Anywhere but Paradise (26 page)

Diacritical marks were used sparingly to reflect Peggy Sue’s experience in 1960. Mahalo to Dr. Puakea Nogelmeier for his guidance.

My grandfather emigrated to Honolulu, Hawaii, from Liverpool, England, in 1908. My father was born in Hawaii, and so was I. Most of my growing-up years were spent on Oahu. While I no longer reside in the islands, Hawaii is as much my home, my paradise, as Texas.

This novel is a work of fiction, complete with characters and communities that live only in my imagination. But
Anywhere but Paradise
is grounded in history and events from 1960.

Hawaii was, and still is, a rabies-free state. Unless Peggy Sue’s cat, Howdy, had come from Australia, New Zealand, Guam, or the British Isles, he had to prove that he was free of the disease. That year, a 120-day stay at the Animal Quarantine Station in Honolulu was required. Two hundred and eight cats were quarantined at a cost of $256 per pet. With intention, I took creative liberties with a quarantine rule, visiting hours, and the addition of a bench in Howdy’s cage.

The Kodak Hula Show that Peggy Sue visits was a popular tourist destination in Waikiki for sixty-five years. In accordance with the wishes of the missionaries and her own recent conversion to Christianity, in 1830, Kaahumanu, wife of King Kamehameha I, banned public performances of the art. Hula went underground. But when King Kalakaua ascended the throne in 1883, hula became viable and visible once more. A festival today is named in his honor. About the art, the Merrie Monarch said, “Hula is the language of the heart, therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people.”

Peggy Sue’s dad works for the state agriculture department. The acres of sugarcane fields that were prevalent on Oahu in 1960 are gone. The last sugar harvest was in 1996. Houses have sprouted in many of the empty fields.

Rock fever is real. Sometimes people who move to the islands experience intense feelings of isolation and unease. Growing up, I heard of instances where families moved back to the mainland for this very reason.

Pele, the goddess of fire, is feared, revered, and respected. She is the subject of countless stories, hula dances, and urban myths. Dismayed by visitors who took lava rocks from the Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii Island (also known as the Big Island), a park ranger once told people the consequences of their actions would result in bad luck. Countless rocks and apologies have been mailed back. Regardless of whether people believe the curse, it is against the law to remove lava, as well as disrespectful to Hawaiians to take as a souvenir.

May Day, or Lei Day, celebrations occur in schools throughout the state. Royal courts preside, dressed in colors and lei representative of their island. Everyone is encouraged to wear aloha attire and lei.

The last Hawaiian monarch, Queen Liliuokalani, was dethroned in 1893. A group of businessmen called the Committee of Safety, with the help of the U.S. Marines, overthrew her kingdom. Despite repeated appeals and attempts for the Kingdom of Hawaii to be restored, in 1898 Hawaii was annexed by the United States. A congressional resolution (Public Law 103-105), formally apologizing to the Native Hawaiian people for overthrowing the Hawaiian
monarchy, was signed by President Clinton in 1993.

Hawaiian words and phrases are sprinkled into everyday conversations in the islands. The Hawaiian alphabet has no s, but in the 1960s, people commonly added one to make words plural. In keeping with Peggy Sue’s world, I used the the ‘
okina
, the symbol for the letter that represents the glottal stop, sparingly. Today, it is used more universally and recognized as the thirteenth letter of the alphabet.

The 1960 Chilean earthquake was the strongest recorded quake of the twentieth century. At the time, the quake was thought to measure between 8.25–8.5 on the Richter scale. In the late 1970s, seismologists Hiroo Kanamori and Thomas C. Hanks developed a new moment magnitude scale, and the number has been adjusted to 9.5. The 1960 tsunami swept across the Pacific and accounted for death and destruction as far away as Japan. Hilo, a town on Hawaii Island that Peggy Sue’s parents visit, sustained the most damage. Sixty-one people died. An anecdotal account noted that additional warning sirens sounded on Hawaii Island the week prior to the waves, though I could not confirm days or times. On Oahu, where Peggy Sue is, dozens of homes were affected by flooding, but no lives were lost. Her worries about Howdy had merit. Dogs, and I assume cats, were not evacuated from the Animal Quarantine Station on Ilalo Street. The facility has since moved and is no longer in the evacuation zone.

The tradition of bullying called Kill Haole Day lasted for decades at my intermediate school. Thanks to the new principal in the 1990s, who envisioned, embraced, and promoted change, it stopped.