KAILUA-KONA — Forty-four years ago, 24-year-old Sandy Jordan and her young sons, Scott and Joe, posed for a photo on the mauka side of Kuakini Highway.
The two boys, ages 3 and 4 1/2, looked on with their locks flowing in the wind, little bellies out and cute thumbs up, trying to hitch a ride. Mom stood proudly behind them in a flowing floral blouse typical of the era.
It was June 1974, and Sandy and the youngsters had just moved here from California.
“I love the memories, and it was so wonderful back in Kona in 1974. It was a fabulous place to raise kids,” Jordan reminisced while talking about the black-and-white shot.
Now 68, Jordan said she can’t remember for sure what they were doing at the time — it was a quickly snapped photo — but thinks they might have been hitchhiking or waiting for a ride. With them was photographer Zane Mathias, Jordan’s then-boyfriend.
“I told the kids to put their thumbs out and Zane took a picture of us,” she said. “It turned out to be a cool photo of us.”
A cool and memorable photo it was, remaining in the family’s photo box for decades as Scott and Joe grew up, attended college and returned to Hawaii Island to raise kids of their own.
“I’ve always loved that photo,” the mother said.
So much was her fondness that after finding the photo in storage three years ago and the exact blouse she’d worn that day in 1974, she had an idea.
“When I saw it, I decided that I got to get this picture and we got to redo it,” Sandy said.
Last year, she started seriously asking her boys if they’d take part in re-creating the moment Mathias had captured some 44 years ago.
“She was really on us for months and months,” Scott Jordan recalled.
They finally agreed. She gave them a copy of the photo to study, even asking them to grow out their long hair again.
“About a month later they each came to me separately and told me, ‘We have jobs, Mom,’” Jordan said.
The hardest part of re-creating the special moment — other than the boys having grown into men and finding time in everyone’s schedules? Locating a white belt to match the one worn by Joe in the original photo, she said.
“I finally found it in a thrift shop,” she said.
With everything ready, all they needed was a gathering time, and when Mathias recently connected with Jordan because his wife Beth’s family was coming to Hawaii Island, a date was finally set.
And, when the morning of Feb. 24 came, all four met again, on the side of Kuakini Highway, just like they had nearly 44 years before.
The boys — now ages 49 and 47 and quite a bit bigger but wearing the same style clothes — took their positions next to mom, she in her floral blouse with purse and cigarette in hand.
They put their thumbs out and 82-year-old Mathias snapped the shot.
“The whole thing was very goose-bumpy,” Mathias said. “But, it was fun.”
Jordan, who received the photo this week, in time for Mother’s Day, was surprised by just how enjoyable the re-creation adventure ended up being.
“It was so, so fun to get together and take it again. We just had a blast that morning — a lot of laughs, a lot of memories,” she said. “I love that we have all lasted this long. How lucky for us.”
Scott Jordan seconded that sentiment.
“After seeing the picture, it kind of reminded me of what a long, good life we’ve had here on the island,” he said.
Added his brother, Joe: “I’m really happy with the way the new picture came out, it looks so much like the original.”
As for re-creating the original — again — in say 10 years?
“That’s a possibility,” Sandy said. “A real possibility.”
