TIKI CULTURE

A New Sign For The Tiki Bar!

Today I decided to take a ride down to the beach. It was such an incredibly beautiful day, I just had to split the office for a while. It was pretty damned hot, as South Florida will get in the summer, but still beautiful.

I motorvated down to Hollywood Beach (I work in downtown Hollywood, about five minutes away from the Ocean) and parked near the Hollywood Broadwalk. (It’s like a Boardwalk except no boards). I took a short walk and got some ice cream, then headed back. The car was parked at a souvenir shop, so I decided to go in and take a gander at what kind of goodies they had inside.

Well, much to my surprise, they had a whole section of “old Florida” stuff. I thought I was a kid again on vacation…Coconut Squares, treasure boxes, stuffed alligators, hermit crabs, plastic snow globes with flamingoes in them…just like 30 years ago. And above them on the wall was a section of hand-carved Tiki stuff, and pretty decent quality.

So I spotted a Tiki Bar sign, about 3 feet long and carved out of some light but hard wood. It’s perfect for my bar, and only ran me 25 bucks! I’d call that one hell of a find. They had some very kookie totems and tiki masks too…but I’m going to save my pennies and get the real ones hand-carved by some of my fellow Tiki lovers next year at the Hukilau. Gotta support the artists. They deserve it.

Anyway, it was a nice day and I got a nice surprise. Still waiting to hear the results of that Tiki Brand Dance contest though! (Still keeping our fingers crossed)