Smorgasbord Posts from My Archives – Letters from America 1985-1987 – August 1985 – Hawaiian Luau and Trash Can Punch by Sally Cronin

Welcome to the next post in the series Letters from America 1985 -1987 that I wrote home to my parents in the UK. My father kept them all in a folder and on his death they came back to me with a note to publish them.

It is now the first week in August 1985 and we now had gathered a group of like-minded friends (tequila and shrimp) around us. The long awaited Hawaiian Luau arrived.

Dear M & D.

Just recovering from our Hawaiian Luau on Saturday. We spent last week making garlands and decorations, and after a dreadful thunderstorm on Friday night, Saturday dawned hot and clear. We started putting up the decorations at 10 am. and it looked fantastic. The party started at 3pm and we had all sorts of silly games. (I was in charge!)

I had hard-boiled 30 eggs, and marked one with a red spot before throwing them all in the pool. It was called pearl diving! The person who found the egg with the red spot won a prize. We also had a raft race with three to a lilo. As I mentioned last week we have been practicing for weeks and it was clearly a waste of time! However, that was hilarious and got us into the party spirit.

Talking of spirits, David and I were introduced to Trash Can Punch which certainly helped the party get started. We all had cold beers and soft drinks, but a large black plastic waste bin was bought (and scrubbed, thankfully not used for waste before) and filled with ice and chopped fruit. We were all invited to bring our favourite spirit and empty the bottle into the can.

As you can imagine, this meant that there was at least 20 bottles of neat vodka (clearly popular) Tequila, Whisky and a couple of unmarked bottles that we think were moonshine! It was then topped up with fresh fruit juice and some water (not much). We then helped ourselves throughout the day.

It is a surprise we all survived. I stopped after a couple as did David and moved onto Coors Light beer since we definitely did not have the head or stomach for it. I did however make a tactical error when I helped myself to a couple of pieces of orange from the fruit that was left at the end of the afternoon. After a few hours soaking in all that booze, in the hot sun, it was very intoxicating indeed.

We did keep active and by 6pm the water volley ball net was up and we played for the next four hours straight.. I am called ‘Sledgehammer’ as I play at the net and being tall can thump the ball over. All that netball paying off. At 10pm we retired to our place and ended up playing poker until 2am. Don’t worry we will dial things back a bit when you come to see us and be in bed by midnight!

Last night our friends from Argentina, Bill and Silvia came over for supper, lovely couple and you will enjoy meeting them.

Our trip to Hawaii has been confirmed for September 3rd so I am aiming to lose a few pounds to that I can put it all back again! By the time we get back it will only be about 6 weeks to your visit.

David is off to Kansas tomorrow until Thursday morning. It is almost his second home and I think our holiday will do him good as he will be in one place for 14 days.

The apartment owners are building security gates and a fence around the property. I hope it won’t be too like Colditz. Also they are building a hot tub in front of our apartment. They seat about four people and I have heard quite a few tales about the goings on to be expected. I shall be able to sell tickets to people who want to use my balcony for front row seats!

Looking forward to seeing you soon.. all our love Sally and David X

©Sally Cronin 2020

Thank you for dropping in today and I hope you enjoyed our latest escapade. Thanks Sally