WAIKIKI CAN BE AMUSING OR APPALLING

[schlomo]

Waikiki Can Be Amusing or Appalling

The other day during my afternoon walk in the neighborhood, I noticed a burly, scraggly bearded man a block away. Determined to forge ahead, he soon strode by me as if he were on a mission. In his left hand, he tightly carried oversized crumpled-up blankets. In his other hand, he clutched massive rolls of unwrapped toilet paper, the tops of which unraveled and then billowed into the air. The man seemed oblivious to the unspooling. Nothing was going to stop him from barreling onward.

Wherever he was going, he at least was prepared to rest comfortably and secure his bodily needs, precautions that many street people ignore.

And the man was fully clothed. That is a plus, considering what I saw that evening as I strolled along the main drag in Waikiki. A zonked-out grizzled man stumbled toward me. His pants were so low slung that almost his entire groin was exposed. Whoa! An unselfconscious public display of pubic hair. Mercifully, he didn’t linger in front of me.

Yes, there are weirdos in Waikiki. As long as they are not violent, they don’t alarm me. Their eccentricities sometimes are comical, and sometimes they are distasteful. But without these characters, living in Waikiki would be awfully bland. Viva local color!