TonyU

Once upon a time, many, many, many moons ago I came into this earth at a time when karate was at it's infancy in the U.S.
Vietnam hasn't peaked yet, although it was getting there. Vietnam vetarans found themselves stationed in Okinawa, Japan, Korea and other exotic lands where they learned some of the indigenous Martial Arts. They in turn returned the U.S., brought their new found skills and started propagating their knowledge.
Slowly Martial Arts became mainstream and cinema started taking advantage of it.
This is where I come in again. I grew up watching Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Bob Wall, Jim Kelly, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace and many others. I also grew up watching the Kung Fu movies that came out of China, The Shaw Brothers, Wu Tang, so forth and so on.
Well, of course I was intrigued.
I also grew up watching Cowboys and Indians, WWII and Vietnam movies. I had cowboy and military outfits growing up. I essence I was the quintessential rough and tumble, hyper active, rambunctious kid.
My father was an immigrant who believed in hard work and didn't allow slackers in his home.
He was also an amateur boxer who gave me lessons at an early age, many times as a lesson for something I did wrong.
So there started my training and my eventual addiction to it.
More to come...