Curb Appeal

The other weekend, the Nagasawas decided to head into Waikiki to watch the King Kamehameha Day Parade. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that, as most of the parades I attend are in Wahiawa, like the Christmas parade or the Veteran’s Day parade. My wife, daughter and our daughter’s friend made our way to a spot along the parade route on Kalakaua Avenue.

It was still a bit early, so we sat on a stone wall next to the sidewalk. My wife struck up a conversation with an elderly couple visiting here from Jacksonville, Fla. They were very friendly, telling us some of the anecdotes they heard from their tour guide regarding our Hawaiian culture here in the Islands. We also laughed over their attempts to pronounce some of the street names and cities here in Hawaii.

As parade time drew nearer, I scoped out a patch of grass right next to the curb on the route. I had everyone move there and sit on the grass, including our newly made friends from the Mainland. It had been raining off and on from the night before and I didn’t notice that right next to the curb in front of us was a huge puddle of water.

We waited in anticipation of what I was sure was going to be a spectacular parade. As we looked down Kalaukaua we saw some flashing police lights signaling the start of the procession. A bunch of cars zoomed past us in order to clear the street. One car went right through the puddle, forming a splash wave that looked like something right out of Hawaii Five-0 .

It drenched me, and I sat there bewildered, looking at everyone else while the rainwater dripped down my face.

Our Jacksonville visitor looked at me and said, “I think our tour bus driver said that’s a sign of Hawaiian good luck.”

I wiped my face with the palm of my hand and replied, “No, that’s called Nagasawa hard luck.”