Post #532277 by TikiPops on Tue, May 25, 2010 10:14 PM

I to grew up in SoCal. My dad always wanted a boat, but never made that "Big Purchase". We were always looking at boats in all the old boat yards in San Pedro & Long Beach. We would stop at different shops & restaurants in the area. I remember The Reef & Pierpoint Landing in particular. They were more nautical than tiki, but all had glass floats, fish nets & bamboo. As I got older I got into old cars because my dad worked at a body shop. When I finally got my drivers license in '72. I was into the Beach Boys & Oldies. My car in high school was a '55 Chevy. I was always a little retro. If you hag a girl friend, you would wear matching Hawaiian shirts to school dances, although I was all ready wearing them any way. Fast forward 30 some years & my wife (the same girl who wore the matching Hawaiian shirts)& I finally decided to go to Hawaii. It was on this trip that I went to my first "Tiki Bar". I bought my first tiki too. Upon returning from Hawaii I was still mostly into hot rods. We were at the Paso Robles car show & a vendor had a few copies of Tiki Magazine. I saw a mention of Tiki Central, & here we are. We now have an outdoor bar & patio. We are also in the middle of remodeling 2 rooms to a tropical look.
I think if grew up in place like SoCal where there was so much around you, it had to affect you in some way. I didn't even mention all of the apartments, shopping centers, & even bowling alleys & miniature golf courses. It just took some of us longer to appreciate it.