Like I said before, we never really grew up in the ghetto, but for some reason within a 2-mile radius from my house where I grew up, there were a hugely disproportionate amount of violent people, and for some reason they with the people that I considered my closest friends. Another fact, for some reason locals have fighting in their DNA. When you see two tough looking basketball players get into a scrap, they look like two school girls, but when any two locals fight, even if they never trained, they look like two UFC contenders. They are the fighting’ist (my word) ethnic group/race on the planet.
These are some of my tough local “Ohana” who helped mold me, toughen me, and always have my back.
Let’s start with Wayne. When was about three years older than I, and we were friends in junior high school. He had a lot of problems at home, so my mother to guardianship of him, and he came to live with us. Wayne was a short, and stocky local, who is very strong and got into a lot of fights. Wayne love to surf, dance, and fight, I think in that order. When I was growing up in junior high school, and even in high school there was always a dance every weekend somewhere, it was usually held at a high school somewhere. We used to find out where these dances were, They were open to the public, and we would always either catch the bus or catch a ride with some friends, Sometimes my mother wouldn’t even give us all a ride, it was a pretty funny sight seeing 5 to 8 kids jammed into a small Volkswagen Karmin Ghia. At these dances, there was always other kids from all over the island, and as you can imagine along with dancing and getting hi, it was usually a lot of fights as well. Wayne was the closest thing to a big brother that I am her had, and no matter what the size, if anybody started to pick on me, Wayne would jump in swinging in a second. I remember one time I was surfing at Diamondhead, and someone threw a rock that hit me in the head, Wayne found out who it was add beat him up before calling my mother for a ride home to take me to get stitches. On the other side of that though, Wayne was also a great sparring partner for me. We spent a lot of time grappling and punching each other. Sometimes we would put socks on her hands and pretend they were boxing gloves and go at it, those were good times and it definitely helped mold me as a fighter, martial artists, and man. Wayne became a police officer, then a prison guard. He now works in Honolulu as a bartender. I think of those days often. He was one of the few people that could beat me at a dance off.
I met Adam when I first started training for my boxing matches at Palolo gym. Adam was a tall lanky Hawaiian who lived in Palolo housing. Adam was a very rough kid, And ended up getting into a lot of fights, and eventually as an adult spent a significant amount of time in prison. I consider Adam a brother, because I always knew that he had my back. I remember going to my first boxing match and he was in Nanakuli Hawaii, and that’s where my opponent was from, so I was actually more nervous about going to this very rough area where they definitely did not like Caucasians (Haoles), then I was about my first amateur boxing match. Adam volunteered to go with me and he said he would make sure nothing happen to me after I knocked my opponent out. Even though we were teenagers, I felt very safe knowing that Adam would be there with me. We had an exit strategy while we were driving to the other side of the island, we were from ” Town” and Nanakuli is considered “country”. I remember Adam telling me that after I knocked my opponent out he would get me at ringside and take me straight to the car and make sure nobody jumped me. I remember knocking my opponent out in the first round, but to our surprise we got nothing but friendly congratulations from the Nanakuli locals, and we made it out of there without being jumped. Even though nothing happened after that fight, potentially something could have, and Adam didn’t even think twice about putting himself in harm’s way to protect me. I have never forgotten that. I am still in touch with Adam, and I see him every time I go visit Hawaii. He and his high school sweetheart are still husband and wife (almost 40 years), and his children and grandchildren all live in Palolo housing. I still to this day consider Adam one of my very best friends.
Then there was Melvin. I met Melvin in junior high school when he was trying to steal my bike, and when I stopped him he punched me and we fought for a while, Melvin was about four or five years older than I, so at 13 years old that is a big difference. If there was a decision to be made, probably Melvin got a unanimous decision 29-28 in our first fight, but at least he never got my bike. Melvin lived about a block from my junior high school. He had four brothers and one sister. Melvin liked to get high, hang out at the park, and beat people up. I never really knew why we became such good friends after our first meeting was an actual fistfight, But we’d became very close friends. I like to hang around with Melvin, but I knew I did not want to get into the things that he was into, so there was a lot of times I would just come “Nah you go I’ll stay here”. I remember getting high with Melvin one late late night, and I was getting more serious about my fighting, So I told Melvin “I am never going to get high again, I am going to become a champion”. I remember it like it was yesterday, “He looked right at me and said I think that’s a great idea, I know that you are going to be a champion, I have seen you fight”… That was the last time that I ever got high, I was 13 years old. Melvin ended up shooting a police officer during a robbery attempt, and he died in prison. Two of his other brothers ended up spending the rest of their lives in prison for murder as well.
Well those were three of my close friends growing up. They were not perfect, No one is, but I always felt safe with them and I still consider them like brothers.