I first became interested in the martial arts in the mid '60's while still a teenager. Although I enjoyed baseball
and track and field, I was far from being an accomplished athlete. Instead, my focus was on school and my focus
on booklearning led to occasional ridicule and I was no stranger to getting beaten up.
Oriental martial arts like judo and karate were starting to gain in popularity and a lot of TV shows and movies featured
fight scenes showing heroes defending themselves with what seemed like fancy moves rather than simply slugging it out.
I don't recall seeing any of them, but I was aware of the James Bond movies and, of course, TV had "The Green Hornet"
featuring Bruce Lee. I don't recall being a big fan of the Green Hornet but I do remember being impressed with "The
Wild Wild West" starring Robert Conrad as a Secret Service agent in the 1870's. The words "judo" or "karate" were never
used but it was obvious that the lead character was using an Oriental martial art.
Under the misguided belief that I could learn the martial arts from books, I started picking up books on judo and
karate and began "training" with a friend or two in my basment. I remember setting up some old mattresses on the floor
so we could practice throws without hurting ourselves. I even divided the training program in the books into colored
belt divisions naively thinking that my friends and I could progress from one rank to another just by practicing together.
Fortunately, an item in the Kalamazoo Gazette led to my involvement in the true study on karate. Sometime in March
of 1967 my parents noticed an ad or a short article stating that the Oriental Karate Club would be presenting a demonstration
to benefit the March of Dimes. A few days later my father took me to the ??County Center Building" at the Kalamazoo
County Fairgrounds. I don't remember anything about the demonstration itself but after the program they were offering
George Mattson's book, "The Way of Karate" for sale. I bought a copy and took it home, where I again set out to learn
what I could from the book.
That summer, once school was out, my father took me into Kalamazoo and got me enrolled in the Kalamazoo Oriental Karate
Club which was located at ???? E. Main at the corner of Fenimore. My first class was on June 2?, 1967 and I was enrolled
in Bill Keith's teenage class. I seem to recall going twice a week, one evening during the week and on Saturday mornings.
