They are Never Too Young

I babysit for a 5-year old who has absorbed my mania for Tiki! When asked yesterday what he wanted to do, he replied - Look for Tiki! So we prowled the Salvation Army and other Tiki haunts of mine. He has sharp eyes and spots all possible Tiki objects, often faster that I can. And he loves to study my mug collection, though is very good about not haunndling them unless I am there to supervise. He understands the importance of condition for Tiki mugs!

He even has his own Tiki handle. I just had a hand-painted "sign" made for me with my Internet moniker of "scigirl." The Asian guy who did it is a genius of crafting European letters with Asian-inspired images (prawns, palms, etc.). He has been featured on tv and magazines, etc. Well, my lil' man asked me about the word "scigirl," and I explained that it was the name I use on the Internet and at Tiki Central (he knows about you guys). Well, he promptly wanted a "name" of his own! We settled on HotHead - one of his favorite mugs and a good match for his energy and personality. HotHead has a temporary page on Tiki Taky, if you want to check him out:

http://www.tikitaky.com/hothead.htm

So, no matter how young, Tiki can take root and, hopefully, grow!

My five yr old is hooked too. She is always presenting me with her Tiki drawings. Some of which are pretty darn good in an abstract kinda way. Whenever any of us spot any Tiki on our travels , she gets just as excited as I do. She got to visit Trader Dicks w/ me & Mrs. Seamus last week and was really impressed(she had a Shirley Temple). It was her first visit to a real Tiki establishment. I'm a proud dad, for sure!

Proud dad for sure, Seamus! Glad the lil' one liked Trader Dick's. HotHead and I have a just-before-the-first-day-of-kindergarten trip to Kowloon planned. He is tres psyched!

I foundly remember the babysitter I had when I was 6. She was a sweet well-developed blonde of about 16; I was always trying to look up her skirt. Ah Childhood, seems some things just never change!

My lil' HotHead's birthday comes up in two weeks and I had an interesting idea. You know that thing they do now with birthday cakes - bring in a photo and they "print" it on the cake? Well, I'm going to bring in a photo of his favorite Tiki mug - Hot Head - and have that put on the cake! Might also do this for my next big Tiki bash - if I can tolerate two store-bought cakes in one year...

My kids are picking up on tiki pretty darn fast. They're almost as good as me (sometimes better) at spotting tiki's. When my son gets angry with me he always says he's going to "take all your tiki's away!" :o Here's a pic of my two kamali'i that I keep on my tiki shelf:

I have a 3 year old that many of the Hoity Toity's have met before. He too is sooooooo into tiki, he thinks all my tiki carvings are his. If I buy a tiki mug, I have to buy him one too. Needless to say, we've got every variation and color of plastic tiki mug available on the market today.

I hate to brag but... (weeping)...'that's my boy'.....

These stories are just too cute! I can just see their little hands clutching a plastic tiki-mug filled with banana smoothie…

Man, Tikitronic & I will have to have a kid, just to inundate it with Tiki, Disneyland, and Halloween...and so Tikitronic has someone to play Star Wars with…our cat just doesn’t seem to care.

sigh

You guys are lucky. My kids just don’t get it. They are 16, 17, 19, and 20. All they tell their friends that ask about the mugs and other tiki objects. It has something to do with Mai-Tis’s and Hawaii or something like that and what every you do, don’t say Hey Jimmy Buffet is cool

I think the 2 older ones are stating to get it after having a Mai Tai or two.

powerofthetiki
http://www.marylanddctiki.com
http://marylanddctiki.proboards2.com/index.cgi

At the Tiki Oasis event last May we purchased a Munktiki shot glass for both our kids. My 4yr old daughter got the pink "zombie girl" and my 2yr old son got the "munkenstein". It is a celebrated occasion whenever they get to drink out of them.

The each have their own tiki necklaces and my daughter has a hula girl bracelet.

My son has a plethora of itty bitty hawaiian shirts and we are making barkcloth dresses for my daughter.

They both enjoy it. We sing the tiki room song in the car all the time.

It is a family affair.

Swanky's daughter and my special friend Madeline is always pointing out tiki to us. She's a big fan herself. She just returned from D.C. on vacation with her Mom and took some pics of the Hawaiian exhibit at the Smithsonian and of the big Moai.
Here's Makalina herself slurping down a mango daquiri at Trader Vic's Atlanta:

She also discovered a great site http://www.makaimedia.com where you can play Spear Toss. It's just awesome! You guys gotta play that. A guy with a Tiki mask on throws a spear and you control it. It's addicting! The music isn't half bad either.

Yee-Haw & Aloha,

The World of Tiki Kiliki

[ Edited by: tiki_kiliki on 2003-08-07 18:54 ]

On the 4th of July we let our three nieces and our two boys pick out some of those cheap Chiki-Tiki mugs at a shell shop and then made tropical drinks using pineapple juice, orange juice and ginger ale. Then we mixed them in a vintage Hamilton Beach drinker blender. We put umbrella's in and garnished them with pineapple chunks and cherries. They really liked it, and it was fun for us.

[ Edited by: Kailuageoff on 2003-08-07 19:19 ]

Gotta get those post numbers up.

SpongeBob has created a future wave of Tiki mentality. My nephews, 6 of them, and nieces, 2 of them, have all purchased something for Uncle pablus in the last 2 months that have Tiki as the central theme.

A very cool pitcher, for one.

I'm thinking, no really...I am, once these children reach adulthood - it should be about the time that Tiki Mania crests into a overpowering wave and we could actually live in a world of Tiki.

King Kukulele playing at the Presidential Inaguration.

White House becomes Green House and is moved to Oahu.

With manditory global warming imposed by UN law, we could even send Klas a shipload of living palms and breadfruit for his backyard.

The Rum Cartel becomes bigger than oil or concrete or even - waste management.

I can see it so clearly through this empty glass.

Amen. All hail Spongebob Squarepants. Fiona and I watch it together religiously.

Man, this is great, all these stories of kids drawing tikis, watching SpongeBob. My kids (one in particular) draw pictures of incredible tikis. On my birthday last month, they made tikis out of construction paper wrapped toilet paper rolls (!) complete with flames, spears, and fierce faces. Whenever we see anything tiki-related, they start chanting, "tikitikitikitikitikitiki..." It's great. And D/H and I enjoy SpongeBob as much as our kids do. How cool it is that all these kids are into tiki! There's hope for us all. :wink:

~ Tex

P.S. Almost forgot, it was one of my kids who came up with my sig line. It was at the bottom of a tiki she drew.

~Tex

Oh I love Spongebob Squarepants! I'm trying to get my hands on Squidward Tentacles' Moai house viewfinder keychain. Everything on that show is trimed with bamboo, oh so nautical!

Hi, I'm Tikiwahine. I'm 25. I watch childrens shows. I admit I have a problem. I'm a tikiaholic. :wink:

-Tikiwahine

I've got to tell my lil' HotHead about making Tikis out of toilet paper rolls! He'll have an entire Tiki village made by nightfall!

Many of us here on TC - perhaps most of us - can trace our love of tiki to our childhoods. I have noticed that there is a preponderance of us who fall within a demographic group called, "Brady Boomers". This group actually experienced the great mid-century Polynesian Pop era; we were little kids, but we remember the wonderment through the eyes of a kid. When we grew up, there were still a lot of tiki restaurants.

They were mysterious places. Restaurants so dark that it took a while for your eyes to adjust after arriving there from the outside world. Bamboo, thatch, dioramas, colored lights nestled deeply in the foliage and the sound of trickling water. Did I mention the tikis? Mommy and Daddy drank pretty drinks and they were happy. You could get your own Shirley Temple with an orchid and an umbrella in it, just like the grown-ups! What's not to love?

About that time (as also outlined in the Book of Tiki) tiki became a pop item with the surf crowd. The pendants and tiki shirts found their way to the suburbs and were the definition of cool. My brother was in elementary school when he cast tiki pendants out of translucent resin and (ever the capitalist) sold them to classmates at school.

Many a TCer can trace their love of tiki to their childhood. Get 'em while their young.

At Hukilau 2002, at Saturday's Tiki Bazaar, they were selling the BOT upstairs at the vendors. This little boy was about 8-10 and his Dad bought it for him and he tore into that platic wrapper and came jumping down the steps so incredibly happy! It was awesome. I think Big Bro signed it for him too!

I went to the barber yesterday and noticed the 3 foot palm wood 40+ year old tiki that was given to him a few months ago was gone. I had asked him for it and he said an 80+ year old man from his church gave it to him so he couldn't sell it. Where did it go? There was a handicapped boy who came in and was crazy about it. Said he always wanted one but his parents wouldn't get him one. Too expensive. So he asked to buy it. He sold it for $20 and gave the money to the food bank. A new tiki fan is boosted on his way here in the south!

Swanky - what a wonderful story. The spirit of Tiki is a mighty force for good! That Tiki definitely went to a worthy home! And that kid with the BOT - lil' HotHead and I sit and look through my copy over and over. I think he has the darned thing memorized!

Floratina's post brought back beaucoup memories from my childhood. We had a neighborhood Polynesian restaurant - the Royal Hawaiian. And it was dark with that special Tiki-range of coloration I was always enthralled by the flaming pu-pu platter, although I couldn't eat any of the offerings (I've been vegetarian since age 2 - no kidding). Well, one day, the owner made me a special flamin' platter with a variety of bread and veggies and fruit. Even though I had always had an affinity for that locale and atmosphere, I think the kindness of that old guy is what cemented in me the love of Tiki.

We are shaped by our experiences - Tiki them young and build the love of it in them for a lifetime!