The Hilo time-warp

Lots of people, including myself and Leslie, think Hilo is in some sort of time warp. I googled "Hilo" and "time warp" and came up with a lot of articles discussing this phenomenon. Here is one guy trying to articulate why this is so. The city is aware of this factor and spends a lot of time trying to figure out a way to keep it that way while staying economically afloat.

Anyway, yesterday it hit me that Hilo feels like my childhood in Corona, California. Certainly this is true in comparison to my life in Santa Cruz where I have spent the vast majority of my life (the last 36 years). You know I like lists! Here are the top ten reasons why I feel like I have returned to my younger years:

1. I see the milky way at night.
2. My feet are toughened up by walking barefoot all the time.
3. I can swim in the ocean with comfort (i.e. it is not so damn cold).
4. I am really tan. (My forearms and face are normally tan but not shoulders, back, legs, etc. since I was a kid.)
5. I wear shorts and sandals most of the time.
6. When the sun sets, the temperature doesn't change much.
7. We eat outside at night comfortably.
8. We have occasional smog (called vog as it comes from the volcano instead of capitalism), but it is much worse an hour from here.
9. There is a lot of desolate desert nearby.
10. And, of course, Hilo town is just so darn quaint and old-fashioned like Corona once was.

Now as you might note, not all the things are great. But smog was part of my childhood and hasn't been part of my life as an adult. So, it is weirdly nostalgic. And, while Corona is in Riverside County and is part of a desert, this was obscured to the child-me by the extensive agriculture in the area. Thus, I thought of Corona - with rows and rows of beautiful orange groves - as quite lovely but the surrounding deserts as very stark. Hilo gets its green the honest way - lots of rain - but a very stark desert is a short drive away.

Anyway, I do love Santa Cruz but it has very few echoes of my childhood. The fact that Hilo does bring me back in time creates a powerful attraction to the place and sense of belonging.