The other day, Mr. Baseball asked me why I liked tiki so much all of a sudden, and I didn’t really have an answer for him. Because it feels like I’ve always had a passion for this kind of kitschy stuff, but it had nowhere to manifest itself. I think James A. Teitelbaum captured this feeling in his introduction to Tiki Road Trip: A Guide to Tiki Culture in North America:
“For children growing up in California, Tiki style has always been a part of everyday life. Even with the amount of Tiki we have lost in the past 30 years, Tiki still permeates California.”
So, you might say it’s in my So-Cal soul. Add to that a penchant for retro style, a slightly obsessive personality and my fairly recent discovery of Tiki Central and Tiki Farm, and my affinity has taken root and grown like a palm tree on steroids. I’m very much a noob, but I think that just makes discovering all things tiki that much more new and exciting.
