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This is how their song "Schoolyard Knockout" came to be written.
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This one is a l..o...n...g read, folks, and a story within a story, and I know that Latigo is not going to like me posting this one.
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As usual............ I can't remember the year, but I'd guess that Latigo was around 11 or so. He was in school at Trinity Lutheran and a ripe target. He had long hair and played rock guitar, so............ As I said....... A ripe target for the boys, and that was the beginning of the eventual text of this original song....... "Schoolyard Knockout."
It began when Lat decided that he'd like to play guitar. In the early days when I first met Ma I was in a Bluegrass band named Sandy Bottom (NO JOKES, UG!), so I started Lat on his first guitar lessons. Long story short...... he aced everything I could throw at him very quickly, so I began looking for an actual teacher. Ther were a lot of "purported teachers" around the valley, but I needed to find one that impressed me first.
One day I was at the old Ackley's Music store and there was a guy sitting there that looked like a "biker dude". He wandered to the back of the store and I asked Dennis who he was. "George McGuire.... he was the lead road guitarist for the Righteous Brothers road show in the 70's". That got me thinking...... Could he possibly be a teacher? I went to the back of the shop to talk with him.
"A kid!?!........ No way. I don't teach anyone, and definitely NOT kids!". Well.......... nutz. So I said........ "Howzabout you listen to him for 5 minutes, and if you decide it's a No-Go, you'll never hear from me again?" He's looking really exasperated and irritated, but he says "Ok. 5 minutes. No more!" .......... I handed Latigo a guitar off the wall and..........
One hour later I went to the back and told Lat we had to head home. I looked at George and he says..... "Ok, but if he doesn't ace his lessons every week, then we're done." ........... and that was the beginning. It soon moved to 3 times a week. George was extremely happy. He was creating a little McGuire clone....... and that's exactly what happened.
Anyone reading this knows what an incredible player George was. He had come to Kalispell to hide out from the IRS, but they found him anyway. Ma and I helped him financially from time to time, and George liked the area so much he opted to stay here instead of moving back to Las Vegas. He was a night club "demand player" out there. There were a lot of things we came to know about George as he became close to the St.Marie Clan........ so............ Lat is his protege, long hair and all.... but that also made him a target.
We became aware of the problem when Lat showed up with a few bruises once in a while, but when 3 of those punks held him down while a 4th used a pencil on his back creating puncture wounds sending us to the ER with him..... That's when Ma and I stepped in. The final straw was when he was held by two and the 3rd one split his lip open and he lost a tooth. That was at the end of the school year. :Enter Paul Weed:
Paul ran the Kobukan Karate school, and very long story short........ Of necessity..... That summer, Lat became one of the best fighters in his class. I bought a full scale Bag and made up a pair of sparring sticks. The objective was for me to stand behind the ceiling suspended bag and, using the sparring sticks, try to hit him as quickly and as hard as I could. These sparring sticks were made of 2" diameter PVC with foam and duct tape "gloves" on the ends. Lat had to block and dodge them, and I wasn't gentle with him at all. Within time I couldn't touch him, and he'd counter punch and high kick as hard as he could. Between Paul Weed's school and my sparring with him, by the end of summer he was untouchable.... Then came the fall and back to school.
I'm going to eliminate a number of Lat's altercations that semester except for the last two. By this time Ma and I were accustomed to being called in to the principals office because of some kid "trying out" the kid they remebered from the past school year. Bright one morning I received another call. I entered the principals' ocffice and saw Lat standing agains the wall with his arms folded. I asked teh principal what the issue was this time, and he said...... "Come around to my desk". I did, and...... The kid sitting in the chair that had been facing away from me was there before me........... His face black and blue. He was one of the bullies from last year. Apologies and another explanation about "these ,kids have GOT to stop testing him! My wife and I are going to end up in a court with one of these bullies' parents and us facing a lawsuit"!
Well......... there was no easy way to stop them and Lat had been instructed to do his best to aviod any and all confrontations, as well as a short list of the things he knew how to that that he was forbidden from ever doing in a fight with any kids. .... And then came the the one just before the end of that school year. Enter a "new kid".
I was called in to the school again, but this time to a classroom. I entered and saw Lat standing against the wall just inside the door........ And there, across the room of overturned tables and desks was a kid whose face was bruised and bloodied, and .......... my heart sank. This was a bad one. The kid had heard "stories" about Lat, didn't believe them and determined to show Lat for what he really was............. whatver that might have been. Latigo had entered the classroom and this kid shoved him so hard he fell over a desk and ended up on the floor. Huge mistake. Long explanation by the teaher short....... Lat got up, the kid came at him and got drop-kicked to the floor for his trouble. By this time kids were screaming and running out of the room as Lat gave this punk a quick education in "minding his own business". I was referred to the (A very nice guy) principal to discuss it all, and he did understand that none of it was Lat's fault, and since the schoolyear was nearly over....... he'd let it all go. The kid's parents were contacted and that was that............. or so we thought. Now begins his last year in a public school. Hooo doggies!
We'd not even considered that Lat's "reputation" for being a very changed easy-target to better-not-mess-with-him target had preceded him by bully word of mouth. So....... The first incident. I'm not going to give you this student's name in case he's still in the valley and a full grownup. He might find me and kick MY butt for telling the story! LOL
First day of school, Lat was told by this kid that he was to (the fabled gym situation) meet him behind the gym on wednesdasy "behind the gym". That was monday. Now, this kid had been held back a year and had 5" and 50 pounds on Lat. That night Lat informed us that he was "feeling too sick to go to school". Ma deternined that there was nothing wrong with him, so....... off to school. He came home that afternoon insisting that he was getting sick. I asked him what was REALLY wrong, and....... he told me. I explained that this wasn't going away, and that he had to go to school the next day.......... but I also went up into the loft,retrieved his bag and sparring sticks, and we went to work.
Two hours later, once again I couldn't touch him. He was as ready as he was ever going to be. He was very nervous, but he went to school. I cleared my afternoon for what I knew would be a call from the principal's office. And it did come.
Listen to the recording that Latigo and his sister performed to get the full story.
MP3 Player SoundClick
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one is a l..o...n...g read, folks, and a story within a story, and I know that Latigo is not going to like me posting this one.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As usual............ I can't remember the year, but I'd guess that Latigo was around 11 or so. He was in school at Trinity Lutheran and a ripe target. He had long hair and played rock guitar, so............ As I said....... A ripe target for the boys, and that was the beginning of the eventual text of this original song....... "Schoolyard Knockout."
It began when Lat decided that he'd like to play guitar. In the early days when I first met Ma I was in a Bluegrass band named Sandy Bottom (NO JOKES, UG!), so I started Lat on his first guitar lessons. Long story short...... he aced everything I could throw at him very quickly, so I began looking for an actual teacher. Ther were a lot of "purported teachers" around the valley, but I needed to find one that impressed me first.
One day I was at the old Ackley's Music store and there was a guy sitting there that looked like a "biker dude". He wandered to the back of the store and I asked Dennis who he was. "George McGuire.... he was the lead road guitarist for the Righteous Brothers road show in the 70's". That got me thinking...... Could he possibly be a teacher? I went to the back of the shop to talk with him.
"A kid!?!........ No way. I don't teach anyone, and definitely NOT kids!". Well.......... nutz. So I said........ "Howzabout you listen to him for 5 minutes, and if you decide it's a No-Go, you'll never hear from me again?" He's looking really exasperated and irritated, but he says "Ok. 5 minutes. No more!" .......... I handed Latigo a guitar off the wall and..........
One hour later I went to the back and told Lat we had to head home. I looked at George and he says..... "Ok, but if he doesn't ace his lessons every week, then we're done." ........... and that was the beginning. It soon moved to 3 times a week. George was extremely happy. He was creating a little McGuire clone....... and that's exactly what happened.
Anyone reading this knows what an incredible player George was. He had come to Kalispell to hide out from the IRS, but they found him anyway. Ma and I helped him financially from time to time, and George liked the area so much he opted to stay here instead of moving back to Las Vegas. He was a night club "demand player" out there. There were a lot of things we came to know about George as he became close to the St.Marie Clan........ so............ Lat is his protege, long hair and all.... but that also made him a target.
We became aware of the problem when Lat showed up with a few bruises once in a while, but when 3 of those punks held him down while a 4th used a pencil on his back creating puncture wounds sending us to the ER with him..... That's when Ma and I stepped in. The final straw was when he was held by two and the 3rd one split his lip open and he lost a tooth. That was at the end of the school year. :Enter Paul Weed:
Paul ran the Kobukan Karate school, and very long story short........ Of necessity..... That summer, Lat became one of the best fighters in his class. I bought a full scale Bag and made up a pair of sparring sticks. The objective was for me to stand behind the ceiling suspended bag and, using the sparring sticks, try to hit him as quickly and as hard as I could. These sparring sticks were made of 2" diameter PVC with foam and duct tape "gloves" on the ends. Lat had to block and dodge them, and I wasn't gentle with him at all. Within time I couldn't touch him, and he'd counter punch and high kick as hard as he could. Between Paul Weed's school and my sparring with him, by the end of summer he was untouchable.... Then came the fall and back to school.
I'm going to eliminate a number of Lat's altercations that semester except for the last two. By this time Ma and I were accustomed to being called in to the principals office because of some kid "trying out" the kid they remebered from the past school year. Bright one morning I received another call. I entered the principals' ocffice and saw Lat standing agains the wall with his arms folded. I asked teh principal what the issue was this time, and he said...... "Come around to my desk". I did, and...... The kid sitting in the chair that had been facing away from me was there before me........... His face black and blue. He was one of the bullies from last year. Apologies and another explanation about "these ,kids have GOT to stop testing him! My wife and I are going to end up in a court with one of these bullies' parents and us facing a lawsuit"!
Well......... there was no easy way to stop them and Lat had been instructed to do his best to aviod any and all confrontations, as well as a short list of the things he knew how to that that he was forbidden from ever doing in a fight with any kids. .... And then came the the one just before the end of that school year. Enter a "new kid".
I was called in to the school again, but this time to a classroom. I entered and saw Lat standing against the wall just inside the door........ And there, across the room of overturned tables and desks was a kid whose face was bruised and bloodied, and .......... my heart sank. This was a bad one. The kid had heard "stories" about Lat, didn't believe them and determined to show Lat for what he really was............. whatver that might have been. Latigo had entered the classroom and this kid shoved him so hard he fell over a desk and ended up on the floor. Huge mistake. Long explanation by the teaher short....... Lat got up, the kid came at him and got drop-kicked to the floor for his trouble. By this time kids were screaming and running out of the room as Lat gave this punk a quick education in "minding his own business". I was referred to the (A very nice guy) principal to discuss it all, and he did understand that none of it was Lat's fault, and since the schoolyear was nearly over....... he'd let it all go. The kid's parents were contacted and that was that............. or so we thought. Now begins his last year in a public school. Hooo doggies!
We'd not even considered that Lat's "reputation" for being a very changed easy-target to better-not-mess-with-him target had preceded him by bully word of mouth. So....... The first incident. I'm not going to give you this student's name in case he's still in the valley and a full grownup. He might find me and kick MY butt for telling the story! LOL
First day of school, Lat was told by this kid that he was to (the fabled gym situation) meet him behind the gym on wednesdasy "behind the gym". That was monday. Now, this kid had been held back a year and had 5" and 50 pounds on Lat. That night Lat informed us that he was "feeling too sick to go to school". Ma deternined that there was nothing wrong with him, so....... off to school. He came home that afternoon insisting that he was getting sick. I asked him what was REALLY wrong, and....... he told me. I explained that this wasn't going away, and that he had to go to school the next day.......... but I also went up into the loft,retrieved his bag and sparring sticks, and we went to work.
Two hours later, once again I couldn't touch him. He was as ready as he was ever going to be. He was very nervous, but he went to school. I cleared my afternoon for what I knew would be a call from the principal's office. And it did come.
Listen to the recording that Latigo and his sister performed to get the full story.
MP3 Player SoundClick
