Eric J. Kusunoki still remembers that day on Jan. 20, 1961, when he rode his bicycle through the early morning darkness to get to the old Waikiki Elementary School on Kuhio Avenue to listen to the inauguration ceremony of John F. Kennedy.

Kusunoki and his sixth-grade classmates arrived at 6 a.m. just as their teacher, Bernadette Manning, had ordered. They sipped hot chocolate that Manning had made them, then heard Kennedy tell all Americans, "Ask not what your country can do for you -ask what you can do for your country."

"She had tears in her eyes," Kusunoki remembered. "Then she looked at us and said, 'Maybe one of you could be president.' We all looked at each other like, 'yeah right, sure.' "

But the memory of the sweet, hot chocolate, the inspiration of Kennedy's words and Manning's message to her students clung to Kusunoki over the years. He would later tell his own students at Punahou School that they, too, could dare to dream to one day lead the world's most powerful nation.

Kusunoki isn't sure if young Barack Obama heard the message over the four years that Obama sat in Kusunoki's homeroom class — but Kusunoki thinks it's pretty likely.

Either way, Kusunoki will be in Washington, D.C., tomorrow — along with thousands of other cheering Island residents — to see his former student and a son of Hawai'i sworn in as America's 44th president.

"I'm tearing up just thinking about it," Kusunoki said.

'AWE AND NONBELIEF'

It's impossible to measure the amount of pride that people in Hawai'i feel toward Obama's election as a local boy who will become the nation's first minority and first African-American president.

Many — especially African-Americans in the Islands — said they never thought they would live to see the day.

Others compare the achievement to man's first steps on the moon.

Alan Lum, who sat on the bench with Obama and competed for the same forward position on Punahou's 1979 state championship basketball team, believes that being in Washington tomorrow to witness his friend's swearing-in ceremony will rank among the top achievements in his lifetime, right up there with the birth of his two children.

Lum now teaches second grade at Punahou and will join dozens of current and former Punahou students, teachers and administrators at the inauguration. Like others, Lum can't even anticipate the emotions that will sweep through him.

"It's awe and nonbelief," Lum said. "People ask me if I'm excited to be going. Yeah, I am. But it's surreal. You can't believe it. If you were to ask me, I can't explain. I'm dead silent."

Because of the early morning hour of the inauguration, thousands of Island residents will still be waking up or stuck in traffic when Obama addresses the nation as its new president sometime around 7 a.m.

But former Hawai'i first lady Lynne Waihee hopes adults emphasize to Hawai'i's next generation the importance of what will happen tomorrow.

"This day will be one of those teachable moments for the children of Hawai'i," Waihee said.

WORTH EVERY PENNY

For Island residents traveling to Washington, D.C., there will be long waits and longer lines to board Washington's metro rail system because vehicle traffic will be prohibited in the district and bridges will be closed for Obama's inauguration.

"It's going to be a mess," said Sandi Yorong, a financial adviser from Waikele who has tickets to Obama's swearing-in ceremony and the Hawai'i-Illinois "Home State" inaugural ball — one of 10 official inaugural balls that Obama will attend tomorrow night.

Yorong is traveling with three girlfriends and they haven't been able to get salon time for the ball.

"We've been calling around to make hair appointments and they're all booked," Yorong said. "They're saying they may need to have their employees sleep over in the salons because they won't be able to get around. Hotel concierges say they're booked solid and we tried to book a limousine to get around but they want a 10-hour minimum at $95 an hour. You can't anticipate how long it's going to take you to leave the swearing-in ceremony and get back to your hotel to get ready for the ball."

"We are just keeping an open mind and we're going to have to be flexible."

Yorong is afraid to calculate the total cost of the trip, but knows that it will be at least a couple of thousand dollars.

All she knows for certain is that the hassles, the costs and the chilly Washington weather will all be worth it.

"People in Hawai'i always read about history in the textbooks. We don't experience it," Yorong said. "I want to be there to capture the history and feel it and bring it home with pictures and stories to pass on to my grandkids."