the more they stay the same.
He was now a 12th grader and his life in his new town was pretty good. Back in his old town and school, they had a very strict dress code. All the girls had to wear skirts or dresses. Pants were forbidden and blue jeans were even worse. Boys had to have their hair cut pretty short. if a guy had hair that touched the collar of his shirt, he could be sent home until he got his hair cut. Coiuld even be suspended for it.
In this new town, there was no strict dress code, or maybe it was just more relaxed. Nobody seemed to care about the length of his hair, so it grew quite long. Not that he was all that into long hair, but with no one telling him to cut it, he never felt a need to cut it.
One night, he was at a basketball game. He decides to hit the concession stand for some refreshment. That’s when he ran into the drunk. The man was older than the 12th Grader, clearly intoxicated and took exception to the 12th Grader’s hair. He really wanted the 12th Grader to step outside and fight him.
Oh crap!! The 12th Grader hadn’t had any confrontations with anyone for a couple years. He was able to avoid fighting, which he was sure would get him beaten up, but he was reminded of his quest to learn martial arts. He hadn’t found any classes in his new town, but hadn’t really missed it because life had been good. This confrontation renewed his commitment to finding a class. There is always someone who wants to mess with you, even if you don’t run into him for a year or 2, he will pop up when you least expect it.
Martial Arts was really entering a period of great popularity. Bruce Lee had made his presence known in the role of Kato, sidekick and chauffer of the Green Hornet. The Kung Fu TV series was just getting started. Tournaments were starting to get TV time. The 12th Grader was an avid fan of everything having to do with martial arts. Ne knew there were several schools in the major city to the south, but that was a 4-hour drive from him. Not practical.
The best he could do is keep searching and have faith that one day he would be in position to learn martial arts. He just didn’t know how quickly that day was approaching.
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