When I grow up
July 7th, 2008 by Dave VintonTick, tock.
Time keeps marching on and propelling our internal life-ometers ever forward.
If I didn’t already know this a good reminder came the other day when I got a call from a classmate.
No not from college. Go back a little further.
Yup, high school. Those glorius days of running around with the gang with little or no worries. Other than what movie in town to go see on the weekend. Find the right prom date was one of the biggest dilemas.
Well those days have now added up to 20-years for the Mililani High School Class of 1988 and the call I got was from the reunion committee asking if I would emcee the dinner night.
Of course I said yes. I can’t wait to see my former mates from Mililani.
When we were Trojans, there was no Mililani Mauka - still Pineapple fields. Town Center didn’t open for shopping until our senior year and there was no Walmart there. The school had less buildings with a big open front lawn. The EK Fernandez carnival was held every year in the school’s parking lot as a fundraiser.
You know, when you were in high school, you couldn’t wait to get out. Move on with life. I mean it seemed like classes would never end.
But they do and did and once the graduation ceremony concluded it seemed like everybody scattered on the wind to begin the journey of really growing up.
Looking back I miss those relationships with friends, even casual ones, the most. Silly conversations, going to football games on the bus, and wondering if that girl would say yes if asked out. Smile.
Out of the class of ‘88 we have some great people who have gone on to big things. Since this is usually a sports blog - I’ll single out Ma’a Tanuvasa.
The “Rock” received a scholarship to play football at UH and went on to win a couple of Super Bowls with Denver. After his playing days he moved his family back to Mililani. Like the joke goes, most of us simply moved from Mililani to Mililani Mauka…lol. Ma’a now works on campus and helps coach football at MHS.
I see him around the hood frequently and he’s in great shape. I also see his daughter, who is also a great athlete, all grown up. Which again, makes me feel “older.”
No complaints I’ve been very fortunate in the past 20-years…just don’t know if I’ve grown up yet. Do we ever hit a stage where we feel completely grown up?
Thanks for letting me go away from just sports on this one…lol… I’d love to hear about your thoughts and memories on high school reunions and growing up.
*** P.S. - If you’re a class of ‘88 Trojan and need info on the reunion activities…let me know too ***
Tags: Class of 1988, Mililani, Tanuvasa, Trojans
July 7th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Holy cannoli! Class of ‘88, eh, Vinton? Let’s see . . . unless you had some Doogie Howser, M.D. genius thing goin’ on, you basically is . . . pushin’ 40, Vinton? Ha-ha, no matters. 40 is the new 30, right? Right?
Yeah, yeah, Tanuvasa . . . they talked to him a bunch during that whole Sugar Bowl fias . . . er, I mean, whole Sugar Bowl coverage from when the bout ‘tween us and the one Bulldog we couldn’t beat all year long was announced. Wow, he from your class, eh? Guy has, what, he was playing in the Elway era . . . he got, what TWO Super Bowl rings at least? Dang. Incredible. I remember he making some decent plays in the last non-Hawaii bowl bowl the Warriors played in — the Holiday Bowl o’ 1992. Terrific.
Have a great reunion, Dave!
July 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
20 year reunion is like a landmark event in one’s life! 10 years reunion - too early, but lots happens in 20 years - fatness, white hair-ness, no hair-ness.
My 20 year reunion was many many years ago - I was scared to go, excited to go, lots of conflicting feelings. But I was glad I went! Gotta go with the good feelings, the good memories and everything go good! Make others feel welcome too cuz many others kinda shy and embarrassed. Togetherness makes for a good time.
And growing up? feels like a MidLife Crisis coming on - maybe gotta merge with Rodney Lee.
Have fun at your reunion Dave, you going be one great MC! Life passes by, so enjoy the moments!
July 8th, 2008 at 5:31 am
20 year reunion? I remember flying back to attend it. It was great to see a lot of the faces you last saw at graduation. The next was a dual reunion - held locally for the locals and in Vegas for the mainlanders. I remember this one clearly as it was just after 9/11 and driving to Vegas was surreal. No 18-wheelers, buses, RVs were allowed over Hoover Dam so traffic was very light. Again, the reunion was great…recognized the faces but have forgotten their names
July 8th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Have fun ya big baby little whipper snapper!
July 8th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
You’ll definitely be one of the school’s success stories! And no, I’m not just sucking up so you don’t forget about that steak dinner.
When did you say that was again? 
July 9th, 2008 at 6:04 am
Shauna:
I would recommend the Rustler’s Rooste restaurant near the Pointe South Mountain Resort. Great food and nice view from the mountain top of the Phoenix skyline at night. You’ll have to ride down the slide on your okole to reach the dining area. This way you can kill two birds with one stone - see AZ and have your steak dinner
July 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I remember the days when there wasn’t even a Town Center, just pineapple fields. Used to walk to Waena alongside all those spiny-looking pineapple tops! Yup, definitely no Walmart back then.
My 10 year reunion is coming up next year and I’m not sure if I want to go. Like Tankobu said, I think it’s too soon. While I sure haven’t seen most of my classmates since graduation, I’m sure we’re all still trying to figure “life” out. Need to let things develop more I think.
As a side observation to the joke Dave made about kids moving from Mililani to Mililani Mauka, I find that’s totally true. If not in Mauka, then somewhere else in M-Town. Seems like M-Town kids move away (go away to college, live on the mainland, travel, move to town, whatever), but always find their way home.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Great responses all…lol…
I don’t think it’s mid-life crisis mode…yet…smile. I only really started to feel like I’m starting to get things when I hit my mid 30’s.
Skycastles - I encourage you to go to that 10-year reunion! You’ll be amazed at how much has changed for people - size, shape, jobs, families, and so on. To me five years would have been way to early. But 10-years worked well. Reconnecting, getting emails and phone numbers in this day of cell phones, smart phones, and what not make it easier to stay in touch. What part of Mililani did you grow up in?
Where you grew up in Mililani is another Mtown thing…lol… By which elementary school, Safeway, District Park, etc.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Oh and Shauna… Major points for you!
July 9th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Eh Dave, Sorry, yeah, I neva mean you for Midlife crisis-ing - was tinking aloud at myself, introspecting. Old guys do that you know. Nuts yeah.
and, let dis old man also retract to skycastles: take Dave’s advice, go to your 10 year reunion! no be anti-social like me. connections and re-connections are great fun, anytime.
Ahh, I feel better now. Mahalo Dave!
July 9th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
How ’bout the SOUNDS of the ’80s, hah? Best damn musical era ever! Remember Shannon, “Let the Music Play”?
“Let the music play
She won’t get away
Just keep the groove
And then she’ll come back to you agaIIIIAAAN . . .”
I think the original lyric included “he,” but, you know, for me it must be “she.”
I remember Duran Duran. Cripes, they kick the living decade out of the boy bands of the ’90s, bloviated unending golden tonsils for ballads, post-80s, and every dance crew of this new century. I like “Union of the Snake”:
“If I listen close I can hear them singing, WWWWOOOOOAH, HOOOOAAAAA, OH!
Voices in your body comin’ through on the radioOOOOOOOHOHO,
The Union of the Snake is on the CLIIIIIIIIIIIMB
Movin’ up
Gonna race
Gonna break through the
BorderlIIIIIIIIINE.”
The perennial Springstein had some nice hits in the ’80s, too:
“I get up in the evenin’
And I ain’t got nothin’ to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feelin’ THE same way . . .”
I’ll end with one last one, because, oh, you ’80s fans must needs to recall one FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD:
“RELAX, go to it
When you wanna get to it
RELAX, GO DO IT,
when you wanna . . .”
Yeah, ’80s, man. There woulda’ been no Bobby Brown, there woulda’ been no hip-hop of today if it weren’t the ’80s. And ’80s music had a creativity all their own. I didn’t seem to hear no Beatles influence that the grunge bands of the ’90s would emulate at times (i.e., Oasis).
July 9th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Cool, lyrics. Here’s one for you Dave, by the Beach Boys!
When i grow up to be a man
will i dig the same things that turn me on as a kid,
will i look back and say that i wish i hadn’t done what i did.
will i joke around, and still dig those sounds,
when i grow up to be a man.
will i look for the same things in a woman that i dig in a girl,
will i settle down fast or will i wanna travel the world,
now i’m young and free, but how will it be,
when i grow up to be a man.
Get some more but you get the idea. I love dis song!
July 9th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
I used to live a couple blocks from Tesoro at Town Center.
You really think that 10 years is long enough? In some ways, I still feel like I did back then - instead of going to school every day, I go to work but I’m still trying to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up haha. I’ll think about it more. It’s still a year away.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Springsteen. Springsteen. Springsteen.
Sorry, Jersey Girl feeling the need to edit!
July 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Hey Dave-
I’m class of ‘88 as well. We had our reunion already, and it was a blast. Cool to see peeps I hadn’t seen in 20 years. Had classmates come home from all over the mainland too.
I know a few of your classmates from UH. Haven’t seen them since college.
Man, if I had a dollar for everytime I heard “Hey, you got fat” or something to that effect, I could have paid for the whole reunion myself. I think we all got a little “puffy.”
Would be good to get a DJ that spins good 80’s music too. Full on flashbacks, man. Chicken Grease has a couple of good tunes there. How about these:
Show Me - Cover Girls
When I Hear Music - Debbie Deb
Let Me Be the One - Expose
We Don’t have to Take Our Clothes Off - Jermaine Stewart
Supersonic - JJ Fad
Going Back To Cali - LL Cool J
Tell It To My Heart - Taylor Dayne
Freak-A-Zoid - Midnight Star
Point Of No Return - Nu Shooz
Grilfriend - Pebbles
Feel like I should be making a mix tape.
Hope you have a great reunion!
July 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Hey all happy Thursday! One more day until iPhone day!
But I digress…
Tank: Never took anything bad from you post…smile. All good my friend!
Chicken: You must have a great iPod library of music!
Sky: You really should go. I promise you’ll enjoy running into friends you haven’t seen since high school. 10-years, you’ll be amazed at how much a lot of people change! Good and bad…lol… Besides, look at it this way, if it sucks. You can blame me for telling you to go.
Paula: Representing the Boss…nice.
Bfish: Great adds for the play list! Mix tape…man…that brings back great memories. Remember when you’d wait for the radio station to play songs you liked and then recorded them on tape? Man…technology…
July 11th, 2008 at 12:14 am
ah, the “tape songs off the radio” technique. Always a classic.
Actually, my older sisters had a good turntable and tape deck, so I got to use that to make my tapes. I was one of the few designated “tape makers” and I used to make them for a lot of my friends. So I wound up buying TONS of records. (you young ones know what those are?
) Whenever I would go to Oahu, (I’m from Maui) I would go to Towers and Jelly’s and buy choke stuff. I liked buying 12″ singles with the dance mixes.
Nowdays, you just buy the mp3’s off iTunes, or download from Limewire or BitTorrent, stick um in your iPod, and you’re golden. So easy.
I guess I’m old school - I don’t like buying stuff from iTunes - I like to actually hold the case, and read the liner notes.
Ho boy, feel like I should be posting this on Rodney’s blog too. Are we mid-lifers yet?
July 11th, 2008 at 10:49 am
BananaFish -
I actually found some of those “radio tapes” a while back when I was moving house. It’s so funny to hear them; such a flashback!
Dave -
Yeah, a year from now you’ll get a blog comment and all it’ll say is:
“10 year reunion . . . you were sooooo wrong” lol
So, I got a question for all you guys who went to your reunions: What was the most surprising thing about going back and seeing all your classmates?
July 12th, 2008 at 11:59 am
A few things stick in my mind - cuz was long time ago already. Surprising how some people change, physical looks that is, and how some seemingly hardly change at all, even after 20 years. Some of the babes were still babe alicious too. Nice. The biggest surprise to me is how many people came, had a big turnout and was lots of fun, more than I expected. Had some sadness too cuz we lost a few pals along the way. Was neat seeing the athletes show up - lots were in good shape, some in large shape! Nice to say, no big heads around.