Three of the “old guard” under Hanshi Ridgely Abele, who died in 2009, joined the Midlands School of Martial Arts for a reunion of sorts while also watching five of our students test for ranks from purple to yellow belt on Saturday The three (shown below in a photo) were Rod Gardner (far left), who was the 14th person to sign up for classes when Mr. Abele opened the Columbia School of Karatedo in 1979, along with myself, Rick Scoppe, (next to Mr. Gardner), Michael Blevins (without whom none of us might be where we are today in the martial arts and to whom every day, every week and every month was physical fitness day, week or month) and Tim McGuiness, who was a longtime instructor at the school along with the rest of us shown here – and a onetime roommate of Mr. Abele, to boot.
Thanks for all three for coming and sharing some fellowship with us – and so I could introduce one and all to the students at our school. And to add to what a great day it was, my younger sister, Shannon, and husband, John, made the trip from North Carolina to see me and watch the test – and make me her world famous Hershey Bar Cake! Yum, yum.
