On Sunday, I indicated that my life had three 27-year periods after the age of 5, and provided details of the first trio, but only got through high school.  Today, I will complete this initial educational cycle with Stanford University, an important learning experience in the Hawaiian sugar industry, then graduate school. So in 1958 I left Hawaii for the first time. My brother by then was working at the Naval Civil Engineering Center in Port Hueneme, California.  I stayed with his family that summer, for he secured for me a summer job at this center. Stanford was a challenge, for I was below average, again, in all facets of life, sociologically, economically and intellectually. There were no Black students, Hispanics were not yet even identified and I was the only student of Japanese ethnicity. Actually, there was one Black in 1891, the year the school opened, Ernest Houston Johnson.  He graduated in 1895 in economics, but sadly died of tuberculosis in 1898 at the age of ...

Every few years I delve into the meaning of Memorial Day.   I did that last year .  Our Freedom was not free.  We are what we are today because of those who died protecting us. Ever wonder what the difference is between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?   Read my posting of 2016 . What should you do on Memorial Day?  You already missed the  PBS telecast of the Concert on the Mall .   But click on this for a You Tube recast .  This was a different kind of show, for it was lacking in stars, but more than made up for it with stories of patriotism. In Hawaii, I sometimes went to the  Shinnyo Lantern Floating ceremony  at Ala Moana Beach  That has changed, and today will occur on their temple grounds.  However, you need reservations, and there are none anymore.  There will be a live broadcast from 6:30 to 7PM on KHON2. I could again walk up to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific inside Punchbowl, but will ...