JP and U2

Walkmans were the deal. We were still in the days of cassette tapes and Walkman’s were portable cassette players with headphones – the precursor to Ipods. I wanted to sell my boombox to get one. The boombox was still technically both mine and Samuel’s so I had to get his permission to sell it. He agreed. I also wanted to fly over to Kona to see Heather from King’s Kids and my other friends so I needed some money. So I also decided to sell some nice binoculars my dad had given me. 

The Stephens family has a special needs son with severe disabilities. His name is John Paul. He was probably about seven around this time. A lady who had been one of his caregivers was living in Kona and Deyon asked if I would take JP with me. All I had to do was take him on the plane and his friend would meet us at the airport and take it from there. It was a simple task and after all the Stephens had been to and done for me, I was only too happy to agree.

John Paul couldn’t talk but that didn’t keep him from being cheeky sometimes. He knew how to unbuckle the seatbelt on the plane and he kept doing it. I had seen the Stephens flick his hands when he was doing something he shouldn’t so I kept trying that. It didn’t work. Later, Deyon told me you just had to twist the seatbelt upside down in that situation so he couldn’t get to the buckle. Knowing that would have saved me some aggravation.

JP’s friend picked him up and I went and had a nice visit with Heather and her parents who were from the Netherlands. I have an aunt from the Netherlands so I had a little connection. Little did I know that within a year, I would also be visiting them in Amsterdam.

It was during this visit to Kona that I first heard a song by the group that would become my all-time favorites. In those days, there was a pretty strong dichotomy between the Christian music market and the wider market. But I had heard that this group was made up of Christians but were getting popular in the wider market. It was U2.


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