I went to school in Kahuku from kindergarten until I graduated in1967. Growing up in Sunset Beach meant riding the school bus every day and usually the routine trip was fairly uneventful.
We'd always head out down our driveway early to wait for the bus to come. Often when it rained a lot, our front yard would get flooded and we had to throw our school books on a big raft we had built, climb on and with the help of a long pole, guide the raft across the water to the road where the bus would stop to pick us up.
Mr. Shinn, our neighbor, who lived down the road , next to the Chung's, had a well that would overflow and some of the fish he kept it in would find their way into our yard. I can still remember how stink the grass would smell for days after the water went down.
I must have been about nine or ten years old on that afternoon thatthe school bus came to stop in front of our house. The bus driver pushed on the handle that allowed the door to fold open and I jumped out. Books in hand, I ran towards the back of the bus and made a dash across the street. Just as I was about to step from behind the bus into the oncoming lane of traffic, something made me stop and look up the street. And as I did, a big Coca-cola truck shot past me, missing me by inches and spinning me (still standing) in the street.
To this day, I can't believe how I managed to not get run over by that truck. I was very dizzy and in a state of shock and I remember looking down the street in the direction that truck was headed and seeing his brake lights come on. He came to a stop only momentarily,long enough to see that I had not been hurt and then drove away.
Tears flowed when the inital shock wore off and my knees felt weak. "Divine intervention", words I'd never heard as a child, surely was involved that day and allowed me the opportunity to look back and realize how fortunate I had been.
Hmmmm... could this have any deep psychological influence on my preference of Pepsi over Coke? Naaaaaaaaaaaah! Probably not... I think!
About Author
"My parents were living in Koko Head when I was born so many years ago. We moved to the north shore, where I went to Kahuku (Go Red Raiders!) from kindergarten until I graduated in 1967. I made my solo singing debut at Pupukea Community Center, near the old Niimi store and grew up spending countless days surfing and riding my bellyboard with my childhood friend, Jimmy (a.k.a. "Spanky") Cullen, our neighborhood ukelele superstar. I now live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (Bible Belt, U.S.A.) where I run a mobility equipment business and enjoy life with my beautiful wife. How sweet it is!!"
