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Over the Back Fence By HANK HENRY Memories of Hawaii trip linger N ew Year's Eve in Honolulu, Hawaii, was celebrated with more fireworks than you usually hear and see at a Fourth of July celebration. All afternoon and early evening we heard the b-r-r-r-t of hundreds of small firecrackers exploding in just a few seconds. It was our second night there and we went to bed early because we had a case of jet lag. My wife, Nora, was awakened about midnight by the sounds of aerial fireworks. She went out on the balcony of our 19th-floor room and watched a magnificent show as rockets were launched from a barge off shore and burst in the air. She said later that "Sitting out there on the 19th-floor balcony was surreal, watching the whitecaps coming in on the beach, and colorful bursts from the rockets, and listening to the noise echoing off the tall buildings." Despite all the noise from the beach, I slept soundly. I have found after the age of 70 or so I now need more sleep than ever before. Waking me after just a few hours sleep would have produced an old man, groggy and unable to focus until after the show was over. I was glad she let me sleep. The fireworks apparently made extra work for firefighters and ambulance crews. The Jan. 1 edition of the Honolulu Advertiser said firefighters were busy on New Year's Eve putting out 35 fires, including two in homes. Several bottle rockets were found near one of the residential blazes. There were also 53 ambulance calls for people with respiratory problems due to smoke. The next morning, we walked around town. Almost every block had a spot where strings of firecrackers had been set off, leaving behind a 5-foot circle of red paper from the little crackers. We walked through one of the circles and a small dud exploded under my shoe, apparently just from the friction. What were we doing on Waikiki Beach on New Year's Eve? Well, I wanted to surprise Nora, something I've never been very good at. To give you just one example, last July I told Nora that to celebrate our anniversary, I would take her to a place where she had visited once many years ago. She mulled that clue over for a couple of days and then came up to me and said, "Rockaway." Rockaway is a small beach town north of Tillamook. We had spent one night there more than 40 years ago, and I was sure she had probably forgotten all about it by now. But she remembered. This Christmas, I decided to give Nora a week in Hawaii. I was sure she would guess what I had planned, but for once she was thoroughly surprised. On Christmas Eve I told her we were leaving from Portland the following Wednesday for a trip to Hawaii. Some of the best memories from a vacation are the little things. Two stick in my mind. Shortly after we arrived, a bellman brought up our four pieces of luggage. I thought I had a dollar bill loose in my pocket, so without looking I pulled the bill out and gave it to the man. A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door. The bellman was back. He held out a $10 bill and said, "I think you gave me too much." I fished around in my pocket and traded him a $5 for the $10. The man said, "A one would have been enough." I was also surprised to see how many people from Asian countries live in the islands now. Hawaii has really become a melting pot. People from many Asian countries live there and many others visit. We discovered that many Asians defer to old people more than folks on the mainland. We rode the buses a lot in Honolulu. We had only to step on a bus to have people competing to see who could offer us a seat first. Hawaii is in the midst of an economic recession. Bankruptcies rose 29 percent in 1998 over 1997 figures, and economists said the islands' economy grew just 0.1 percent in 1998. During 1998, nearly 16,900 more people moved out of Hawaii than moved to the islands from other states. Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the islands, particularly in the construction industry. Many young people who go to college on the mainland stay because they can't find work in the islands. The economy in Hawaii started sinking when Japan went into the tank several years ago. It's a wonderful place to visit, but the economy reminds me of Oregon from 1982 to 1985. The people, though, are great. (Hank Henry is a retired Jackson County commissioner and a former radio and television announcer. Cal him at 772-9055.) Prime Times front page Mail Tribune front page Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA