Ma's Right Hand

The woman in the photo above was my mother.  This picture was taken on her 40th birthday in 1972.  She died yesterday.  Ma was 79 years old.  As you can see, she was petite.  Ma stood about 5'3".  After struggling for ten years to lose the baby weight from having kids, she made sure she never weighed more than 130 pounds. 

The photo above was taken on Christmas Day of 1973, three years after she gave the kids a short boxing lesson to help us ward off being picked on at school.  I'm the kid on the left showing all of my teeth.  My late younger sister is in the middle, and my late youngest brother is the boy on the right.  I have touched on the fact that Ma and I didn't get along.  But I have to give her credit for teaching us how to fight. 

Ma was a little woman, but she packed a very hard punch.  Unlike today's kids, my siblings and I, our cousins, kids in the neighborhood, our schoolmates, and most kids in general got spankings when we got out of line.  Believe me, it was better when she came at me with a belt or her shoe than with her fists.  I've knocked a couple of people out during sparring with my right hand.  But I still don't believe that my right is as potent as Ma's right hand was.  I've got to practice more to get up to her level.

A Short Woman's Well Placed Shot

Joe grinned, "You had him up against the ropes!"  Alan and I sparred for two rounds.  I caught him a couple of times with a right, but I didn't realize how potent one of them was.  "You got me good that one time," Alan would say later on.    Alan usually leaves his left jaw open, and I have gotten him there a few times when I've sparred with him.  I guess I put in a real hard shot that time.  Alan and I ended up sparring because Earleatha decided not to do so.  "I'm taking a break," she said. 

Of course, he got in a good one, too, a jab that caught me in the mouth.  Mouthpieces are good things, you know.  "I just flicked it out there.  It wasn't hard," he said after it was all over with.  "Oh, yes it was," I laughed.  It slowed me down for a moment. 

Larry, a new guy, came in and sparred with Victor.  Alan stopped it when Larry got tired and was not returning Victor's relentless punches.  Victor had pinned Larry up against the ropes. 

Neither Carlos nor Jamil was in last night.  I remembered Carlos saying he had to work the late shift at his job this week  I'm not sure what happened with Jamil.  Demond, Patrick, Toya, Stacy, Cynthia. . . .all no shows.  Neville came in, and Alan didn't recognize him at first.  "Yes, he's signed up.  He just hasn't been in here for awhile," I told Alan. 

I'm going to see the Mayweather-Mosley fight later this week at a local movie theater.  "Aw, man, I have to be up at the military school with my son that day.  I'm going to have to find a bar nearby to watch it," Alan said.  It ought to be a good match, depending on all the trash talking that's been going on.  The best was when Mosley and Oscar de la Hoya were on George Lopez's talk show.  Mosley said he was going to knock Mayweather out.  Lopez gave the two men a pair of blue Everlast boxing shoes to deliver to Mayweather.  On the bottom soles of the shoes was the "Lopez Tonight" logo.  "When Mayweather is laid out, I can get some promotion for my show," Lopez grinned.

Besides being on HBO's "24/7" (where he made the outrageous claim of being a better pugalist than Ali or Sugar Ray Robinson), Mayweather has also been seen on "What Chili Wants", a reality show on VHI.  Mayweather has been friends with Chili, who is part of the girl group TLC, for years.  The show focuses on Chili trying to find love with the help of a matchmaker.  Mayweather acts like he likes her, and Chili is willing to see if their friendship can turn into a relationship.  In the episode I saw last night, Mayweather stood Chili up for a dinner date.  Not cool. 

Monday's Coach

Everyone was hanging around in the hall outside of the gym on Monday, wondering where Alan was. "He's probably running late," I answered. Then I remembered he said he wasn't going to be in that evening. I found Carol and BK so they could open up the gym.

Two new people, a man and a woman, were there. The man looked familiar to me. He might have signed up for the gym in the past and not stuck around for too long. The woman's name was Shanice, I believe. I spent time showing them the one-two combination (left jab, right cross) and how to stand.

I didn't get much of a workout in, partially because I was lazy, partially because I was coaching people, and partially because I was watching the room. Three other people roamed in, two guys and a girl who looked like they were in their late teens/early twenties. The taller of the two guys asked if he could hit the bags. It's annoying when people walk in and assume they are entitled to play around just because the door is open. However, I was polite as I explained they had to pay to play. Fortunately, they strolled back out after a few moments.

Carlos brought his little boy, Justin, in with him. Justin got bored, as five-year-olds will do when asked to sit and stay still for long periods of time. He had a couple of action figures to play with, but Justin kept getting up and down. "Which superheroes are those?" I asked him. "One is black Spiderman, and the other is red Spiderman," he answered. "Do you read the comic books?" I said to him. "Yeah, sometimes," Justin replied. "I used to read Spiderman comic books and watch the cartoon when I was little," I informed him. Justin gave me a curious look. "Spiderman was around when you were little?" he inquired. "Spiderman first came out when I was a little girl," I smiled. I didn't tell him that the character was created in 1962. Little kids cannot wrap their minds around the concept of decades. It's kind of funny, actually, about small kids and their concept of time. Years ago, another five-year-old told me that I was old. I was fourteen years old at the time.