A Little Background

As a boy whose father was overseas in the Military for most of my childhood life, I developed a strong sense to help others in the neighborhood, especially the Elders with yard chores and more.

It was raking yards and cutting grass and when I heard the sound of a distinct lawnmower running.  I awoke, dashed out of the back door and sprung into action to start cutting grass with an elder gentleman that I had met named “Sonny”,  he used to cut his sister’s grass every two weeks and use to like the way I cut with the pattern lines in the grass and we had made a deal that every two weeks I would come out at 7 to 8 am to start work, but I used to go to the backdoor and I could hear that lawnmower that was belt driven and more powerful that most push mowers.

Whenever I heard that very distinct engine I knew it was Sonny and I would run through that backyard and through the cornfield and across the highway to start to work.

This developed a strong urge to help my community of about 30 households and I developed a reputation that I was really good at cutting grass, raking yards, washing cars and debris removal all at the age of 10 yrs old.

One Day, the community had a really Severe Hurricane Warning and the Hurricane was called “Hurricane Hugo”.  Usually I would stay at home with Granddaddy Fred, Mom Ruby, Sis Latonya, Aunt Jennifer and Aunt Gail, but this particular storm would be one of the worst storms to ever impact our small community.

My Grandfather was telling us about a very bad storm named “Hurricane Hazel” that hit so hard that it was talked about for decades.

But one of my elder neighbors named Ms. Odessa that I didn’t chores for had expressed to me that all of her children was with their family’s and she didn’t feel safe with the storm approaching.

But one of my elder neighbors named Ms. Odessa, whom I did chores for, had expressed a real concern about this storm and the damage it would cause with the power outages and destruction and falling trees and debris.

Ms. Odessa children were all grown up. had their own families and had moved away. She couldn’t drive on the road due to the approaching winds and conditions due to the hurricane so I decided that I would stay with Ms. Odessa to protect her and the house as we waited for Hugo to make landfall.

As the winds started to blow (and I mean blowing so hard that you couldn’t see out of the windows) and when I did get to look outside all I could see was heavy debris flying by so fast and all I could do was think about my Family and hoped and prayed that everything and everyone was safe and sound.

As it got later past 12am, that wind howled all through the night and the sound of trees splitting apart and so many heavy thumps and impacts on the roof of the house, I had to put my hands over my ears to block out the sound.

Sensei Dre’s  Father Howard was stationed in Germany.  As he grew up and I got inspired by Martial Arts when he started studying Kickboxing with his Step Father Sterling aka “Thorough Bred” after witnessing his neighbor Allen aka “Leg” come home after winning his kickboxing match.

I was completely inspired by the movies “Bloodsport, Rocky etc….”.  Over time, I climbed the ranks all the way to 6th degree black belt and started teaching Special Forces in Training in 2010.