December of 1974:
My martial arts school was located in Yonkers N.Y. It was called American Olympic Karate. I'm not sure why it was called that since we all know there was no karate competition in the Olympics in 1974. I was a 17 year old freshman in college and at the time I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. In those days there were no kids in martial arts schools. This particular period in history was defined by the Vietnam war. Most of the students that were attending martial arts schools were Vietnam veterans, hard core "war dudes" with nasty dispositions. I was greeted outside the school by the senior instructor Dave Frieberg after making two previous attempts to enter the school. During those feeble attempts I left without entering since I was so intimidated by what was going on on the floor. These guys looked like they were trying to hurt each other. I remember dave was wearing a red, white and blue stars and striped flagged gi. I guess wearing that gi made everyone feel patriotic as if we like we actually won that war. I don't know but it seemed appropriate at this time in our history. He said "We teach kenpo karate here and you are going to be assigned an instructor." So far this was going pretty good. Finally at age 17, I was going to learn how to kick butt like Bruce Lee did as Kato in the Green Hornet. Little did I know what I was in for.....
My martial arts school was located in Yonkers N.Y. It was called American Olympic Karate. I'm not sure why it was called that since we all know there was no karate competition in the Olympics in 1974. I was a 17 year old freshman in college and at the time I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. In those days there were no kids in martial arts schools. This particular period in history was defined by the Vietnam war. Most of the students that were attending martial arts schools were Vietnam veterans, hard core "war dudes" with nasty dispositions. I was greeted outside the school by the senior instructor Dave Frieberg after making two previous attempts to enter the school. During those feeble attempts I left without entering since I was so intimidated by what was going on on the floor. These guys looked like they were trying to hurt each other. I remember dave was wearing a red, white and blue stars and striped flagged gi. I guess wearing that gi made everyone feel patriotic as if we like we actually won that war. I don't know but it seemed appropriate at this time in our history. He said "We teach kenpo karate here and you are going to be assigned an instructor." So far this was going pretty good. Finally at age 17, I was going to learn how to kick butt like Bruce Lee did as Kato in the Green Hornet. Little did I know what I was in for.....
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