Long Ago and Far Away

April, 1969
Los Angeles, California

Back when I was young and stupid and in my second martial arts class -- Sensei Gordon Doversola's Okinawa-te school on Sunset Blvd., almost to Hollywood, I used to think that smashing my hands into bricks and boards was a keen thing to do.

I gave that up a couple years later when somebody slipped a firebrick in on me ...

Found this in the old photo album. The first time I ever broke a brick with a "karate chop."
If you look really close, you can see my beatnik-style beard, such that it was ...