When I was 12 I'd sort of grown out of my toys, cast aside like SWORD rejects. It was 1973 and Enter The Dragon hit the big screen. I wore platform shoes and smoked my only ciggy to get into see it with my mates. It was an X. I had discovered Kung Fu and the rest is chop suey! Smitten, I delved into it's Eastern mysteries like only a geeky teenager can. By the end of 1973 I had my own Dojo in my parent's cellar! Only a few snaps survive of this secret ninja hangout and the above is one of them! Kung Fu really didn't fit my gangly goofy bespectacled self but I didn't care. It was new and interesting and full of strange new words like Wing Chun and Pa Kua. For me it was Geek Fu pure and simple!
I was hooked and as far as I could tell so were thousands like me. We all wanted to be Bruce Lee or Kwai Chang Kane. I can remember putting the Dojo together and building all the chinese weapons as if were yesterday. They were indeed glorious days filled with teenage Zen and loose tea Cha No Yu. I miss the Dojo and my Kung Fu friends Masey, Cookie and Nick Rowe. With typical adolescent nerdiness we had our badge, grading system and legendary sparring sessions. The 'zenith' of our obsession had to be recreating a samurai battle in my back garden!
We wore armour cut from carpets, chicken-mesh helmets with visors and brandished swords made from metal carpet strips. My mum even made me a Hakama, the Japanese dress-pants worn by Kendoka or swordsmen. Her Grattan catalogue supplied a cheap copy katana too so I felt like a Lord! The spike and chain of the Ninja, the Kusarigama, were made from toilet chains with the rubber handles popular at the time and the 'field' was bristling with tonfa, nunchaks and sai!
The most daring point of the battle was a bow and arrow shot the full length of the garden aimed straight at my mate Masey's wire helmeted head! In true Kyujutsu fashion the bow was huge and the arrow was long and tipped with a tennis ball - the closest [and safest] thing we could find to copy the screaming whistle we'd seen attached in an old book! It was a classic skirmish worthy of the nobles of old Edo! I only wish we'd had it filmed on Super 8! We knew how to play in those days!
What were your teenage crazes?
Alas, I missed my teenage years. This post (unbeknownst to you guys of course) brought back some rather not entirely happy memories. In 1971 - my senior year at high school - I started working at the Towne Theater in downtown Milwaukee. I started very shortly after they had the first run of 'Patton'. At first they were running some okay flicks BUT THEN (cue 'Jaws' theme music) they started running X-rated films - usually cut - and kung fooey. No 'Enter The Dragon' here, we're talking no-budget, back alley, disasters fit for a puke fest. By the time I quite the theater 7 years later, the downtown area had deteriorated immensely and the theater was hanging on by a thread. (it's now closed and that entire block was razed to make way for an office building). Nope, sorry, can't do c _ _ p fuey films anymore.
ReplyDeleteOn to the teenage years. After graduating from high school it was off to the university AND working six days at B&W steel mill AND still maintaining my theater job on the weekends. It may sound counter-intuitive but I had to join the military to get a break from work.
I sort of maintained my interest in HO scale model railroading, reading books and magazines more tha doing any real work on a layout though.
Back in '74, I begged my mom to make me a Star Trek Starfleet uniform for Christmas. Spock's, period. Never got it of course (and still to grow those pointy ears) :p
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear of your Kung Fu hardships, Ed. Showed some 16 mm films back in the 80's myself, but it was one night only, and the X-rated pinnacle was Nagisha Oshimas's "Empire of Passion", which btw blew my mind at the time.
Cheers Arto
Quite an armoury Woodsy! Looking a bit like my son's room. Glad you didn't cast the toys too far (and kept both of your eyes intact). You too IceBerg, despite a sudden jolt to adulthood (compared to me anyway) you held on to the toys...see lads, they are in our blood.
ReplyDeleteArto, I did buy some Star Trek kits and some of the Enterprise blueprints back in the '70s. Also saw Gene Roddenberry at an early Star Trek convention. Then I got into LOTR and would buy a calendar every year but that was the extent of any 'craze' for me. I stayed pretty grounded until I got into toys 20 years ago. Now, I'm a certified lunatic!! LOL
ReplyDeleteCS,
ReplyDeleteMost of my early toys disappeared, but you're right - the love of 'em was still in my blood waiting for the right moment to appear. Glad to say, my world hasn't been the same since :-)
Star Trek and Space:1999 were my main teenage obsessions until Blakes 7 came along. As for martial arts, I got into aikido in my 30's, but I was never very good at it!
ReplyDeleteStar Trek and Space: 1999, the prefect blend for me as well Kevin! Never seen Blakes 7, now on my Bucket List for sure -
ReplyDeleteCheers Arto
"no-budget, back alley, disasters fit for a puke fest" I loved that line ED! I was howling! I think I'll have some of the cheapo chok sockey flicks in my VHS collection! And you worked so hard when you were a teenager! You should be Secretary for Work in the next administration. Puts me to shame!
ReplyDeleteI was fascinated by your description of how Vegas downtown deteriorated. What's it like now?
And to anyone else except ED[!], I have lots of early Kung Fu VHS and a huge collection of magazines like Kung Fu Monthly and Inside Kung Fu if anyone is interested in seeing them.
Woodsy - I was actually referring to Milwaukee's Downtown as I grew up in Milwaukee. We visited Milwaukee back in '91 after the Downtown area went through what they call 'revitalisation' - HA, what a joke. All they did was build a walk way connecting the downtown buildings at about the 3rd-story level. That put all the foot traffic inside vs outside on the streets. Outside, back on the sidewalk, the bums, drunks, and low-lifes still haunted the area.
ReplyDeleteVegas on the other hand has managed to maintain a fairly good front - after all, it depends on tourist money and has to keep up appearances. As a fatter-of-mact they're currently building one of those huge observation wheels similiar to the Big Wheel in London and they are finally building a Wet-&-Wild water park to replace the one that was torn down about a decade ago. However, when the Great Recession hit several hotel projects simply stopped and their skeletal remains dot The Strip with no plans to pick up the construction again.
With the money made from my summer job harvesting blueberries and Hay bales, I bought an Ampeg amplifier and an electric bass guitar.It was an old Danalectro Long Horn like Roger Glover from Rainbow used to play.I quickly found 2 guitarists and a dummer in the neighborhood and the jam was on!I figure it was a decent trade off with my folks;They had to put up with a little noise on Saturday night,but at least they knew their teen wasn't out getting into trouble!I still write the occasional song or have a session with old friends,But as you know,there's jobs,bills,rent,wives,kids,and pets that demand attention too.I'm grateful that my family allows me to keep in touch with my inner kid,and in turn,I make sure they are happy and secure.
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments exactly Brian. Eloquently put. Have you still got your Danelectro Bass?
ReplyDeleteSold it ,unfortunately.Currently playing a charvel 3B.longhorns are hard to come by.Danalectro,Hondo or otherwise
ReplyDelete