Post #235382 by pablus on Thu, Jun 1, 2006 8:16 PM

Yet another story.
If you happen to be a newbie - look up my Christmas Eve post from 2005 and you'll get it.

This one had to wait until:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=19746&forum=4&start=last&1

So, I did this little song called Hukilau Hurricane on our CD.
The first lines are...

Well, I pulled into the drive of the Bahia Cabana
To spend a lost weekend with my tiki ohana
In the sweet, September sunshine

Warm reunions, tall cool anesthesia
The amber lights reflecting a setting in Polynesia
That first evening at the Mai Kai

So enough of that. There's more of course, but you know... http://www.crazedmugs.com. ( I have no shame)

Anyway, there's a great place down the street from the studio called The Shrimp Boat.
The best tuna steak sandwiches on planet earth.
So we go there a lot.
Enough to get to be friends with all of the waiters, cooks, dishwashers, cockroaches and forks.

One of the waiters, Ron, became pretty good friends with us because... like everyone else in the Sunshine State... he's from Ohio.

After a while, I get asked by Ron, "What's with the Hawaiian shirts and tiki pendants all the time?"

I go out to the car and get him a CD, tell him about The Lagoon Lounge and the scene and he gives me the same kind of look you'd get from a cop if you told him you were speeding because you have diarrhea.

So, a couple of days later I come back into the joint and he comes over to the table, sits down and with a smile and tears in his eyes says, "I love that CD. Especially the hurricane song. You know, man... I worked at the bar in the Bahia Cabana for 12 years. I spent at least 2 nights a week at the Mai Kai in the Molokai. That song made it all come back... Ft. Lauderdale, the Cabana, all of it. Thanks man."

We talked for a while about the Mai Kai and he knew all of the staff there: Phil, Kern, Fon, many others.

I got an invite to a Luau at Ron's house at his new home tiki bar a couple of weeks ago.