Uncle Joe’s store was in the International Marketplace – the heart of Waikiki. Sadly, progress and time caught up with the marketplace a few years ago and a new version is in the works. I doubt Asia Joe would recognize Waikiki today!

The Lei greeting is a tradition worth preserving. If you aren’t visiting with friends or family, you can reserve a lei greeting for your first arrival. It’s about $20 – order online. So many things to love in this photo. Dig Uncle Joe’s shirt – and can you believe how flying attire has changed?

My great-grandparents (with the lei) were Italian immigrants. What a world and time they lived in. They must have been proud and impressed by their son’s accomplishments. This is one of their arrivals in Honolulu, that’s Aunt Sally on the left and uncle Joe between his parents.

My grandfather, also named Tom, in the US Army, territory of Hawaii, 1941. He lived a long and wonderful life with my grandmother, his wife of 71 years, and passed away at the age of 98 on November 27, 2016 – just days from the 75th Commemoration of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. He will forever be missed greatly.

Uncle Joe adventured all around the world in the years leading up to and during WWII. After the war and a stint helping the new government of the Philippines get up and running, he settled in Hawaii until his death in 1989.