Page 17 - Martial Science Magazine August DiG

I grew up in a place where most every- tying one night and partied too much. I
one carried a rifle and/or a shotgun in got caught in a bad situation, and being
their truck, and most carried a hand- drunk, I was not able to defend myself. I
gun as well, and were more than ready was beat up pretty bad and left for dead
to use them. Everyone carried a knife. I in the back of a big hillbilly night club. I
was taught to fight at an early age and came to with only the neck of my shirt

had been in many serious fights before left on and beat to a pulp. That night
I got to college, putting more than one I vowed never to be in that situation
person in the hospital. I grew up in an again, that I would never lose another
area where I was required to carry a 44 fight. And to this day, I haven’t, at least
magnum when I drove our workers home not in the streets. I lost several when I
at the end of the day. I had been shot at, started fighting in tournaments, but
had a knife held to my throat, and beat that is not really fighting.
down and left for dead, all before I en-
tered college. It was the kind of place There was this one guy who had moved

where if someone started some crap, away and came back to town with a cou-
they never knew if they were going to ple of years of karate under his belt.
walk away from it. Overall, that led to a I saw him get in a fight one night and
more polite society. do some things that I had never seen.
From that point on, I was interested in
4. Being the 1960’s, what was the para- martial arts, but had nowhere to learn
digm of martial arts at that time? about them. That guy and I were far from
friends, so learning from him was not an
I knew absolutely nothing about mar- option. It was another seven years after
tial arts in the 1960’s. We were fairly that before I walked into my first dojo.
isolated from the rest of the world. I do

remember seeing Bill Wallace fight on 6. What was your first style?
television during that time. That was the
fullest extent of my martial arts knowl- I studied Shotokan Karate with Master
edge at the time. You have to remember, Bob Allen and Master Nikki Allen. They
to go to a decent theater, we had to drive both gave me a solid foundation in the
about 40 miles. And even that town had arts and actually made it hard for me to
no martial arts studios. be satisfied with some of the other guys
I trained with. Once you have experi-
5. What drew you to the arts? enced training with a true master, it is

hard to be satisfied with some guy who
I grew up fighting. I knew what it meant has only trained in the dojo and has no
to be caught in a bad, life-or-death sit- real fighting experience.
uation with basically no options, and I
didn’t like the feeling. I had been out par-

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