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National Geographic : 1960 Jul
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* THEAAL MAGAZINE COPYRIGHT© 1960 BY NATIONALGEOGRAPHICSOCIETY,WASHINGTON, D.C. INTERNATIONALCOPYRIGHTSECURED VOL. 118, NO. 1 JULY, 1960 Uncle Sam's new island State, lighthearted and booming, hitches its star to the sixties Hawaii, U. S. A. By FREDERICK SIMPICH, JR. Illustrations by National Geographic photographer THOMAS NEBBIA WE CITIZENS of the State of Hawaii sometimes become annoyed with our friends from the other 49. Tens of thousands of them a year come to visit us, but too many of them refuse to take us seri ously. For instance: A friend of mine flew out from Arizona for a visit. From the airport he taxied to a lux ury hotel on Waikiki Beach. When I found him, he was already immovably dug in: a re clining beach chair under him, sunglasses and shorts his only attire, long blue combers be fore him, pretty girls in bathing suits sur rounding him, a shaded terrace behind him whence he could, by raising a finger, summon food or drink. "Wouldn't you like to tour the other islands," I asked without much hope, "and see what Hawaii is really like?" "Thanks," he said. "I'll stay here." I tried to tell him of the beauties of our mountains, the variety of our racial cultures, the vigor of our industry. But to compress into a sentence or so the enthusiasms of 25 years' residence in Hawaii proved too much. So I left him to enjoy the languor of his hotel, so removed from the true life of the islands. Long since returned to Arizona, perhaps he will read this and learn what I wanted to say that day. Volcanoes Keep New State Abuilding Hawaii is a place where sugar cane fields have traffic lights, where the apeape plant throws leaves bigger than a man (page 39), and where the moon sometimes shines so bright we have rainbows at night. In these surprising islands, beach boys massage sun bathers with their feet, and woven feather hatbands costing several hundred dollars are the badge of the old-timer. This is one State that grows bigger all the time, as active volcanoes vent their lavas toward the sea. Here escalators carry signs warning children, traditionally barefoot, against catching their toes. In Hawaii, Sears, Roebuck & Co. sells orchids, and lunch coun ters advertise Japanese sukiyaki as promi nently as hot dogs and pancakes. Removed from the west coast by 2,250 1
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