RETRO FLYER AA Detroit to Honolulu , June 1982
AUTHOR ’ S COLLECTION
mai tais . One of the audio channels was called ‘ American Airlines Cities in Song ’, which had songs about AA ’ s destinations ; so , while I dined , I listened to classics like Shuffle off to Buffalo and Detroit City . After lunch but before the movie , the Flight Attendants held contests for items like a beach ball . The film was On Golden Pond , starring Henry Fonda , Katherine Hepburn , and Jane Fonda , which had won several Academy Awards a few weeks earlier . I enjoyed it even though I was far too young to relate to its complex story about aging parents and strained family relationships .
The movie ended as we were well into our descent . When I lifted my window shade , I could see the iron-red fields of the island of Lanai . We looped around the airport for our landing on Runway 8L ; once we were lined up for the runway , I could see the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor . After landing , we had just a brief taxi to Gate 19 , at the southwest end of HNL ’ s Y-shaped central pier . We were at the gate at 16:10 , a full hour behind schedule . As we walked down the jetway , I made eye contact with my friend Stuart , his younger sister Beth , and their mom … and their eyes lit up with excitement .
We spent the first night of our vacation at a hotel near Waikiki Beach . We got there at 17:30 ( almost midnight Detroit time ), and I insisted that we go down to the beach for a sunset swim before we went to sleep . As I was soaking in the Pacific , watching the last rays of sunset reflected off Diamond Head and listening to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel ’ s piano wafting across the beach , I thought again about how wonderful my day had been .
Sadly , the rest of the trip did not live up to my hopes because my friend Stuart and I had grown apart since he ’ d moved . Regretfully , we did not renew our friendship before he passed away from complications of diabetes a few years ago . My parents are still alive , though , and , every June 17 , I remind them of the day when we took two wonderful flights , saw Howard Cosell , purchased a book I still treasure , and enjoyed a view of the Grand Canyon and a Waikiki sunset .
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