By 8 a.m. yesterday, the line was wrapped around the side of the Mililani Consolidated Theatres complex and into the rear parking lot, not for a chance to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster but to get a free seasonal flu shot.

Adrienne Gregory, who got there at 7 a.m., was holding down the first place in line.

Spry and trim at 77 years old, Gregory said she gets a flu shot every year, can't remember ever actually getting the flu, and is banking on the shot to help her navigate another season without catching the bug.

Gregory's secrets to good health include walking every day, helping her daughter run her lunch wagon business in Kapolei and Campbell Industrial Park, and eating healthy meals.

Yesterday's Flu Shot Clinic was one of dozens that health care insurance provider HMSA is sponsoring throughout O'ahu and on the Neighbor Islands during the next few months.

HMSA is recommending the shot for anyone who wants to reduce their chances of getting the seasonal flu.

Those at risk of developing serious flu complications, HMSA officials said, are:

• Children ages 6 months to 18 years

• Adults 50 and older

• Pregnant women

• People with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease

• Patients in nursing homes or long-term-care facilities

• Household contacts of people at high risk

• Household contacts and out-of-home caregivers of children less than 6 months old

• Health care workers, teachers and others who could easily be exposed to the flu

Prima Yale, who was helping supervise the shot clinic at the Mililani theaters, said organizers expected up to 600 people to visit that location before it closed at 11 a.m.

Among those in line yesterday was Mililani resident Bill Funk, an Air Force retiree, who said he could have gotten a flu shot at Tripler Army Medical Center or from his own personal physician but the location was convenient.

"I get one every year, and I'm not dead yet," Funk quipped. His wife got her shot earlier.

Funk, who makes a conscientious effort to wash his hands as often as possible during flu season, said he, too, has never had the flu, and will get a swine flu shot, too, if and when the vaccine becomes available. (The shots being given yesterday help prevent seasonal flu but are not meant to prevent the H1N1 or swine flu virus.)

PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Estralita Weidenbach made an early morning drive to Mililani from her home in Waialua to get the seasonal flu shot because the Mililani clinic was the closest to her home.

"As long as I've taken the shot, I've never gotten the flu," said Weidenbach, who raises tilapia commercially. Because she has asthma, Weidenbach said she realizes she falls into a higher risk category of developing complications from seasonal flu.

Tammy Brown of Mililani waited patiently in line with daughter, Deja, 7. Brown, a full-time mother, admitted to not getting a flu shot every year.

But she said she was moved to get one this time around "to be there" for her daughter by avoiding getting sick.

Mililani residents Amy and Peter Kelley and daughter Megan, 3 1/2, were near the tail end of the line but were determined to stick it out.

The Kelleys learned about the shot clinic from an HMSA flier that came in the mail.

"We're hoping to prevent the flu this time," Peter Kelley said.

Last time around, Megan brought a bug home from day care and the whole family got sick.

Inside the theater concession-area-turned-clinic, six nurses were doling out the shots with assembly-line precision.

Once seated at a table, those who had come were asked a series of questions before their arms were swabbed with alcohol and the vaccine injected — all in less than a minute.