Eugene 1970-1972: More To Recall

Over at St. Paul, they had this thing called a Smoker one time. The kids got to take part in boxing matches and everybody was invited to watch. It took place in the gym and I recall that a lot of people were there-parents, etc., to witness this event. I decided that I wanted to box and I was accepted to take part in a match. My brother, Mike, also was in a match as well. I had to brush up on my boxing skills as I had none. I was doing this on a complete lark. It harkened back to the day when I challenged Raymond to that race when I was in First Grade donw in Santa Clara. It just popped into my head to give it a try. So, I dug out copies of Encyclopedia Brittanica and the World Book Encyclopedia we had and I read about different boxing moves. On top of it, I was recalling what I was seeing in watching ABC's Wide World of Sports-especially the Ali-Frazier highlights. To go with all of this, my brother John taught me a few things.
The time came for me to do my (I think) 3 rounds with this kid who had to have weighed at least 30 pounds more than me who was the closest thing to my weight. I think I would have been classified as an atom weight because I was so thin that I was barely even there to be seen. My match took place early in the smoker. Anyway, the kid and I spent a good portion of the first two rounds barely touching each other and just dancing around. When the third round came about, that's when I decided I had to make my move. I recalled something that I saw in one of the encyclopedias that I was thumbing through and decided I'd put it to use. I finally got right into the kid's face. I faked a swing with my left over his head and knew he was going to duck his head downward. And then I hit him with my hardest swing I could put in with my right in an undercut right to his nose. I hit him solidly. It came right towards the end of the 3rd round. When the match was over, I saw that he was crying. I figured that would get me the win. Instead, the judge called it a draw. I thought I got gyped. But that was o.k. I know knew what it was to box.
As the night wore on, I got enjoy watching the other matches. The most bizarre and hilarious one I saw that evening was the one which either ended or almost ended the night's festivities. That was the match which took place between my brother Mike and Jon G. Jon had braces and my brother Mike had some braces as well in his mouth. To this day, I will never forget watching these two friends pound the shit out of each other's faces and laughing each other silly while doing it. On top of it, because of their braces in their mouths, they were both making a gory mess out of each other too.
O.k. For the record. I was not in school when Billy M. slapped Sister Elizabeth in the face. I happened to have a cold when it happened. All I did was hear about it. I never got to witness it. There would be times later on in my school years when I wished I could have done the same to a few priests I would come to know. But God! This story became legend among us.
I wish my brothers and I could get along better nowadays because this next story is one where having a brother was a really neat thing. It proved that he cared about me. It also proved how wicked his revenge could be when he put his imagination to it. I don't know if any of you remember the classman who was older than us 3rd and 4th Graders, Kent D. Kent was one of those guys who threw his weight around at the time thinking that he ruled the roost when, in truth, he fell in the middle as far as a social pecking order goes. Well, I happened to be walking over to the section of school where I could go and take a peak at my brother and his friends over in the room that Vidar Alexander set up for the older sports guys to hang out in. When I went walking over there, Kent comes walking up to me like he's some kind of police officer and starts harrassing me for having crossed his path. He was being pretty cocky and telling me that I wasn't supposed to be around in his area. During the course of this, I believe that he grabbed my shirt a little bit and ended up pulling one of the buttons off of my shirt. He then told me that if he ever saw me walking around that area again without his permission that he was going to throw me in the garbage can that was nearby. After this exchange, Kent was quite pleased with himself as he walked off. I was a little scared about the whole bit. After school was over that day, I got my brother Mike's attention at home and told him about what Kent said and did to me earlier in the day. Mike told me not to worry about it. He said that I would never have to worry about coming over to take a peak to see him through the window of the hang-out area again and that Kent would never be a problem anymore. Well, little did I know what my brother had in store for Kent.
It goes like this. Mike spotted Kent at school not long afterwards and cozied up to him to make him feel all nice and good that he was starting to climb the social pecking order. My brother was one of the biggest and most feared people in school as he was already almost approaching 6 feet tall back then in his final years of Grade School. Mike very nicely invited Kent to come see him and a few of the guys after school was over one day and to meet him out by where the hang-out room was. I was told about this by my brother and I have no doubt that what happened was true. When Kent showed up. My brother and a few of his friends took Kent for a walk a little ways out into the field behind school. Along with a few of Mike's classmates, a dog was around and was hanging out with the guys. It was, apparently, a friendly dog. I guess Kent got a little nervous because my brother's mood changed from nice to something a bit south of it. Mike then grabbed Kent and made it very clear that he was very displeased that he was bullying his little brother who happened to be one of the smallest people in school and had been battling health problems in the early part of his life. Mike basically forced Kent to his knees and made him feel like he was being softened up for getting his ass kicked. The story goes that Kent was pretty much begging to get out of the situation at this point. My brother saw that the dog was around and decided it was time to humilate Kent in front of the other guys in order to humble him and to remind him of where he stood in the social pecking order at school. Mike got the dog and brought him over to Kent and told him that he could go after he got done doing something for him. He and his friends lifted the dog up by his front legs. The dog was a he. Mike told Kent that he would let him go after he licked the dog's balls.
I saw Kent again after the incident. I couldn't get over how nice he was to me when I saw him again. He was very effusive when he said to me that it was perfectly o.k. for me to walk anywhere I wanted to and anytime I wanted to. He was also extremely apologetic to me that he popped the button off of my shirt too. I don't think Kent ever came within 20 or 30 feet of me again the rest of my stay at St. Paul School.
The one person whom I always felt secure around was my Dad. He and I had a lot of fun together. He took me to Em's games up here. We saw many great games in '71 and '72 and witnessing Greg Luzinski, Mike Schmidt and Larry Hisle play. Larry was my favorite. I still have my autographed ball I got from him. I recall being at a game when there was a bomb scare and we all had to hang out on the field.
Dad also took me to my first college basketball game when Dick Harter was coaching the Kamikaze Ducks. I got to see UCLA at Mac Court when Bill Walton and Keith (later Jamaal) Wilkes were playing for coach John Wooden. He took me to my first college football game at Autzen when Dan Fouts was the quarterback and Bobby Moore (later to become Ahmad Rashad) was there. I saw them play against the team that had Sonny Sixkiller at quarterback. Was that Washington State or was it Washington? I can't remember.
But my favorite events, other than the Ems games, were when Dad placated to my wishes and took me to see the Portland Wrestling guys over at Marist and the one very memorable night that Dad took me to the Fairgrounds so that I could see the Indian Death Match which took place between the good lovable guy, the late Lonnie Mayne vs. the bad guy Bull Ramos. I really dug this stuff hook, line and sinker back then. I used to watch Portland Wrestling religiously every weekend. My favorite was Dutch Savage. I also used to see Jimmy Snuka and the Boyd Brothers from Australia-Lloyd and Jonathan. In the great drama that it was, Mayne practically got murdered that night and lost to Bull Ramos that night. I still crack up about my love of wrestling from the two years I was up here because I never caught the fire again that much afterwards.
My television viewing included The Odd Couple. I absolutely loved it. I also recall watching Love, American Style, Dragnet, Adam 12 and Emergency (and getting a crush on Nurse Dixon-Julie London. Who didn't?). I also got into The Brady Bunch as well. Saturday mornings found me watching Scooby Doo, The Jackson Five as well as Lancelot Link-Secret Chimp.
but the show and the music that hit me in a big way was The Partridge Family. What hit me was that it seemed cool to be in a musical family and that David Cassidy was this guy who was scoring all of these beautiful chicks. I said to myself that I had to learn from Keith Partridge and see if I could get lucky with the girls just like he did.
I also got into their music and bought their albums just so I could get an extra edge in thinking I was going to score with the girls. I soon realized, right after I moved back down to Santa Clara and after discovering The Rolling Stones, that the whole Partridge Family thing wasn't getting me anywhere with the chicks.
Little did I know that The Partridge Family had a connection to somebody with whom I did not even know who existed back then but would would become a major (huge!!!) force in my life later on in the late '70s. When you looked on the back of the albums and at the liner notes, you would always see songwriting and publishing credits. Well, when you saw them for the Partride Family albums, you saw a thing which would say Larel Canyon Publishing and then a couple of names. Those names were two guys named Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos. Now, a ton of you aren't going to have any idea of who these two people were. But they were to have a huge impact on the early career of somebody whom you will all know. Jim Cretecos ran the publishing company affecting this artist who would sign on and let Mike Appel become his first manager before he met a certain writer from Boston named Jon Landau. By now, you are probably wanting to know who it is. Well, this is where The Partridge Family had a connection to a guy whom, in the late Summer of 1972, just before I left for Santa Clara, was to perform an audition in front of the legendary talent scout John Hammond at the offices of Columbia Records. Hammond had discovered and had signed people like Bessie Smith and Bob Dylan. Ladies and Gentleman, the man who has a connection to The Partridge Family (by way of Cretecos and Appel) and who would eventually take over a huge chunk of my life was none other than a young Bruce Spingsteen.