From : Herb Veeh -
To : boostdam@hotmail.com -
Subject : Remembrance of things past -
Date : Sun, 15 Dec 2002 13:14:47 +1000
Hi Ben,
Good to hear from you again. I had not heard from you so long (your last
email is dated 25/12/02) that I feared you had kicked the proverbial bucket
or lost your mind. Speaking of the latter, I also suffer from occasional
memory loss, at least I cannot remember us driving around Lanaii, or
staying anywhere overnight. Since I have color slides from all the other
islands we visited but none from Lanaii, I suspect we never did go there
during the first period (March-June 1962) of the shoreline project, so you
must have gone there at some later stage.
But I can help you with the cute
litte white church (your picture with Anne, Fran and Gary in the
foreground) - it's on the northeast coast of Maui, along the road to Hana.
The picture with Gary aiming his bulky underwater camera was taken on the
northcoast of Maui, I believe. I am not quite sure about the one showing
Anne's posterior, undoubtedly I was distracted by the foreground.
Which
girls to which islands? Anne came along with us to Maui, she was good
company, even though she hit me over the head once when I suggested 'camp
follower' as a suitable job classification for her on the shoreline
project. By the way, we did visit La Perouse Bay on this occasion and even
dived there.
We did not bring any girls to the Big Island but managed to
find local talent (including a married German woman) near Kona with whom we
spend a delightful, though inconsequentual afternoon. Same on Kauai, where
you insisted that you had to have a girl on every island, just for the
record (future autobiography in mind?), and you ended up, apparently in
desperation, with a most unappealing woman (alcoholic and chain smoker) on
our last night in a forgettable place somewhere on the remote east coast -
I ditched my date for that night at first opportunity on the way home,
while you stayed behind and consummated your conquest even though you
admitted afterwards that 'it wasn't worth it'. I cannot remember any girls
on Molokai, but do recall paying hommage to the giant phallic stone near
the place where we stayed.
As for the place we stayed in Waikiki, it was the Annex of the Royal Grove
Hotel on Uluniu Ave.
It was quite nice, with straw matting on the floor, quite spacious and very
suitable for treating corals with chlorax, and I was delighted to find an
abandonend surf board on the premises which I used occasionally first thing
in the morning before work. The messy, nailed-up place you mention doesn't
ring a bell, it must have been on your subsequent visit.
Putting together an autobiography is a commendable effort for someone with
such an interesting and varied life as yours. Since you appear to suffer
from memory problems, you would probably benefit from reading Marcel
Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" ('A la recherche du temps perdue'), which
is one man's effort of total recall and a milestone in world literature.
But be warned, its voluminous (7 volumes) and very long winded, one
sentence requires 17 lines.
I will try to find some suitable pictures for your tomb and send them to
you, either as an email attachment or hard copy.
I still travel to Germany each southern
winter to visit my mother, with convenient stopovers, always Hawaii and
LaJolla, last year also Port Angeles (near Seattle) to visit my ex and to
explore the Olympic Peninsula.
I also go to French Polynesia almost every year (courtesy frequent flyer
points), picking a different island each time, last time (September 2001)
the atoll Tikehau which in spite of its remoteness had satellite TV so I
could not prevent being made aware of a world gone mad.
I am amazed and impressed that Ted Foster still drives across the US every
year, I would find it too tiring - I guess I just don't like to drive long
distances any more.
Well, that would cover it, I guess. Until next time,
Auf Wiederschreiben,
Herb
BLO fecit 20021215