FORGOTTEN LOSSES Poem #23 What Happens in Vegas . . .

 

23
Forgotten Losses

 

Sin City, rub Buddha for luck

Seafood buffets, pineapple platters

and choke* coconut drinks. 

Celebrate 50, front row at “O”

Wet and Wild; Divine M,

boogey-woogey Honolulu girl. 

Commute Aloha Air

then stay Fremont or Main.

Don Ho in the desert, 

With Tiny Bubbles,

and horseshoe maile lei.

Mahalo, Vacations Hawai‘i 

But even with Blue Suede Elvis

Desire to “Go Vegas”

now only one distant memory. 

*choke is a Hawaiian pidgin word meaning: very many, a lot of. (Ho, brah, you catch choke fish at the lake or wat?) 

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Thanks to Honolulu’s travel agency, Vacations Hawai‘i, Las Vegas is considered another Hawaiian Island. Reservations include air fare, hotel, vouchers for all meals including seafood buffets, luggage pick-up, and transportation between Vegas airport and hotel. Aloha Air is no longer in business but was still flying when I made my “commutes” to meet up with relatives and friends for a long week-end.

 

The California, Fremont, and Main Street hotels are extensions of Hawai‘i. If you don’t leave the immediate area, it is difficult to know you are off-island. Even the evening entertainment is slanted in that direction with local singers and entertainers filling the stages.

 

In the lobby of the California, which is a Boyd property, a huge statue of Buddha greets guests. Everyone who walks past the Buddha, rubs its belly for luck.

 

On one trip, I attended a performance by Bette Midler (the boogey-woogey girl from Honolulu.) Elvis, so visible in Vegas with its multiple impersonators, will always be remembered for his ties to the Hawaiian Islands. His Aloha from Hawai‘i concert was broadcast around the world on January 14, 1973 (except in the USA.) Even Don Ho did Vegas.

 

I no longer have a desire to “Go Vegas” but I love the memories.