Hawaii Five-O wherever I go…

Recently I have been reminded of some of my favorite memories of college days. I went to BYU in the early 80’s. It is by far a conservative school and is always #1 in the Stone-Cold Sober Schools list that comes out each year. When my sister first attended BYU in the mid 70’s the dress code had loosened to allow girls to wear pants or pant suits. Just before I arrived on the scene in the early 80's they had just started to allow jeans on campus.

I remember rushing to my M,W,F morning class in the fine arts building. Depending on what time I left I might in fact be stopped for a daily tradition. The national anthem would play and the flag raised by the ROTC. I believe the same happened to lower the flag in the evening but I rarely remember being on campus during those hours. Everyone within listening distance would stop in place and wait for the anthem finish.

Another tradition happened late at night sometime shortly before the library was to close. A different anthem would play – the theme song from Hawaii Five-O. In such a quiet place that was still laden with card catalogs, it felt odd to hear such upbeat music playing over the loud speaker. We would joke that it was to wake everyone up! It was the anthem for library closing time. I cannot hear the song today without thinking of those late nights at the library decades ago.

Last week CBS announced that a new “reimagined” version of Hawaii Five-O will begin to air fall 2010. I’m not always fond of classic things being reinvented. Time will tell if this remake of the series will live up to its legacy.

Two nights ago it was Nick’s pick for movie night. He chose a fascinating show I had never heard of before called “The Dish”. It is all about the Apollo 11 mission but from the perspective of Parkes Australia (with some license to make the story better than the real one) where they housed the southern hemisphere satellite dishes that produced the first images of men on the moon. I recommend it as a good movie. But here is a spoiler. In a scene where the town was welcoming the US Ambassador, a teenage band was asked to play the Star Spangled Banner. When it was time to play, the song that came out was the theme song to Hawaii Five-O. I'm guessing it didn't happen that way in reality but to me it was classic.