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In reply to the discussion: Even if you're a "touchy, feely" guy, do NOT put your hands on a woman without her permission. [View all]Hekate
(91,003 posts)Several years ago I returned to Hawai'i for my 50th high school reunion. I left when I was about 32, after spending all my young years there. The reunion itself was a treasure -- but in Honolulu, where I had lived and worked as an adult, nearly all my landmarks were overlaid. I had worked my way through the university as a salesclerk in the major shopping center, and literally found only one familiar unchanged site, an artificial waterfall where my 18-month old daughter once exclaimed in wonder "Water down!"
Classmate events were held in and near our home town, which looked and felt much the same, as did the deep countryside -- although the main highway through the rural part of the island was marked by homemades signs cursing out developers.
But when my husband and I drove back to our hotel each night, homeless people set up tents on the sidewalks of highway underpasses. A friend still working as a real estate broker said much of the cost of living in a condo in the city was for hiring security guards.
Yet anyone who knows me, at140, knows that place formed me and that part of my heart will always be there.
Things change in 50 or 60 years, but memories are real too.