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Old 08-22-2007, 09:57 AM   #1526
Chuck Clark
 
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Dojo: Jiyushinkan
Location: Monroe, Washington
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 1,134
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Re: Baseline skillset

Quote:
Budd Yuhasz wrote: View Post
Course, I also think everybody should grow up having done hard, manual labor, participated in combat sports and contributed to a theatrical or musical production (we all have our own biases) . . .
Sounds like we had a similar background in those activities, Budd. When I was fourteen, my dad and I, along with one of his brothers and two sons, cleared five acres of blackjack oak... stumps and all. I became very proficient with a double bit axe, crosscut saw, an old John Deere tractor, and a team of Arkansas mules (along with many ways to survive blisters and assorted ailments. I also worked on my grandparents farm every summer helping with harvest from age 8 until 17. I also took a very active part in many years of vocal music training, competitions, freestyle and dance skating, and ballroom dancing for many years. At the same time, I was learning budo in the form of (old style) judo, jujutsu, and karate-do and beginning aikido in my late teens. I'm not doing farming anymore, or dancing, or skating, just a bit of singing around the house, and have never stopped budo practice.

Thanks for igniting some old memories...

Chuck Clark
Jiyushinkai Aikibudo
www.jiyushinkai.org
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