No, this isn’t one of our cats. This is James, who (along with his littermate, Blackbeard) lived with our good friends, Gil and Janice Johnston, when they lived near us in Kaimuki back in the mid-1970s.

One of their sons, Ben, recently found a set of pictures I had taken when they were living in a rented house on lower Sierra Drive. Ben, who is now an emergency room physician in Morris, Illinois, scanned the pictures and sent me a set.

I enjoyed the so much that I decided to just share them.

Gil had been head of Legal Aid in Hawaii before returning to private practice. Janice, also an attorney, had returned to UH and was working on a Ph.D., where she and Meda became good friends. I credit Gil with introducing me to many established Hawaiian activists at the time who he counted among his clients. We also credit Gil & Jan with introducing us to wine that cost more than $4 a gallon, one of life’s most valuable lessons.

Blackbeard and James made the move back to Chicago with the family within a couple of years of when these photos were taken. Gil joined the faculty at John Marshall Law School and later spent a number of years as Dean of the school.