What got you into it?

I've always been the wierd one.

I'm not sure exactly what got me into tiki...I have a predisposition towards beaches, sunshine, primitive cultures and excessive drinking, so all that probably helped. I do have a few random childhood memories which may have influenced my love of Tiki stuff today.

1. Seeing shirts with tiki/surf art on them at Pacific Sunwear. I grew up in a landlocked suburb of DC, so the escapism aspect probably had a lot to do with my interest. Also, strangely enough, there was a surf shop in the mall near my house.

2. This book called "The Haunted Trail" that I read in second grade. It was about a kid who spent a summer in Hawaii with his pen pal. I probably read the book 30-40 times over the next few years. I haven't made it to Hawaii yet, but I am a lot closer now than I was in second grade (a block away from the Pacific in San Diego).

3. A commercial I saw for a Polynesian-themed breakfast cereal. At least, I'm pretty sure it wasn't just a pre-pubescent hallunication. Does anybody have any idea what I'm talking about? Also, does anyone remember that Rocky Road cereal? That stuff was delicious!

[ Edited by: Brian 2007-02-28 20:51 ]

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My husband & I went on a cruise in 2004 and when we returned home we couldn't cope with the real world as well as before.

My husband decided to build a bar in the backyard and it was my job to decorate it. I've always been rather craftsy so my husband suggested that I carve a tiki for our bar. We went to a local log home builder and bought a 12 foot log for $50. I went to the local book store & bought a few carving books. I went on eBay & bought my first carving tools. Now I needed some pictures, so off to the Internet I go. I find tikicentral.com. EUREKA! What is this BOT they keep talking about...

I did carve 2 tiki poles for our bar and I have done a glass tile tiki mosaic bartop and some other tiki stuff. My husband was pleased. But I can't get enough.
Now I just lurk around TC because I've been bit by that tiki bug.

I figured it out! The cereal I mentioned in my post above is called "Fruit Islands Cereal." Its mascot was a big Pacific Islander named King Ayummayumma. The commercials had a bunch of dudes wearing loincloths paddling a canoe around and a volcano that erupted cereal. I knew I wasn't hallucinating.

Just goes to show, there's a webpage out there for anything you can possibly think of.

Hi Wendy, really a great thread to read. Dan and I use to hang out and dance at the original Zombie Hut in Sacramento. They had a wonderful Hawaiian show. No tiki mugs though just a book of matches that we have since found on eBay.

We were in Tower records. Dan is a record collector. He picked up this magazine called Tiki News and thought it looked interesting. He bought it and read it at home. He said to me if you go to any garage sales and see a tiki mug get it for me ok.

I was out the next Saturday and there were four mugs from the Islander in Stockton. One dollar each. He was so happy with them we became collectors from that point on. Now it's our life's work! The other Wendy

Before I was born, my family "migrated" from Hawaii to the mainland. Longing for the motherland must have compelled my parents to drag my sister and I to places like Sam's Seafood and Kono Hawaii. Unfortunately, I don't have one damn thing from those find establishments except memories.
I officially got into the whole tiki collecting thing a little over a year ago when looking for supplies for our annual luau. I came across Muntiki and Tiki Farm and have been hooked ever since. I still have yet to find a nice vintage mug out there in the wild, but I got my eyes wide open and a drink in my hand.

The Capital Records Ultra-Lounge CD series first got me into Tiki around 2000 or 2001. Blockbuster Music had a really cool display with a bunch of the CDs and a slick brochure. Then I found the "Savage Rythms" page on tikicentral... :)

Probably my roots of this started in the 70s as a kid in San Diego...my mom had one of those 70s houses, with the macrame plants and black velvet paintings and beads in the doorway and all that. Around 7 I went to Disneyland and the Enchanted Tiki Room stuck with me...then I hit the teens and took a detour through being goth and all that. After leaving my worthless exwife I knew I was done crawling through cemeteries all the time and decided to go back to my roots, more or less...starting with rockabilly and swing and branching out from there. Eventually I rediscovered some old Ventures records my Mom had given me and then about 5 years ago stumbled onto a 7" single of Martin Denny's Quiet Village/Llama Serenade that I had in my possession. Around this time I bought Shag's Bottomless Cocktail book...and the rest became slowly growing collection of tiki mugs, exotika and loungy cds & records and beach party movies....

And finally taking a Valentines date to Sams Seafood (3 times) definitely sealed the deal...

[ Edited by: BryanDeanMartin 2007-03-08 22:07 ]