Post #693207 by tiki mick on Wed, Sep 11, 2013 4:02 PM

Here is your very first post to this forum, and it's a good one!

(originally posted in 2002)

"Aloha, fellow Tiki-philes!

I've been quietly lurking along with you since before the demise of the yahoo Tiki-central- but Johntiki (and other MD/DC/VA area Tiki-philes) have finally pulled me out of lurk mode via his suggestion of a mid-Atlantic Tiki gathering, as I'm yet another Maryland Tiki addict! I don't keep up with reading TC as much as I'd like to, but here I've found a real community of people who have already taught me much! And I'm deeply grateful!

I grew up in Central Ohio- spending many a birthday or other special event at our beloved Kahiki. Even as a kid, they'd serve virgin drinks in coconut or skull or even headhunter mugs to take home, and the staff always treated us as island royalty.

In the Book of Tiki, you'll find a picture of the Kahiki in winter- which most closely matches my memories- driving through January cold and wind to pass through the fire capped Moai guarded doors, through the wonderful darkened cave passage with dripping glowing water, and then passing through the interior doors into paradise- a world unto itself where time, and the outside world seemed to fade. After an evening well spent with music drink, feasting and rainy thunderstorms, we would return back out into the cold landscape of Ohio only to find a fresh blanket of several inches of snow covering everything- (including the car)! Somehow, there's just nothing quite like island "artifacts" with fluffy white snow all around.

From those childhood memories- and interests in things like stage design, architectural preservation and good old fashioned Pagan debaucheries of various sorts came my adulthood love of all things Tiki- and my horror as the Kahiki was destroyed.
Unfortunately, I was only able to visit the Kahiki a few times as an adult (drinking age), but I do count it my good fortune, that I was able to take both my partner and close friend for a final Hoorah before the Kahiki closed. So I guess you can say I moved from being Tiki-positive to being actively Tiki participatory and preservationist around the time of the destruction of the Kahiki.

Naturally, the loss of such a temple, and my new home here in MD- (the land where the Tikis are almost forgot), led to a desire to create my only little corner of something Kahiki-esque or more generally Tiki preservationist, here at home, at least, to share in the wonder that was, and is, Tiki, and to pass along the knowledge to those few who seek it. The web being what it is, it was naturally, only a matter of time until I ran across Tiki central, the Tiki bar review page, the Tiki news, the book of Tiki, and thrift, garage sale, and e-bay treasures, and today's modern Tiki artisans.

By now I'm sure some of this is sounding pretty familiar, many people here probably could have written similar. In any case, I'm very glad to be among you, and hope to be a bit more active now that I'm no longer a TC lurker

-Sabina "