There is a stretch of road not too far from our house that I and brother went to a lot. There was an old McDonald's there that became our hangout. That's long been abandoned.
There was also a tae kwon do place that always kind of stuck out to us. I remember being driven past there numerous occasions. I thought of all the karate movies I saw when I was young and did all the "hi-ya" stuff triggered in part by that building.
I never wanted to go into it, however. My God, I was just a kid. I wasn't serious.
One day, while my brother and I were just hanging out some weekend afternoon, not having a care in the world, my Grandmother and aunt came to me and said that My Father wanted to take my brother to the tae kwon do place. OK. But then they wanted me to come with them to talk to the guy. They said they needed my help speaking English to him in order to enroll him.
I immediately pitched a fit. I knew what that meant. That meant that they were going to enroll me. I didn't want to go, and I resented trying to be tricked. There was a huge pool table we used to play with in the basement, and I was playing with my M.A.S.K. figurines when they told me what they were going to do, and I remember throwing one on the table, adamantly refusing to go despite telling me that they just needed my help.
Well, my Grandmother and aunt played dirty. They called My Fucking Father up again. Either they talked to him right in front of me or they put the phone up to my ear so I had to hear him yell at me, but the bottom line was I was going ... and fuck all trickery, they were going to sign up my brother and me.
Man, you should've seen me at this tae kwon do master's office. I was angry and bitter, and I think I had my arms crossed the whole time. But I had to help, otherwise I would've witnessed an embarrassing situation where they would try to babble out some words in English and he would've just threw up his hands like he's saying, "What?" Stupid me for helping.
Maybe it was her idea, but another aunt of mine, the mother of the cousin we used to hang out with often, also signed up. And maybe because My Fucking Father wanted to convince us to do tae kwon do, but my Grandmother also signed up. So it was me, my brother, my aunt, my cousin, and Grandmother all working out for the next year at this place. I hated going there often, but since I was a kid, I liked running around and talking with the other students and acting like I was Bruce Lee.
However, since this wasn't my idea, I slowly grew to resent it. They fast-track a lot of students in tae kwon do; in a year I progressed from a white to a yellow to a yellow with a green stripe. That's to encourage the youngsters from not quitting. Well, we did. Partly it was because I just hated it.
But there are three distinct memories that convinced me that this sucked. One was when we went downstairs to the changing room. I saw one of the vets, possibly the owner's son, changing. Dude, the only dude taking out his dick in front of me is me. Another was when we and this other guy misbehaved and didn't follow the rules, specifically bowing in due penance before entering the workout area. The asshole instructor for this class made us do push-ups and jump in the air as punishment before we began. I hate him.
The third was when I missed tae kwon do for a week because I was sick. You see, to totally commit to tae kwon do, you have to take it seriously. That means coming in regularly. I hated that; it was like work. Anyway, after I came back, the entire family was taking a class and stretching out. I had uttered something to my family that my sides hurt after taking so much time off. Then, the owner, who was instructing us in this class, went after me. "You had a week off! Don't you complain about how you're hurt!" Or something like, I vaguely remember not knowing why he was mad and, well, not giving a shit why he was upset. Man, can't someone utter a fucking complaint once in a while.
Once our annual contract was done, we were out. Shit, one time when we told My Father we were going to class, my aunt took us all to bowling. That was more productive than any time spent in class. So not only did I never step foot in that place, I think I avoided going onto the frontage road leading towards that place ever again.
Well, times change. The city for the past several years wanted to redevelop the strip where that frontage road was into residences. For a long time to the old McDonald's land and the tae kwon do place were two of the last three holdouts. It was weird seeing those buildings and yards of bare grass for the longest time.
But the city finally succeeded. Last week, seemingly overnight, the last three buildings in that area the city wanted to clear were torn down, inculding the tae kwon do. It's amazing how fast a building can be destroyed.
I felt kind of bad to see a lifelong dream die. But then last night I looked around and saw that they did not go out of business. Instead, they had migrated northward to a new, and bigger, place. They actually opened about six weeks ago. So now I don't feel bad at all. Now I'm just fucking glad I don't ever have to see that place whenever I go somewhere. Good fucking riddance, bad memories.
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