Another part of my character has gone. In 1973 I first saw Bruce Lee in a magazine I can even remember being on a train heading to Torquay with a large group of fellow Boy Scouts. The magazine showed all these spectacular kicks and punches.
I decided that immediately on my return home I would become a Kung Fu master. At that time in Scotland Kung Fu masters were as rare as rocking horse poo. So I started with the Kobe Osaka karate school in Glasgow.
My room became a shrine to Bruce Lee posters of him and of my favourite bikes lined my walls. The magazines were full at the time of a new TV series which Lee had written but had been deemed to "Oriental" to play the lead role. This was to me sacriledge I never really took to Carradine because of this. I would like to think he was suitably embarrased at the way Lee was treated. The closest I remember seeng carradine and Lee was double feature film one showing Lee in Enter the Dragon and Carradine in Death race 2000. The less said about that film the better.
I sat every saturday evening glued to the TV watching the moves and later trying to re create them in my room. I was still hoping to become that "Master"
Time passed and I stuck with Karate changing schools a few times picking up on other styles shotokan, Kyoshinkia and other Arts a bit of Tae Kwon do some Ju Jitsu, Aikido. Eventaully Jeet Kun Do the style developed by Bruce Lee. I stuck at hat for a couple years on top of my Karate and realised that the guys teaching me were not good enough and although they had propbably read the books and tried to take the basic principles of Jeet Kun Do they did not fully understand the idea of adaptability behind the style.
I returned to trying out various martial arts Lau Gar Kung Fu, Praying Mantis Kung Fu, Savate and Kali. This has continued for the past 30 years I dont train nearly as much as I used to but I still have a barrel load of tricks up my sleeve.
So to the guy who brought Kung Fu to the masses via the medium of television, all I can say is I hope that whatever demons drove him to take his own life may he find peace elsewhere.
