Bud Grossmann’s Words of the Week for the Week of February 8, 2015 Previously unpublished family history. © 2015 by Bud Grossmann. All Rights Reserved.   Pu‘u Huluhulu (1972) © 1972 by Bud Grossmann HEAT & LIGHT Mon, Feb 2, 2015 11:00PM Thank you, Lester, for your more-than generous review of my WoW of Feb. 1. I am always delighted to hear your comments on my writings and my art. I was hoping you’d tell me your own memories of Kapoho. Didn’t your fifth-grade class hop on a bus and go down to see the eruption? You say I probably showed you the 1960 volcano photo and you forgot about it, but, no, probably not; I myself hadn’t seen it in nearly fifty-five years. You and I have been friends for not quite fifty. Dad found the school report in his basement just a few weeks ago, along with a booklet of Kodak Brownie snapshots with their negatives. Mom had neatly captioned each photo on the back. Many times I’ve told people that I perfectly recall the first roll of color film I ever shot because it was at Kapoho. The Nakamura Store picture was the one picture, in vivid color, that I have always remembered. But now I possess the booklet of prints, and the envelope of negatives, and I find they have mysteriously been transubstantiated into black-and-white! So now I am wondering when I did in fact shoot my first color roll; maybe Dad will unearth that, too, from the archaeological strata of his basement. Your note has brought to my mind two other memories, possibly as faulty as my red-lava memory. Summer after second grade, in Yokohama, my parents gave me a choice for summer school: tap dance or conversational Japanese. I chose Japanese. Now I sort of wish I had asked if I could have both. When I turned eight (same summer) Mom and Dad gave me a choice of birthday gifts, a Kodak Brownie Holiday Flash camera or a way-the-hell-too-big-for-me Japanese bicycle (plain black, single-speed, with a bell and headlight and taillight and hand brakes, and with a U-shaped kickstand to lift the rear wheel off the parking pad). I asked for the Brownie, and I waited till Christmas to ask for the big-boy’s bike. Oh-oh. Did I say your e-mail inspired only two other memories? Well, be a pal, let me tell one more. When I was five and going into Walter Reed for surgery on my club-footed right leg, my parents purchased a Navy boat that I had coveted at the PX. I remember it as being about a foot-and-a-half long, a destroyer, I’m pretty sure. It was wonderful; it was armed with a pair of spring-loaded torpedo launchers that shot the kind of plastic pointed projectiles that we would now think of as a lawyer’s (and ophthalmological surgeon’s) dream. Okay, I’m done. Now, would you, Lester, please tell me about all the erupting volcanoes you’ve seen up close. Shouldn’t take more than a thousand pages. Love, Bud ♦         ARCHIVES         Click for a list of other Words of the Week I would welcome your thoughts on this page (or any of my others).  Write to me at the following address.  Please be sure to spell Grossmann with two n’s and mention what page you are writing about. Thanks!  BUD GROSSMANN Top of this page | HOME | Fine Photography | Picture of the Day | Writings | | Words of the Week | Mom & Pop Prop. Mgt. | FAQ |

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