Hey homies, where’s Christopher’s?
Ng Ka Pei Really Messes You Up!!!
I Tried Some Others And They’re Just As Potent.
No Wonder Those Drunken Masters Were So Good. The Ng Ga Pei Numbed Them Up Pretty Good.
Sifu Gus and I had our schools in Huntington, literally a stone’s throw away (sorry about your window!
and the “Holy Ground” was Christopher’s, one of the many bars in town. Good place, pretty barmaids, sometimes live music,and a back room. and an outside seating area as well. The “Village” of Huntington used to be a hip little area, like Long Island’s Greenwich Village, cool little shops, bars on every block-during school breaks, and in the summer, nothing but people roaming around, going from bar to bar. They have a ST Patrick’s Day parade, and the entire town is just drunk. (large Irish population, many Irish pubs)
The area has been bought up by the whole Starbucks, Gap superstores, and the cool little Mom n Pop shops and chochkas stores have been pushed out, but the bars are still there!
Anyway, Christopher’s was two stores from my school, and everyone used to hang out there. It was not uncommon to see guys from both schools hanging out and drinking together. It was our bar. The only bar where people walked in still wearing their uniform pants and t-shirts and nobody batted an eye. And both Sifus hanging out. Let’s just say, it was a very safe bar.
Yeah the Huntington Village was great. Around town you’d see Billy Joel, Christy Brinkley, Jerry Cooney, Ralph Maccio, Dee Snider and Ritchie Blackmore. Did a few pub crawls in my day and crash at my friends house on High Street. Even played in a few of them.
Now you’re getting me nastalgic. Remember Hamburger Choo Choo/Swenson’s. For years on Christmas Eve at 12 midnight we’d all meet at the Rose and Thistle. What was the name of the diner across from Central Pres. Church? I had one girlfriend who lived out in Llloyds Neck.
Mundays Diner? or the Blue Dolphin? on the corner there is Chesterfield’s a bar upstairs that allows cigars, and has a blues jam every sunday. That’s where I can be found with a glass of B&B, an Artuoro Fuentes, and my black Les Paul.
Chris, I used to frequent the Dodger myself. Small world.
Ten, I think the diner was called Soviero’s. Chesterfields sounds like where Cooney’s used to be. Is Deraimo’s Pizzeria still around? I know the Thistle was torn down. **** I’ve got to visit up there soon.
I never got into a fight while in Huntington except when we were at a bar called Sparks a little ways out of town on 25A.
I was from the south shore but I always hooked up with girls from the upscale neighborhoods in the Huntington area. Married one from Laurel Hollow.
Talking about reps, you’ll lose yours playing jazz on a Les Paul. You got that Al Dimeola look going on? 
nah-but one guy called me Jimmy Page.
Boy, ya show up to one blues jam with a LesPaul, and an overdrive pedal, and they immediately label you! I guess if I brought my Strat, they’d be callin me Jimi Hendrix, or Van Halen. How about Jimi Van Page?
Now you guys are making me miss huntington, boy did I have fun in taht town. I thought after 8 years I’d have that town out of my system, hey is Chesterfield’s still around.
You would think me and rick would have been at each others throats, but we were to busy having fun. I’m talking about fun. We taught Kung Fu in the village and partied in the Village. What were we suposed to do we were surounded by bars.
I moved out of the town because I was having too much fun. ANW those were good days.
Gus and I did something very unique-since we were so close to each other’s schools, we did the opposite of what everyone expected. Instead of trying to compete with each other, we united and made all the other Martial Arts schools look sick. In Huntington, there were around eight Martial Arts schools,all within three square miles of each other. We realized that if Gus and I badmouthed each other, it only made us look insecure and petty, and neither of us would get students, so we did the opposite. We referred people to each others’ schools.
Bottom line, people go where they feel comfortable, and each person has a different personality, as well as each Sifu and their school has a different personality. It boils down to chemistry. To say your school is better than another won’t sway someone towards you, it will push them away-and the type that would go to you because you badmouthed someone else…well, you don’t want to fill your school with that type of student, because you will implode. Your school will eat away at itself from the inside.
TT, What other schools were in HV and where?
Shaolin Kempo Self-Defense Centers, Nokado Dojo (opened and closed within months)Green Cloud, Myself, NY Martial Arts Hombu, Little Gym-had a pee=wee Karate class, there is now a JKD guy, an Aikido guy, and some hodge podge Muay Thai wannabe
in Huntington, but out of the Village-
Tai-Zen, Karate Way to Fitness,US Karate Academy, Serra BJJ, Ronin-Do Karate, Go-Ju Ryu. Inner Circle-JKD, another Kempo school just opened up
check this out-when I first opened, our school was called Shaolin Ch’uan-Fa, and people used tp call SHaolin Self-Defense Centers, because they thought it was my school. They would ask for “Rik” and the guy at the school, would say.“Rik is not here right now, can I help you?” and try to sign them up!
I briefly collected or bought some belts at the Villari’s in Babylon in the 80’s so that story doesn’t surprise me. I remember going to a school on NY Ave back in the late 70’s that my karate sensei was affiliated with but I can’t remember the name of it.
How are the rents for space up there?
that’s why we moved out of the village-we were renting 2000sq ft, upstairs, and paying 3600. a month, not counting electric, gas, etc. I figured that I would be right in the heart of town, but it ends up, Huntington Village is not easily accessable. We found a space upstairs over a laundramat in a “borderline” area, which was better for us. The rent is high, and if you want ground floor on a main drag, such as rte 110, or Jericho Tpk. you will pay ridiculous money. I have seen Martial Arts schools open and close before the paint was dry.(one school, a JKD guy, started to open, I would drive by his place and look in. One day he was putting up studs and drywall, and the next week, the place was for rent. He never opened.) I only wish there were good industrial space. I have a friend who has a Karate Dojo in Ronkonkoma, in an industrial space, which is within a residential community. It is huge, beautiful, and cheap. That is a rare combination. The industrial space here is right in the thick of where all the gangs are-bloods, crips, and a large contingent of MS13.
in the 70’s there was a Shorin Ryu school that shared space with Tonny Kho’s Hung Mei P’ai Kung-Fu. The Sensei stopped in when I first opened, he even gave me a set of old Japanese sparring chest gear-like kendo gear, but covered in black canvas. I still have it-it must be a hundred years old. Hung Mei P’ai recently retired their Lions and they called me up and said,“We want you to take all our shows” I have mixed feelings-I am happy and proud that they asked me, but sad to see their Lions retire. They were the first Kung-Fu school on Long Island, and the first Lion Dance I’d ever seen. I had a few friends from that school, and some fond memories.
Some of the places in the 70’s were pretty crazy and did stuff that would keep them from getting insurance in this day and age.
That’s the thing about location, even if you have a good school in a great area being hard to get to can kill you. I used to haul up to HV all the time from Babylon and it was a bear. I know some of those border areas, like around the train station or that part around Saint Hughs? I think there’s a big Hispanic community in there now. Down here finding space doesn’t seem to be a problem and we even have some good schools.
His daughter trains in my school, I think she said that he is still teaching in his garage in Sayville. But that’s cool that he gave you his Lion dance route. I guess you be getting some easy money this New Year.
EASY??! are you effin kiddin me? all his shows are way the eff out there in Sayville, Islip, etc, and we go from there out to Northport, Huntington, Westbury, Flushing, NYC =I am freakin tired!
that being said, I really needed the bread. I had a dip in enrollment and this really helps during those times.
Yea I know what you mean, I used to do it for my sifu and as cool as it was it was hard work. ANW I stopped doing it after CTS got sick.