Back to my early grad school days. I believe this photo was taken on a visit to one of my friends from high school, Rob Corbin. Rob had shared a two-bedroom apartment with Meda and me for most of a year when we first entered grad school at UH. The apartment was on the 15th floor of the Circle Jade building on 9th Avenue in Kaimuki, near the corner of Waialae. It is still the only high-rise building in the area. Politics appeared to have played a role in that, as the building’s owner, Dr. Dai Yen Chang, had earlier served as a member of the Honolulu Board of Supervisors, the predecessor of the City Council, and he obtained a variance of some kind from the city to build his apartment building.

What about those great black-rim glasses? That was my first pair of glasses purchased during my senior year at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington during a visit to an optometrist there in downtown Walla Walla. Meda remembers the optometrist’s comment: “These will open your eyes up!”

It had taken me until the end of my undergrad years to figure out that my vision would be improved by a little assistance. And I wore glasses continually until cataract surgery a few years ago made them unnecessary.