Today’s the day!

January 20, 2009

Today’s the day that the former Punahou School student pictured below gets sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.

Barack "Barry" Obama in 6th grade at Punahou.

Barack "Barry" Obama in 6th grade at Punahou.

A couple of weeks ago there was a great article in the Washington Post about Obama and Punahou.  As the article mentions, at the end of the Obamas’ vacation in Hawaii last month, Barack went back to Punahou and shot hoops.

Obama started at Punahou, which runs from K-12, in 5th grade and graduated in 1979. (I trailed him by three years and remember him as one of the cool seniors when I was a freshman.)

The Punahou Marching band will even be part of today’s inauguration ceremony, playing “Men of Punahou” and “Aloha Oe.”  I heard on the radio that the brass section was practicing for the cold conditions by putting their mouth pieces in the freezer overnight.

Godspeed Barry!

Pau for now…

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Posted by Barton George

Obama in ’73

October 8, 2008

18 months ago I did a post about one of my classmates from Punahou School.  At the time he was one of the many possible democratic candidates for Presidency of the United States.  We are now less than a month away from the election and Barry is not only the democratic nominee but is currently leading in the polls.  Go Barry, Go!

What I posted in February of ’07

When I was home in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago I decided to dig through the boxes in my mom’s garage and find some of my old Na Opios (the lower school yearbook at Punahou School).  I was looking for a picture of one of the big kids, three years ahead of me at a school named Barry Obama, now more commonly referred to as Barack.  For reference, in 1973 Barry was a big 6th grader and I was just a little 3rd grader.

Here is the picture I found (I blurred out the other non-public figures) apparently taken at a pencil chewers convention — the Na Opio never featured stiff formal portraits:

Usually in the yearbook you only got to be in one picture for your classroom.  For some reason, Barack appeared in two.   His future potential must have shown through even then.

If you want to read more about Obama’s growing up in Hawaii and his time at Punahou check out this article (It even quotes my old girlfriend’s brother and my 8th grade typing teacher).

Pau for now…

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Posted by Barton George

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