90!
An honorary 90th birthday lunch was held for Doc on October 6, where the great and the loyal converged in Towson Maryland.
The New Jersey travelers came bearing greetings from their native state.
Lunch was served and the birthday cake was cut.
A mosaic was presented:
...and duly scrutinized.
...and duly hanko'd and signed by the great ones:
...and put back in its frame for display:
"All the lives those hands have touched!"
-Shodai Sensei Faustini
But then Soke Sensei noticed the room was beginning to empty and quickly surmised that the party had moved to the exercise room next door...
Where a spontaneous training/discussion session had broken out:
And so Sensei crashed the "after party."
The next day, a training session was held at Tom Fox’s Kent Island Martial Arts dojo.
Quality training was conducted...
The resident samurai traded contraband kenjutsu moves:
We rey'd out...
And the obligatory tea room session (Kent Island style) was conducted.
Happy Birthday Sensei!
The Way it Was
Chelsea Vocational High School, Circa early 1960s
...and the beginnings of the Tsugiashi kata (ichi ban).
Note: The author is a graduate of Northeast Bergen Technical High School in Norwood, N.J. (auto mechanics program)