a grocery store and some other stores including a Laundromat. The laundry charged huge prices but until Tom could find me another tiny washer, I had to use it. He looked for one real fast after he found out what it cost to use the machines.
Back home, I'd been used to paying fifty cents to wash a load and twenty five or fifty to dry a load. Here it was over a dollar to wash and more to dry. If I was desperate, I'd wash them here and dry them at home on a small line I hung on the porch.
Food prices were also a lot more. In NY at that time you could still pay fifty cents for a half gallon of whole milk. Here it was over a buck. They told me it was because everything had to be shipped in there but later I discovered they had dairy cows on the island.
This was what marijuana looked like in Hawaii. I think it was a different breed of it because it sure doesn't look like what you see in photos or what I remember seeing growing in New York. They call it pacalolo.
There was one place on the island that all the guys were warned to stay away from. It was called Kipapa Gulch. Marijuana growers had taken it over. The guys were warned if they went in there they risked getting shot.
Speaking of warnings. I was told when I was about to leave Colorado that if I went to Hawaii with him I would need to prepare myself for being hated. They told me the locals would all see me as a military dependent. I would not be able to make friends. I would not get a job and I would more than likely be treated like dirt. I was also told that ALL the women would see my husband as free goods. It was a shocking thing to think of and it did make me a bit nervous.
I don't know if it was different for me because I was a member of the Hawaii National Guard or if my landlady was helpful in this area. I didn't lack for friends. People treated me fairly. I eventually got a job working for a film company.
I did run into a small problem with my husband. It was really funny when it happened. I'd been there for some time well over a year. I was pregnant and showing. He and I got off the bus in the town of Wahiawa and were heading for home when a flashy woman came up to us and grabbed him by the arm. She was all over him. I just stood there like a dummy.
He said no thanks, he was married. She actually said she could give him a better time than I could. I just bet she could have, too. I was laughing thinking that "Yeah, he'd probably get crotch crickets from her"
If there were other incidents, I never heard about them.