I hope this finds you and your loved ones well and enjoying a Happy Holiday Season.
"Oh, what a night..." Lianne "Chicky" (Loo) Yuen and I came early to start setting up and linked up with Koolani "Host" Bryan Yamashita. Early arrivals Ron and Sherri (Uchida) Aoyama were immediately pressed into warming up soup and setting up one large table from 6 long tables for everyone to sit around and to be able to see and hear everyone. We started a little late because traffic was difficult from every direction leading to the Koolani, close to Ala Moana Shopping Center.
Former Junior Leader, Renee (Woo) Tomita came early to help with a small registration area with Name Tags (26 point font), since there would be new guests joining us, and a Directory for people to check and correct information on their listing. Gail (Mack) Nowicki and Gordon Kim arrived to set up their equipment to perform for our program. Unfortunately, Gordon was not feeling well but kept up with the finest "the show must go on" tradition as a professional musician and good friend.
Former Junior Leader, Renee (Woo) Tomita came early to help with a small registration area with Name Tags (26 point font), since there would be new guests joining us, and a Directory for people to check and correct information on their listing. Gail (Mack) Nowicki and Gordon Kim arrived to set up their equipment to perform for our program. Unfortunately, Gordon was not feeling well but kept up with the finest "the show must go on" tradition as a professional musician and good friend.
Cal and Donna Maeda arrived, followed by Gerry (Lee) Nakamura, a former Junior Leader and member of Chicky and Jan's club, Essence, accompanied by her husband Glenn. Another former Junior Leader and Essence member, Sharon Shimabukuro arrived slightly ahead of Jan Hirakawa and her guest, Leighton Hatanaka, and Chicky's husbandBernard Yuen. Soon to follow were Debbie "Dids" Ogata-Arakaki, her Uber driver Lloyd Nakamura, and Miles Ogawa (who would be joined later in the evening by his wife Lora, and Number 8 of his "baseball team" of 9 children, Nanea, a member of the Waipahu High School Varsity Girls Soccer Team).
There was a 2 hour power outage in the area from about 6:20 p.m., cutting off Gail and Gordon in their introductory set. But, it did not deter us, as people were enjoying pupus and talking story. Luckily it was not a serious emergency that would have forced us to evacuate the building. However, we were still awaiting the arrival of Peter and Steph Okumura, and Mike and Sissy Harano, so we were standing by to help them get to us in spite of the elevators being out, or so we thought. There were a handful of emergency lights around the room and the food counter, and Chicky had a centerpiece display with 5 candles that we lit.
In spite of the power outage (which we later learned affected Ala Moana Shopping Center and the Ward area), the love, laughter and positive energy in that room would not let the evening be anything but memorable. It made it seem like we were camping again.
However, since Gordon was already not feeling well, he and Gail packed up and left after signing some CDs, that were sold by their Business Manager, Lloyd (joking...somewhat). For those who had never seen or heard Gordon play from their days in the YMCA club program 40 years ago, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that they play music at different venues in town and have recorded a number of CDs.
Unfortunately their early departure cancelled a "surprise" performance with Mike, who they invited to play with them at a later part of the evening. Mike brought his guitar, had practiced some songs, but since everything was moved back, the surprise never happened.
Since it was uncertain when the power would come back on, everyone who was there at the time of the outage got their dinner from the following "potluck" items: Kalbi from The Alley, BBQ Pork Sliders & Coleslaw, Fried Chicken, Salmon Rice Dish, Chili, Duck, Portuguese Bean Soup, Garlic & Oyster Sauce Edamame, Edamame with Hawaiian Sea Salt,Assorted Poke, Fried Rice from Side Street Inn, Vegetable Sampler with Dip and Dressing, Assorted Sushi Platter, White Rice, Macaroni Salad from Zippy's, Mango-Apple Bread Pudding, and other items that I may have missed.
Needless to say dinner was intimate, even "romantic" as someone remarked.
Once Peter and Steph, and Mike and Sissy arrived, got their dinner and joined us around the table, we began introductions and updates of everyone who was there. We were able to make new friends and learned how much people had in common with caring for their children and then their parents, in part inspired (as some shared) by their experience caring for children as their first volunteer or paid job at the Y.
In their introductions, Cal and Jan could not be more grateful and gracious as they shared their health challenges, and what they learned about themselves and their family and friends through this journey. It was our connection to Cal and Jan that kept the group together, and love was all the power that was needed for all of us to truly see and enjoy each other through the darkness.
Since we were running a little late, after the much needed restroom break, we gathered around our table to share messages from those who were unable to attend, including memories of friends who were no longer with us. In this portion of the program, for those who emailed pictures and messages, I had asked others to read it aloud with our original plan to project it via laptop to Bryan's huge flat screen TV. Unfortunately, something happened in the Wi-Fi connection that prevented us from showing the messages, so it was read, then passed around the table. Miraculously, the power came on around 8:20 p.m. that allowed us to see two video messages as well as the printed messages in this order:
- Dee (Yamanishi) Hamada, read by Renee; Fumi Arakaki's Video from Phoenix; Grace (Nihei) Kido, read by Dids, who followed with a memory of Linda Harano; Sandy Fonseca's video on the road in California; Terri (Lock) Eng, read by former tennis partner Miles, who followed with a memory of James Martin; Roger Fukumoto, read by me; a memory of Erlene Wong, shared by her best friend, Jan; Luana (Ushijima) Wakabayashi, who shared about her family (including Ford Ushijima) and her mom, Helen Ushijima; and Bruce Yamashita, read by Lloyd, that brought this segment to a hilarious closure.
We then moved to honor our Special Guests for the evening. Speaking for Cal, Peter delivered remarks that were both gut-busting funny and touching. Speaking for Jan, Chicky delivered heartfelt remarks that transcended the Summer Fun and YMCA club experience to touch on a long-lasting friendship that aged like a fine wine over the years. Others addressed their fond memories of both Cal and Jan in their introductions, stopping short of disclosing stories that would be embarrassing by social media standards. We all realized how grateful we were that there was no cell phones with cameras, or Facebook, Instagram, and other social media when we went through puberty, teens, and early adulthood. Those were the stories to be told in Rashomon fashion by the "usual suspects" involved in the incidents.
We closed with a toast as we went well past 9:00 p.m. to allow people to pack leftover containers, and deal with traffic on the way home. In terms of program "regrets", aside from Mike's guest performance with Gail and Gordon, we lost Chicky's Blessing at the start of dinner, and closing prayer to end the evening. I asked Chicky if she could provide us with a prayer to bless our friendship "until we meet again," which follows:
"(Chicky's Prayer coming soon!)"
One thing I wanted to share in closing, was a rendition of one of my favorite songs about friendship and forgiveness from the musical WICKED, "For Good". Although I planned to do it acapella (lucky you were spared), here is the version that I thought best represented the friendship and mentorship associations that marked our experience with the YMCA from "Broadway at the White House", sung by Kristen Chenoweth (the original Glinda) and a high school performing arts student Rachel Levy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Broadway super star Kristin Chenoweth and newly discovered talent, Rachel Levy, perform "For Good" from Wicked at the White House.
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My friends, the last lines best sum up why I look upon our association as truly special:
Who can say if I've been changed for the better? I do believe I’ve been changed for the better.A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FROM SHERRI AOYAMA: Our friend Sherri created a YMCA Friends Hawaii blog at the following link: https://ymcafriends.blogspot.
And, because I knew you...
Because I knew you...
Because I knew you,
I have been changed for good...
On this blog (https://ymcafriends.blogspot.com/), you'll be able to view messages and photos from friends. You'll also be able to upload your own Y-Gang photos.
If you'd like to have your message posted to the blog, you may email Baron at bgushiken@hotmail.com or Sherri at sherri.aoyama@gmail.com.
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