Stepping Back in Time

I spent most of the day exploring the former ranch of my paternal grandfather.  It is now owned by someone else, and it is far from the working cattle ranch it once was, but it still rings with the history of my family.  Until I was four years old, the land had been owned and operated by my family for four generations, myself being the fifth generation to be raised in Hawaii.  My mother spent her youth in the mountains of Kona, and although I spent very little of my own childhood there, I grew up on the stories of the old ranch.

Today was a gift.  The kids and I hung out in the old ranch house, we drove around the property, and we heard stories about my family that I had never heard before.  The highlight of the day came at the top of the ranch.  We drove all the way up to the old water tank that fed the rest of the water tanks on the ranch.  It was a beautiful old tank, made of redwood, and it seemed to speak to me of a different time.  Sadly, it is now falling down, and I was glad my Papa couldn't see it in it's current state.  Just above the tank sat the pump house, and it was surrounded by a layer of concrete.  I set Christian down on the step the concrete created, and took a moment to stretch.  Then I looked down at what Christian was sitting on.

In the concrete there was drawn a date and initials.  The date was January 25th, 1955 and the initials belonged to my Papa.  I was suddenly overcome with emotion.  More than a half century ago, my grandfather traced his initials in the wet concrete, and now, a couple of generations later, his great grandson, whom he never got to meet, was sitting on the same spot.  I know the moment was lost on Christian, maybe someday he will understand the significance when I show him the picture, and tell him the story.  For now I will just fell grateful that I had this beautiful moment, and for an afternoon I felt so close to my Papa again.