Toby Gibson alerted me to this obituary from the San Diego Tribune and to the comments on a related MySpace page.
“Michael Dean Woods, 48, of Corpus Christi, Texas, went home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Thursday June 25, 2009. Mike had a rare genetic disorder, Porphyria.
“Mike was born in Oregon on April 1, 1961. He is preceded in death by his parents, Dean and Phyllis, who raised him in San Diego, California. Michael worked hanging drywall, he also made custom rockscapes.
“Michael was a good, strong, hard working Man who took responsibility for his actions wrong or right, and will be greatly missed.
“Michael was a loving and devoted husband; father; grandfather; son; brother; uncle; and friend.
“He leaves to cherish his memory his loving wife Lori, five sons, Cody Woods, 13; Justin Woods, 12; Seamus Woods,10; Jesse Rose, 22; James Rose,24; a daughter and her husband, Jacklyn and Shaun Ward; a grandson, Gavin Ward, 2; a brother Scott Woods of San Diego; his wife’s entire family; neighbors; and many friends.
“ ‘I am healed by the stripes of Jesus’
“~MLW~”
OK, I’ll go first, even though I’m not qualified.
I didn’t know Mike Woods well — I’m sure he wouldn’t have remembered me, and I learned quickly he was not someone to cross. (As I’ve said before, I seem to have a talent for not crossing people, so none of the scene’s heavier presences ever presented a personal threat to me.)
I became friends with Robert Labbe (eventual drummer for 3 Guys Called Jesus and the Ho Hos) while helping to patch Rob up after Woods got … impatient … during a 1985 party at Mike McCarthy’s. Perhaps I owe Woods a strange kind of debt for bringing Robert and me together.
The pictures and obit make me think that we might have had something more to talk about in adulthood … Maybe I would even have ventured within arm’s length of the guy! (The little boy in the Black Flag T-shirt seems pretty comfortable there.) 🙂
I’m sorry we never heard from him on the blog; his disease sounds like an awful ordeal, and I feel great sorrow for his family.
>>He could be a world class villain, and to the gentler faction in our little scene he was the bogeyman you avoided at all costs, hoping his focus of attention wouldn’t fall on you.
A quarter-century removed … There’s something about having bogeymen that added a spark to things. I don’t like anyone to be on the receiving end of violence, and I feel bad for the people who serve it up (’cause I think they’re trapped in the ways Toby alludes to). But they’re compelling presences — the fact that we tell the stories all these years later speaks to that.
Toby, I’m sorry you lost your friend.
Ah shoot- it’s been a very long time since he and I spoke- m0re than 20 years. I think it’s safe to say that he lived a lot longer than anyone would have predicted back in the day, given the antics he was known for. He had a lot of balls, and more than once the rumor went around that he was gone, and he even had the dubious distinction of at one point having some sort of contract out on him- you know you’ve made an impression when you get your name on one of those pieces of paper.
All in all, I don’t think he led a boring life, and no one can say he wasn’t a brave man.
Bless his soul. What a lucky man to have found life in Texas an a large loving family. For my part, I hope he didn’t suffer too much, or for too long. Just the same, it is my true belief that he is with the Angels now…probably hanging out and drinkin’ near beer with Mark Rude, Joe Strummer, and the like!
Wheewwwwww eeeeeeeewhhhh!
I’d like to be a butterfly on that wall…or cloud.
That reminds me, when i was a little girl, about 5 or 6 years old, and flying on airplanes for the first time from San Diego to San Fransisco to visit my Maternal Grandparents; I remembr how I used to look out of the plane window-super fast-like; as if I could catch the glimpse of Jesus and all the people who died and had gone to heaven hanging out with their wings on, sipping cofee and chatting it up. Yeah…hopefully Mike is hanging on a pink fluffy cloud, right about now…and smiling on his sweet, sad family.
Whether or not there’s some place in the universe beyond our current understanding that is an objective, tangible heaven- we do know, for certain, that our impact continues after we’re gone. We know it matters how we are remembered. We know there is some comfort in the idea of being remembered with love. So the degree to which heaven is something real, something that matters, may be the degree to which the living continue to love, to value memories of a person, pass them on, be inspired by them to live well. If you want to believe he is in heaven, hold him there in your hopes and memories, do something to honor those memories- which are as real as anything can be.
I for one am going to go trash a party and steal the keg. 😉
Thank you, Senor Lifehater, for doing your part to sustain punk heaven!
I’ll drive recklessly and scream obscenities at police officers.
You mean that’s not normal?!!
It’s like a Viking funeral, only with nightsticks!
>You mean that’s not normal?!!
I hadn’t really considered that question. I’m just saying it’s my contribution to keeping punk memories alive.
Oh good- that’s pretty much my M.O. for navigating in-town traffic.
OK … So I want to write the one-act play where Farrah, Sky, MJ and Woods all arrive at the pearly gates the same day.
>Oh good- that’s pretty much my M.O. for navigating in-town traffic.
If I tell you that’s normal, it’ll kill the fun, won’t it.
Hey, Matt, since you are up and wanting to write, help me out with the proposal I’m working on. It’s fun! It’s a wild, wild party and you are invited.
I keep trying to complete the lyric, “If there’s a punk heaven, you know they’ve got … “
Schaeffer beer by the boatload.
… A million crash pads and unlimited sledgehammers.
Last time I spoke with Mike Woods, I believe he was living with Terry Marine, he told me that Terry was out of control and getting into alot of trouble lately. It was like the pot calling the kettle black. May God Bless You and watchover your family Mike.
mike, turning around and seeing your own shadow obviously gave you pause to change and shift. i am glad you were surrounded by people who loved you and knew the entire package of who you were combined with the obvious grace you had acquired. it’s not easy transitioning from bogeyman to papabear, but it looks like you managed it. way to go. proving people wrong, succeeding when they thought you would fail, was the best way to live. proud of you. even if we barely knew each other.
and for giving toby the light bulb he needed, i thank you.
swift journey, mister woods. i, for one, was never afraid of you.
>>it’s not easy transitioning from bogeyman to papabear, but it looks like you managed it. way to go. proving people wrong, succeeding when they thought you would fail, was the best way to live.
Beautifully put, Ava. I’ve been thinking about Mr. Woods a lot since posting this.
We’ve had a few visits from people with heavier reputations back in the day … There’s a special kind of pleasure in finding a whole adult person there — makes the gray hairs and saggy bits seem a reasonable tradeoff. 🙂
Not to be an asshole (okay- I am an asshole a lot of the time), but who did we get a visit from who had a “heavier reputation” than Woodsy or Arturo?
Looking at Mike’s posthumous photos (and my own life as an example), those fashionably fat North Park skinheads still cant hold their own no matter where they’ve run to. I challenge any one of those pansies to NOT leave a word about Mike. Because hey-Mike pretty much paved the way for them to be able to do what they did.
SDSH excluded. Just wanted to clarify. Specifically Art and Chui, Wendell, The Things, a couple others.
>>Not to be an asshole (okay- I am an asshole a lot of the time), but who did we get a visit from who had a “heavier reputation” than Woodsy or Arturo?
Toby: Ha! No, no — not a heavier reputation than Woods or Art (I wasn’t even thinking in terms of a contest, although I can see why my phrasing read like that.) Just a reputation that was on the heavier side.
Damn English grammar!
I’ve seen pictures- some of us (myself included) got “heavier” with age!
>>I’ve seen pictures- some of us (myself included) got “heavier” with age!
Tell me about it. I had to run to a meeting today — subway was delayed, and I had to present to the company … I really gotta get off my ass and move around, sheesh!
On the upside, I probably could have sat on any of the old-school tough guys in my present condition. Kind of like a human air cushion. 🙂
I get up and run/walk at 4:30 a.m. around 4-5 days a week. The knees can’t take a full on run anymore like I used to do every day at 4:30/5 a.m. most of my life. Getting old sucks.
PS: “Heavy” was a silly, old-hippie kind of adjective I grabbed in haste. I’d be happy if someone could give me a better one.
“Scary” or “bad” or “violent” isn’t right, ’cause they weren’t all that, certainly not all the time to everyone.
“Potentially problematic”? LOL
“Fully capable of responding vigorously to affronts, real or perceived”?
“Proactively physical in certain circumstances”?
I knew what you meant. The only word to describe some of those guys at that time is “heavy”.
I prefer “a cyclone of irresponsible activities”. 😉
>“a cyclone of irresponsible activities”
Where’s that applause button?
Thanks for posting this blog. I’m speachless right now. All I can say is that I’m so incredibly blessed that Mike ended up with a family and life afterall. For those that knew him, know what i’m saying.
We sure got into some trouble back in the day, and I haven’t seen him 15 years… It’s funny though… of all the songs that remind me of Mike Woods; none of you will believe this one, it has to be Stairway to heaven! One night at my place in Encinitas we pulled an all nighter (1986??) and Mike put on Led Zep record… and he jumped up on my counter and played an air guitar. Ya, I know! Then the part in the song that says… there are two paths you can go by, there’s still time to change the road your on. He jumped down and looked at me with so much intensity and said… I HOPE SO! I really hope so… Well that year ended up being the worst one I can remember, we were all very messed up on chemicals. A few years later I ended up changing my ways, had a family, etc. I ran into Mike when I was pregnant with my second baby, and he was floored, he rubbed my belly saying I wish this mine. What he meant was, he was tired and sick of his life, choices, drugs and everything. He wanted out and wanted more from life. I have prayed for Mike over the years and when I read this obit I was sad for his families loss, but so happy that he made peace with God, and he was free from the bondage he was in for so long. Way to go Mike. RIP brother!
Ah shoot Dawn- So good to hear from you and to know that you’re great. Fantastic. Geez- Mike- he and I ran across each other when I was like 15 nearing 16. You and I first ran across each other when I was about 16, you a little older- a pretty neat new page in my story, you punks who were really nice to me up in Encinitas. (Geez- where is Joanie? Any idea?) I think in some fashion (though he would have made his way North anyhow- actually Lanette Phillipson, Kim Hideous and Lloyd brought me up North) I was one small vehicle that brought Mike up to North County. Good or bad, right or wrong- things are what they are. So long ago, such crazy times. What was that place up from Moonlight where some of the old punks used to go and get Long Island Iced Teas, and then dash? Just North of La Paloma?
Where is Brymo these days? I lost track of him after his mentions via web after all those late nineties festival concerts.
K-den- miss you- Aloha- Toby
Billy-bobs?
Full disclosure: Contrary to my normal policy about censorship on the blog, this morning I held a comment by one first-time poster who says his friend was badly injured by Mike Woods long ago.
Fair enough, and plausible enough. (At least one of the principals is no longer available to comment on the incident or its circumstances, so “plausible” is as far as I can go.)
Unfortunately, this commenter then steered out of bounds. Absent any knowledge about the man’s later life, he went on to question Mr. Woods’ fitness as a parent and wrap the entire thing in ad hominems and ill-wishes directed at the middle-aged husband and father who passed away in June 2009.
I’m sharing this information because:
(a) This is a very, very unusual step for this blog;
(b) Both the commenter and the rest of you deserve to know where I believe the limits are;
(c) I don’t like doing this, and I’m willing to listen to countervailing opinions here or at cheunderground@gmail.com;
(d) Yes, Mike Woods hurt some people way back then, and I’m not averse to acknowledging it. I don’t want to be sanctimonious and gloss everything over, but I also don’t like cheap shots when the target isn’t here to respond.
People have been asking for the limits of acceptable discourse on the blog; this comment crossed them.
Matt-
Thanks for that comment. I didn’t know Mike. I do remember people doing some serious damage to each other. I can understand lingering hurt and anger. I can understand deciding something is irreconcilable. I could understand saying something confrontational to someone who hurt you. I can even understand lashing out hard in frustration about never getting to face someone who scarred you. But Mike is no longer capable of doing anything to atone or experience retaliation for what he did.
Mike can’t read anything posted here. His widow and kids can. Nothing good comes from hurting them. They don’t need any more pain right now.
I’m really, really sorry whoever tried to post is still hurting that much. I won’t try to offer any excuse for what happened. But I do agree with you, Matt, that having this blog does not obligate you to relay angry attacks to people who have just suffered a terrible loss.
I’ve posted a fair amount about my faith. Mike professed his. A lot of debate has occurred about whether God is a fantasy to excuse ducking responsibility. Yom Kippur and Ramadan are coming up. I know being a censor even for this reason is going to eat at you, Matt. So, for whatever it’s worth, I’ll answer with a contribution to a violence prevention program in Mike’s memory and out of respect for the pain that person was not able to express here. If Mike meant what he said about redemption (and I really want to believe he did), it’s what he would have wanted.
>”Dear Robin,
…Your General Giving gift made on Aug 18, 2009 is recognized many times over, not just in honor of Mike Woods, but in the ripple of progress that continues as a result of your contribution.”
If something about this, or anything like it, is eating at you, try this out for some relief. L’Chaim.
>>…Your General Giving gift made on Aug 18, 2009 is recognized many times over, not just in honor of Mike Woods, but in the ripple of progress that continues as a result of your contribution.”
Robin: Right on. Count me in.
PS: Made my donation. Thank you, Robin.
First, I would like to offer my condolences to his family, who apparently only knew the “new and improved” Mike Woods.
However, in reference to this:
Matthew wrote:
“(d) Yes, Mike Woods hurt some people way back then, and I’m not averse to acknowledging it. I don’t want to be sanctimonious and gloss everything over, but I also don’t like cheap shots when the target isn’t here to respond.”
In all fairness to giving the whole story while trying to avoid making any cheap shots, I would like to hear from victims of Mike’s violent attacks if they choose to speak up.
I am not the one to do so, because he never attacked me personally, and because I have a bad memory for details. I know he did harm others for no apparent reason, perhaps only because he didn’t like how they were dressed.
I wonder if any of his victims prayed in vain to Jesus to stop him when he was beating them?
Don’t you think we owe it to the people he harmed, and the readers of this blog to tell the whole story?
>>In all fairness to giving the whole story while trying to avoid making any cheap shots, I would like to hear from victims of Mike’s violent attacks if they choose to speak up.
Dean: I would have no issue with posting anyone’s first-hand account of this sort.
In fact, I toyed with running the first couple of sentences of the comment I received (which did lay out the nature of the affront in no uncertain terms), then cutting the venom that followed.
However, I decided that selectively chopping up someone’s comments — especially since the opening gambit seemed intended as preamble for the ugliness that followed — would be ethically untenable.
Anyone who wants to tell their stories is welcome. I’d personally be mindful that his wife and children as young as 10 are aware of this blog and will likely read the comments … But that’s a friendly request for reflection, not a point of censorship.
BTW, Dean, I’ll share the comment I received with you privately. Perhaps you can tell me where you’d draw the line. I’m honestly interested in feedback.
To make this crystal clear: Anyone who wants to talk about their personal experience on the receiving end of Mike Woods’ violence in the 1980s is encouraged to do so.
The only person who’s stepped up so far chose to extend his rhetoric to a guy who had 20-some years to mature since then — somebody I don’t believe any of us here knew at that stage in his life — and to bring the Woods family into the mix.
Floor’s open, and pixels are free. And the subject is far beyond the statute of limitations … So let’s hear it!
i’m on the side for full-disclosure but editing-out any comments intended to hurt the family if deemed necessary.
hitler hurt a lot of people in 6 years…perhaps given a few more, he’d have changed and we could edit out the agony that others would wish upon him?
really?
should we be forced to be this civilized?
to edit out the true human-suffering from this story denies it what actually makes it magnificent and worth celebrating.
god is in the details and they’re rarely rose-tinted.
(not to mention the dampening effect this would have on those who might wish to come forward.)
that said, i’m glad i’m not one who desires coming forward though my understanding back then was that there were a great many who could.
with punk came the mythic sense of danger, violence, and rebellion..
some of us it rocked in opposition and others lived it like a badge of honor….a way of life which defined their very essence.
i think most of us tread a fine-line between the two.
toby….thanks for mentioning wendell.
any idea what he’s up to?
>>i’m on the side for full-disclosure but editing-out any comments intended to hurt the family if deemed necessary.
MCC: I’ll say it again … Anybody who wants to talk about what they experienced or witnessed from Mike Woods has the mic.
So far, I’m hearing crickets.
I will disallow comments containing disparaging remarks about his family or the circumstances of his final illness unless it’s from someone who was actually privy to either. That’s as much about intellectual honesty as it is about common decency. If you don’t know shit from shit about the guy’s later years, you’re not qualified to write about them.
I’m sorry, Clay, but I’m not going to selectively edit … I’m just not comfortable stitching together somebody’s comments that way.
Look: If anybody here would like me to work with them on writing this stuff up (as an editor, referee, emotional support, whatever), I’m game. I do it for a living, after all! 🙂 Write me at cheunderground@gmail.com, and we’ll turn your Mike Woods horror stories into something worthy of you and the site.
You’ll probably feel better for it — better than you would mocking widows and orphans, anyway.
Primarily out of concern for the family, I can’t see any reason to post any personal “horror stories” that may be decades old.
MANY of us did some REALLY crazy shit back in the early punk days. I would wish that my 3 year old daughter would not judge me by what happened when I was 17 years old.
Couldn’t all the negative stuff just be left off such a public forum out of respect for the deceased and family??
>>”I wonder if any of his victims prayed in vain to Jesus to stop him when he was beating them?
Don’t you think we owe it to the people he harmed, and the readers of this blog to tell the whole story?”
This kind of scares me on some level. Again, I think Jesus would probably be more apt to forgive than perpetuate ancient, anecdotal stories of purported violence that may effect the lives of his children and may or may not be true.
How ’bout leaving Mike and his memory alone and go back to talking about Karen Carpenter, Hitler, Jesus, Clem Burke…stuff we know about.
decency and intelligence again wins the day @ che and i for one
am seriously okay with that.
There are other topics where any personal invective would be way more appropriate than this one. Just saying. These conversations are in the “archives”- you just have to search a bit.
I am seriously OK with you Clay…you are a good man.
Clay- I have no idea where Wendell went. I honestly only met the man a couple times at shows and a couple times at Terry Marine’s house.
I wish I understood your use of “invective”. I THINK I’m agreeing with you on this?
Vitriol. Sorry. Blame FunkenWagnals and the San Diego School system.
Doh! Invective is the right word.
in⋅vec⋅tive
/ɪnˈvɛktɪv/ [in-vek-tiv]
–noun
1. vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach.
2. a railing accusation; vituperation.
3. an insulting or abusive word or expression.
I get the word, I wasn’t understanding your message.
Do you agree with my above post that there are more “reasonable”, and fun things to talk about other than how bad a person who recently died was?
Who amongst us is innocent enough to throw that stone?
I agree.
Actually what I was saying was that if people want to talk about the bad shit someone did, there are other topics that are more suitable than the one memorializing the person posthumously. Horrible bloody mayhems stories are OK- it just seems more appropriate to put them elsewhere. Just my two cents.
Yeah…again I came in late to this, but I thought it started out as somewhat of a memorial.
I guess the part that gets me is his kids reading bad shit about their Dad.
He could have been worse than most of us as a youth, and better than most of us as a parent.
i’m back! the censored one. Bruce this has nothing to do with punk rockor “bad things” we might have done, or kids reading “bad shit’ about their dad (they aint reading this blog! sorry) This is about a man who is being eulogized who, among a host of other things, walked up to a homeless man, ripped the glasses off his face, crushed them with his boot , the struck him in the face so hard it left him unconscious with a concussion and crushed the orbit of his eye. As usual with your folk hero Mike, this was unprovoked, and an act of bullying in the lowest form of the word. So now Matt how would you describe such a person. I’ve lived a long time and known alot of people and they don’t change. religion is no get out of jail free card. there are no more christians anywhere than on death row. I stand by my censored comments!!!
Edmund, I think you’re bringing up something important. The truth is that serious, unprovoked violence continues to hurt for a long time; and nothing can change that. No later good deeds or apologies can reverse all of the damage. It’s frustrating when people focus on how uncomfortable it makes them to hear that rather than on how uncomfortable it is to be a victim of violence. So, if you’re asking that people not idealize his life and minimize the harm he did because he’s gone and he claimed redemption at the end, I’m with you.
He’s gone now though, regardless of the sincerity of his redemption. His part in the Mike Woods story is over. If we want or need to keep that story alive, it’s up to us to ask why and where we want that story to go.
Life is a trip………………
Mike Woods back on the Brain, never thought that would of ever happened.
Matt, please know whether good or bad your site has changed many things. I was lucky enough to have been able to have friends in many of the different scenes over good period of time. If you aksed me at the begining of the Che site whether we would be discussing Mike Woods I would of said you are crazy. I am glad that not only my memories from drumming in the WallFlowers and Morlocks are brought back here. I never in a million years thought so many of my memories would come back to life, sneaking out of my window at 12 years old going to shows was a great time. I thought I would never get to hear from people of that era, it is truly a gift……Don’t forget that !!!!!!!
Now with that said
Not all memories are good ones. I was lucky that Art and Mike never messed with me, they kind of looked out for me. I feel very sorry for ALL of the people who were not as lucky as me.
I think that first photo is Mike and Leslie, this reminded me of Brent and his death still haunts me.
For all that rambling:
Matt, please know that this site brought so many people together, enjoy that when it gets rough.
one of of my favorite movies i saw this year was A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE.
i think there’s a possible parallel between that story and this. karma works in mysterious ways. sometimes its lessons are obvious and less so at others.
i think edmund’s views are founded in personal experience and sensitivity to that which is wrong. the passage of time can only try to dull the pain of such things. it’s obvious mike had his share from which he is now released. all anyone can do now is to move on and try not to
be at the effect of such actions. to not forget the pain is human and essential to the learning process. to accept that pain as part of being human also, that which can bear no explanation is probably also wise.
to know that which you can change and that which you are powerless over.
Edmund: What Robin and Clay said.
I know horrible stuff stays horrible, and it’s not like you can or should press a Reset button that wipes the record clean.
Oh, and it’s certainly not incumbent on you to forgive those hurts, either, or to assume anybody’s professed changes are genuine. (I haven’t heard about Woods contacting people he hurt to make amends, but I’m not a voyeur nor a judge. That’s between him and those people.)
Robin is right that Mike Woods’ role in the Mike Woods story ended June 25, 2009. Maybe we can learn something, maybe we can’t. I do my best!
Mark: Thank you very much for being here and for those remarks. This project has become very important to me — especially at these moments when history just doesn’t clean up that nice.
Matthew: I think you should never have posted this topic. One of your rules of conduct on this blog is:
Don’t talk about people who are not participating here, or without their permission. (I guess there are some obvious exceptions, like when describing band members or important people’s positive accomplishments in our scene). It seems this rule should include the deceased (perhaps even more so than the living who could still defend themselves). Once this topic was posted it opened this whole can of worms. If his death had gone unmentioned here it may have prevented bringing up a lot of bad memories for many of us.
I realize that his name was brought up in previous comments diverging from other topics, but this was breaking the rules so shouldn’t have occurred either.
Religion should be left out of this forum (Is that already a rule?). Putting that quote about Jesus can’t help but offend some people. I won’t go into why because I think it’s obvious.
Matthew, it seems you unintentionally put yourself in the difficult position of having to decide what to censor and what to include here.
If in fact his kids read this blog, then I think that is all the more reason why this topic should not have started. Now that it is here, should it be deleted? I think it’s too late. It would be unfair to his family and to others who may wish to share stories (good or bad) since many people only visit this blog occasionally.
>god is in the details and they’re rarely rose-tinted.
good quote
I think who we are, what we’ve become in the last couple of decades, is best defined by how we’ve learned from and responded to the worst of times. It may be the most worthwhile thing that can come from Che.
>>Matthew: I think you should never have posted this topic.
Dean: I respect what you’re saying — and you’re right that this thread has turned out to pose more ethical challenges than the norm. Personally, I don’t think that’s a bad thing … I’ve learned a lot from everyone’s perspective, including yours.
Perhaps this will sound hopelessly disingenuous, but this started by linking up to a publicly available obituary for someone who was present and well-known (for good or bad) during that era. Religious language appeared in that obituary, which is SOP in obituaries for people professing a particular faith. (By the way, there’s no prohibition on discussing religion here — we’ve done it often.)
Let’s say the blog had noted the obituary of another figure — let’s say a gentle, Wiccan Goth who was widely beloved by people from that era. Would linking to that obituary and quoting from it (including the Wiccan bits) pose a problem? Would it become a problem if it subsequently transpired that this hypothetical person had actually mistreated some people and that his name inspired bad memories for them?
I don’t mean to be frivolous with my example; I’m listening to you, and I take your concern seriously. The truth is, there are some people here who’d be mourned by the majority and hated by a few for past misdeeds. (I’m not taking anyone’s inventory, but I know of a couple of examples of “nice” people who some participants feel strongly did not-nice things to them.)
Do we not note anyone’s passing unless we know for certain there are no skeletons that will be rattled? Do we only acknowledge it if we have confidence that a plurality of participants liked that person?
I try to exercise judgment, but I’ve never professed omniscience, Dean. I think this thread has been one of the more interesting conversations we’ve had in a long time … And while I truly regret any distress it might have caused, I stand by the decision to run it.
Thanks for running this thread Matt -- It only brings people closer to see how much we actually have in common.
Thanks, also, for reiterating the fact that religion is not banned on CHE! How boring would that be?
I found Che because I had reason to look up a scary ghost- not Mike, not a regular here. A charismatic, popular, good-looking guy with an ugly side. Who has since essentially taken on a new identity. He never took responsibility for the harm he did to people I know. I don’t think there’s anything he could ever do to regain my trust. I haven’t been angry at him for a long time because the only person affected by my emotional aftermath was me; and I needed something else. Not to say the memories no longer hit a nerve. All is not forgotten.
Though Mike was never my bogeyman, he was a bogeyman. He was one of our bogeymen. And a friend to some people. A constant worry for others. An inspiring story of redemption to some, a cynical cop-out to others. He was part of our lives and our stories. Part of the memories and feelings that define us. Seeing how other people sort out Mike has helped me keep the peace with my own scary ghost. Which I appreciate. We all have scary ghosts. Or have been them. Or both. On the downhill slide toward the end of our stories, we all want to find some kind of peace. I am sorry this discussion has made that harder for some people. I hope there’s a direction we can go to change that.
Mike Woods and I never had problems…
I wish his family peace in his passing,
RIP
this is the sort of thread i think we all grow from. if pain be a part of that equation, so be it.
if god or our conception of such enters the picture then great.
if real people who must continue moving into the future witness what is laid before us…..then let’s by all means find some way of gaining from it.
truth often hurts but it has to appear somewhere sometime.
i think we come close here now and then.
kudos to all who venture a word in and to those who’re quite okay with simply observing….and to you matt for making the tough call.
I couldn’t help notice the juxtaposition of the phrases “deceased” and “open can of worms” up above….was that intentional?
I have three words to say about this topic, religion or any other being on this forum:
“Freedom of Speech”
We either have it. Or we don’t. If you are sensitive to a subject then don’t watch, listen or engage in it -- or do, but know that it is another’s right to disagree. Many people don’t have that right. Be grateful for it. Take responsibility for your own memories and work them out on the therapist’s couch, preacher’s pulpit, zafu cushion or whatever floats your conscience.
I’ll take Frank Zappa’s side in this one.
And Matthew: You are doing a phenomenal job as blog referee -- which I’m sure is sometimes like being a counselor at a junior high school.
Did anyone notice the “Why was Jesus Crucified?” ad on this blog page?
>>Did anyone notice the “Why was Jesus Crucified?” ad on this blog page?
Kristen: I really enjoy going through past blog posts to see what Google finds relevant in our meanderings.
Jesus wins this round!
The perfect marriage of Rock and Jesus!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytNoiQ8LkS8
It’s okay- you can all blame me- I sent Matt the link.
I find the wording of this statement to be a little ambiguous:
“I guess there are some obvious exceptions, like when describing band members or important people’s positive accomplishments in our scene.”
Who gets to designate who the important people are? Who designates which accomplishments can be deemed “positive”? What scene are we talking about? I don’t believe I was part of your particular scene- but I was part of the eclectic underground music scene in San Diego at the time.
Truth be told, when those truckloads of jocks rolled by and yelled shit at us and we flipped them off, and they hit the brakes and ten guys jumped out to beat the shit out of two or three or even one punk- Mike could be thought of as nothing less than an asset to have with us. PB and MB could be mean little towns sometimes- Clairmont and Linda Vista always seemed to be worse. A lot of us grew up fighting- it made some of the lines between right and wrong a little fuzzy. (It’s kind of a “The King, The Mice and The Cheese” deal. Now we got rid of these mice, but what do we do with these goddamned cats?) Not to make excuses for anyone’s actions, but things are what they are, and history is what it is- I don’t think it needs to be rewritten and sanitized- that would be disingenuous in documenting history. For a lot of people part of the allure of the underground music scene at that time was this eclectic mix of artists, students, musicians, fringe element, misfits, weirdos, criminals, etc… It was seedy and edgy and exciting- you never knew what was going to happen, and crazy shit was always happening. You take that away and you no longer have the underground music scene of that time.
>>Now we got rid of these mice, but what do we do with these goddamned cats?
If we keep getting rid of stuff, we’re going to wind up with elephants.
Toby, I love that book and so does my son.
>>”For a lot of people part of the allure of the underground music scene at that time was this eclectic mix of artists, students, musicians, fringe element, misfits, weirdos, criminals, etc… It was seedy and edgy and exciting- you never knew what was going to happen, and crazy shit was always happening.”
This is exactly the world The Injections lived in for, maybe, a year and a half. It was dangerous going to parties, dangerous going to shows, dangerous to go grocery shopping in North Park.
People always got hurt at our shows. Violent people stayed at our house…because we were scared of them, or because we needed them?
Things ARE what they are…no excuses.
“artists, students, musicians, fringe element, misfits, weirdos, criminals, ”
You know what is funny is I have no idea which of these described me.
Writers rarely perceive themselves to be artists. But you are.
>> I will tell you upfront that I feel odd and feel like I am intruding on your space as this appears to be based on a community of bands that got together long after I left San Diego. I would like to say first off that I am glad that you are here.
Heff: The feeling is profoundly mutual. Narrative coherence dictated the early-’80s jumping-off point this blog chose … But we’ve happily pushed those boundaries since.
And I for one will say my own engagement with music would have been quite different if not for the Penetrators. If anyone deserves a place at this table, it’s you and your bandmates. Thank you!
And I would also like to say that I agree with tobylifehaters last post. But again, just my 2 cents on the people that became the most extreme examples of punk rock (rude, sdsh, the navy contingent, etc….) when I first met all of these folks, we all had one thing in common…we were just trying to make our own place in the world, and excited about music-we were all misfits…you had the mexican contingent (zeros)who didn’t fit in with other mexicans, you had the surf contingent (griswolds) who didn’t fit in with regular surfers, the gays (screamers, germs) the metal contingent (Battalion of Saints) the art folks (NON and I would put the Unknowns in this category as well and I will tell you truthfully that I always wanted to be as cool as they were !), and of course the Crawdaddys and mods etc. Alot of different styles of music and people NONE OF US FIT IN ANYWHERE.
Mike, Mad Marc, SDSH all those guys in the beginning were shy, humble, polite and scared kids when they first came to shows….the changes came with the OC shows…I remember doing some shows with The Crowd from up there and they were also shocked when the violence started up there.
Anyway, I guess my point is that when people started being told what to do, what they should wear, who they should listen to it was no longer punk rock…it was high school.
Please know that I send this with profound love.
heff
And thanks for the compliment! It’s my 55th birthday today, who would have thought I’d be spending my day doing this! Enough of this rambling…time for some wine.
heff
Really nice to see you here Gary. The Injections and Penetrators go WAY back. We even lived together..’member??
I’m an old intruder on this site as well. Came here once.. to talk to LOU.
Iris Dement is a goddess.
Hope you check in occasionally.
>It’s my 55th birthday today
Happy birthday! My memories hold you constantly in your early 20s. .
Happy Birthday, Gary! If you look around here, you’ll find a lot of love for yerself and The Penetrators. Along with some friends and some particular records, the existence of your band had a profound aesthetic and social and even ethical impact on me when I was a confused and impressionable 12-14 year-old, and I’ve loved the records ever since (and wish I could get all my old vinyl back or at least a CD compilaton…). As Matthew said, San Diego would not have been the same without you guys, and I think my life has been better for finding you when I did. Many thanks.
Really nice to see you here Gary. The Injections and Penetrators go WAY back. We even lived together..’member??
Of couse I do and have always thought of you and your band as part of the most REAL people of that era. Do you remember the ghosts in that house ad the story of the people that lved there beore us that used to chain their 2 daughters to the bed in Margarets and Lisa’s room? And how Kathleens door would lock itself? I remember a friend brought his dachsund to the house nd it would never enter her room…and I never could figure out how it ended up with the name the mod house…do you? okay I am at the arctic circle and computer goes in and out (global warming? don’t believe it? come here and see it for yoursef!) Like I said in the beginning, I just dropped in because of the subject matter and in respect of Mike Woods you folks can contact me either offline or maybe start another thread, as I really don’t want to disrespect him by taking away from the subject matter.
heff
>>>Toby says: “artists, students, musicians, fringe element, misfits, weirdos, criminals, ”
You know what is funny is I have no idea which of these described me.
You are kind of like Gonzo on the Muppets.
Toby wrote:
>I find the wording of this statement to be a little ambiguous:
“I guess there are some obvious exceptions, like when describing band members or important people’s positive accomplishments in our scene.”
>Who gets to designate who the important people are? Who designates which accomplishments can be deemed “positive”?
I didn’t mean there should be one person who determines that. We just should think before we post about people without their permission, about how they would feel about what we say about them. I will try to clarify what I meant by an example:
We long ago discussed the people by name that were responsible for opening and running the Skeleton Club, which I feel was a positive accomplishment in our scene (by “scene” I am generalizing to include the whole underground music scene in SD in the 70s and 80s, a much longer time period than Che Cafe). But we didn’t talk about personal stuff those persons did. I believe this was discussed under the topic about The Skeleton Club.
By comparison this topic is about one person and his recent personal life, a person who never posted here. Can’t you see the difference? And once we start talking about this person, we better be ready to talk about this person’s actions in the 80s, because that is the whole focus of this blog.
>What scene are we talking about? I don’t believe I was part of your particular scene- but I was part of the eclectic underground music scene in San Diego at the time.
You may not have been in the mod scene Toby, but I was in your scene, the “eclectic underground music scene” since 1980.
Thanks Gary for telling that story, and happy birthday! Wish I could have made it to your show in January.
Kristen, of course I believe in free speech also. But I’ve learned that you shouldn’t say just anything you feel like saying online. I try to be careful with what I say because I sometimes can’t explain perfectly my feelings through words. People often misunderstand what I meant to say online.
>>”Really nice to see you here Gary. The Injections and Penetrators go WAY back. We even lived together..’member?
Of course I do and have always thought of you and your band as part of the most REAL people of that era.”
Nice compliment coming from you Gary. It’s easy to be real when you are the only game in town though, at least in ’78!
I never knew why our house was called the “Mod House” either. I hadn’t heard of, and certainly didn’t know any “mods” way back then!
I miss Kathleen, Suzie, Lisa, Margaret,…all you guys. Happy Birthday…
We really SHOULD return to the meaning of this thread now, (although it always seems like the best stuff on CHE starts as an aside tangent, off-subject!)
No bad feelings Dean. We experience our thoughts & feelings -- they happen in us and to us -- but we are not them. I really don’t take any of this too seriously, but enjoy the challenge of the variety of perception that we all have. I appreciate you sharing that.
Words online are often misconstrued -- if we write in all caps DOES THAT MEAN THAT I AM YELLING AT YOU?
Hi Gary, and happy birthday. I was hanging out with Joel Kmak and Scott Harrington the other night, and they send their regards. I’ll be sending you some stuff later today.
Like Matt, I’ve enjoyed the discussions that have taken place around Mike and the effects he had on us both collectively and individually. Like many of you, I never had a negative encounter with Mr. Woods, but I know plenty of people who did, and can certainly understand the anger and pain that comes as a result of being a victim of violence. The actions discussed on this page were all committed publicly, so I think that makes them fair game for discussion.
Matt posted an obituary--verbatim--which is entirely appropriate for this blog. I see no eulogizing here--only an attempt to have an honest conversation about a complex man. Matt’s initial dilemma was that the first email he decided not to print attacked Mike’s family, who were in no part responsible for the actions of their husband and father. I am against censorship in all its forms, but I do believe that with unfettered free expression there is a greater responsibility we have to be clear and specific. Anyway, error on the side of kindness and consideration is okay with me. Matt--you’ve done an excellent job in NOT intervening in the often contentious discussions here.
I wish I had an answer to the problem of the nature of redemption. Philosophically,I believe that people can and do change all of the time, and I’ve both seen it and experienced it firsthand. But I guess more than anything else I’m interested in knowing about the trajectory Mr. Wood’s life took after he left San Diego, and in hearing what he had to say about those times. The obit hints at him “taking responsibility for his actions”--what must one do to achieve redemption? How must time must pass? This is the discussion I was hoping we’d have on the Manson piece I wrote last week. In the case of Leslie Van Houten, forty years of hard time for an act committed at age twenty under the effects of acid and months of degradation and humiliation at the hands of an older, manipulative ex-con. I think that’s more than enough.
Thanks Dean, for jumping into the fray here.
>>We really SHOULD return to the meaning of this thread now, (although it always seems like the best stuff on CHE starts as an aside tangent, off-subject!)
Bruce: God is in our tangents. 🙂
… But bringing this thread around, I’d encourage folks to review the psychiatric symptoms of porphyria, the hereditary disease that took Mike Woods’ life.
It turns out that the symptomology often includes mania, mood swings and psychosis … Sufferers can go on for years misdiagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia or other disorders.
It can start early, make its sufferers violent and aggressive, and go undiagnosed for years. Interesting, huh?
(BTW, anyone who’s truly hungry for payback should read up on the rest of porphyria’s physical effects … They’re nasty and protracted.)
Feeling that old-time religion lately MATT??
BTW, thanks to ALL for letting Gary and I catch up on your dime, (or thread).
Nice blurb on redemption Ray…thought provoking. I too believe that enough is enough, sometimes.
>I’m interested in knowing about the trajectory Mr. Wood’s life took after he left San Diego, and in hearing what he had to say about those times.
Me too. I have lot of questions. Like how he finally got diagnosed.
Kristen, can you please stop shouting? It’s hard to hear anyone else.
gary heffern….so nice to have you re-intrude on our quiet existences!!!
thank you for such a nice birthday present.
i first met you in doug diaz’s garage when? like 1979?
i have a penetrators interview which we must reprint one day
(once matt and i figure out how we do this).
ray…please say hi to scott harington for me.
>>I have lot of questions. Like how he finally got diagnosed.
If Woods’ vicious streak back in the ’80s was indeed an early symptom of his illness … That opens some interesting ethical questions.
Like, who in the world (our world, anyway) would have had the nerve to tell the toughest guy in the room — a guy who’d already demonstrated he could be very dangerous — that some of his behavior was crazy? In retrospect, that might have been a tremendous favor to him as well as his innocent victims.
But damn! Would anybody here have taken that on?
I flipped him off once and he broke my finger. Lesson learned. 😉
I’ve brought up that topic with a number of people over the years. In fact, I am recklessly earnest and maternal. I’ve had the honor of seeing people change. But if all I knew or saw of a person was finger and face breaking, I’d have steered clear. As a kid, it never would have occurred to me that the guy might have been in desperate need of medical help. And even if I’d known, I’d have been at a loss for how to approach. What a tragedy.
I’m going to toss in a little sociology here: In my most recent post, I talked about Gladwell’s theory that Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen are the types of people who get things going.
From a watchful distance, I could tell Mike Woods was charismatic. And he didn’t seem like an unintelligent guy at all. I would venture that he was a Salesman, someone who could get people up and moving in sync with him … And he might even have been a Connector — he moved through a lot of groups, although his behavior when he arrived could be extremely destructive. (I mentioned half-jokingly that in some ways, a violent Woods episode brought me together with Robert Labbe.)
In a nutshell, Mike Woods had qualities that made him a leader and role model for others.
Now, let’s look at the increasing level of random violence and the distinct possibility that it had a physiological cause … How easy would it be for some of the people influenced by Woods to up the ante in step with this very influential guy, unaware that what they were emulating was actually the result of rancid blood enzymes?
Quite a nasty little recipe.
There are moments when I wish we could send an away team back in time to provide just a little adult insight … But would we have listened to ourselves? ‘Course not! 🙂
An “Away Team”? Star Trek or Stargate Atlantis??
Anyway, adult insight would have made the entire movement, (and all youth rebellions), obsolete. And, as you say, who would have listened??
It’s easy now, to look back historically, and see that there were many marginal people that were looking for a cause. Now I remember the Aryan skinheads, junkies, mentally ill, physically ill, you name it. Come one come all for the freak show.
Like Gary mentioned somewhere above, all shows got violent really fast, and all shows that we played were closed down quickly.
We were just playing music and having fun: but I feel some responsibility in writing and playing fast, politically charged music, that may have been incendiary to some…just entertainment to others.
I guess that is a big chalice to fill. I mean medical professionals cannot even get these things right…I had never heard of this particular genetic disorder or another one, hemochromatosis, which in no way has the same physiological make up as the one MW was diagnosed with, but it can still do some major damage and seems like a cousin to the one in question. My point being is that it takes a very skilled medical professional to diagnose these particular things. I know that back in the day that we would not have had that insight to say to anyone, “Maybe you should see a doctor”, nor do I even expect that as adults. I think that even as adults we don’t tend to think of things intellectually but in terms of how it makes us feel in the moment. As in “he pushed me”= “that asshole” or something akin to that. I think if we were all able in the moment to have those moments of clarity and use the processes of our brain that are rational and give us reasoning and logic what a leap in the human condition it would be but I do not think we are wired that way, typically. On the rare occasion such as this we discuss it. And the freak show is life. That to me is what makes it interesting and exciting.
>>”I was a tourist in that culture we were taking part in- the rest of that crew were ten times more ruthless and tougher and streetwise and mercenary than I was.”
Well said. I wasn’t even a tourist. An unintentional instigator and spectator at best.
Ran into the shows, backstage, played our set, and then split. It was real scary watching what was happening on the floor, especially since your own music was a driving force.
Joey’s right. Back in the day who would ever had said “you’re nuts” to anyone??
>>The schools didn’t even catch that I was super A.D.D. (despite me being the glaring, all time case where almost all the marks get hit)
Toby: Our generation shouldn’t get complacent — no doubt most parents and teachers in our youth thought they were doing their best, too — but goodness, so many signs were missed in those days.
Dyslexia alone undermined the academic self-confidence of a whole list of my friends … some really, really bright guys who deserved much better support than they got from the school system.
And I think most of us have horror stories about teachers or students who got away with bullying. No wonder so many of us were suspicious of “experts.”
Yeah…and not only nuts. I forgot about the effects of alcohol, Amyl Nitrate, LSD, etc…no crack or meth back then, eh??
A lot of the crazies were “better” after they stopped indulging. I know I was.
“no crack or meth back then, eh??”
Crank was around back then, which is basically meth- just really crude. Crystal appeared on the scene around 83ish.
I don’t know if I got “better” when I stopped that stuff, but I definitely became less casual about my own well being.
Never saw or heard of the stuff while I was in So. Ca.
Tons of coke, acid, THC, angel dust, mushrooms, etc…….especially in military!
Did you mean you became more casual??
No. I said what I meant and I meant what I said- (an elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent!)
Peculiar…when I read it again I realize I’M the old burnout!!
It’s endurance that wears us down, isn’t it? Knowing myself as well as I do now, I don’t think I’d trade the experience and insight I gained from feeling like such an alien in my own skin. For many, being “nuts” was a badge of honor, but in truth, once I realized I desperately wanted help--I didn’t know where to look.
Anyway, a diagnosis is a double edged sword--particularly in matters of human behavior, it is an educated guess at best. Labeling me anxious and depressed with ADD might have further complicated my life.
I’m also fascinated by the effect of mental and physical illness upon art. I’ve often wondered, if Van Gogh were alive today, would they just give him anti-depressants? Would he be the same artist?
For some of us, “Crazy” was enough. For that time, anyhow. We had little to grasp onto- we did what we did because we felt we had to. Beyond that, I can’t explain- things are what they are.
Too funny! My daughter tells me the exact same thing! She tells me that if Van Gogh had medicated maybe he wouldn’t have been the expressive fellow he turned out to be.
I have yet to (officially) medicate. I hang in there and await the final prognosis. Until then, I keep on writing. And hanging in there.
The late 70s, early 80s taught me that a lot of angst and anger dissipate when the person expressing them feels listened to and accepted, regardless of whether the listener agrees. Especially if the listener offers food. I believe that lesson is what I am most grateful for from that time.
>>Too funny! My daughter tells me the exact same thing! She tells me that if Van Gogh had medicated maybe he wouldn’t have been the expressive fellow he turned out to be.
Actually, some scholars have speculated that van Gogh suffered from porphyria. (It’s also been attributed to George III and Vlad the Impaler … Hence Vlad’s famous photosensitivity that fueled the Dracula myth.)
that would explain the need to have people neatly impaled upon huge stakes as everyone ate dinner.
hmmmm
great way to serve stake for dinner
ok, ok,
bad humor
i want to say that my dad was a good man.if he hurt sombody it was for their own good and they deserved it,he didnt go around and nock the shit out of people because he felt like it.if anybody thinks he was a bad person they didnt realy know him the way i knew him.some of you were just scared of him because the way he lookedand anybody who talks shit about him now i know you wouldnt have had the balls to talk shit about him whene he was alive. he was the toghest man i knew, he broke his back a month he died and took the pan for three weeks before getting in a wheel chair. i know of one man who quit his job to go to my dads fun. so im proud to say mike woods is my dad
i wrote the last comment and i forgot to check it dont post it because i misspelled some words i put fun instead of funeral on accident
Justin: Don’t sweat the spelling! Thank you for joining us here.
Please accept my condolences on the loss of your father — and thanks for telling us what he was like as an adult.
He sounds like a great dad, and I’m very sorry this happened.
Hi Justin -- I think if you read all the posts you’ll see that a lot of us understand what it was like back then, and why!
Really sorry for your loss….and don’t ever worry about the spelling!!
Bruce Injection
Wow…..thank you, thank you all. Good, bad, censored its all good. Thank you for linking the American Porphyria site, if you could please link the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as a place for treatment and in formation it will undoubtedly save some lives.
http://porphbook.tripod.com/ Porphyria the Unknown Disease is where I got the most helpfull information.
Someone asked who diagnosed Mikes disease? I did.
Something was happening inside my husbands body and I could have either;put him in a nursing home and just shrugged my shoulders like the the pieces of shit doctors suggested; or try and figure out what was going on.
If you stop whatever is damaging your liver it will rejuvinate itself. The fight to get a doctor to give us a diagnosis that made any sense began June 21, 2007. The doctors dismissed Michael and judged him by his cover. The health care he recieved (or lack thereof) was a joke. For instance: when a man goes to the hospital via ambulance and the emergency room doctors tell me to “take him home and let him sleep it off” that is wrong. I know what “sleep it off is”--Michael came out of the coma after 10 days in the ICU at a different hospital. That was in June of 2008.
The entire process was a trip to say the least. I felt for a while as if I had been in the twilite zone.
June 21, 2009 while waiting to be transfered to the Methodist Liver Transplant Hospital in SanAntonio we finally had a Doctor say “Mr. Woods, you do indeed have Hepatic Porphyria, it is very rare genetic disorder, I have only seen 2 people with this disease, one was a mother; unfortunatly she did not survive, the other her son lives today with a liver transplant, I wish you luck Mr. Woods”
The disease is known as the VAMPIRE disease, how fitting. If you want to know the bullshit details of the lack of care he got just ask, and for some reason, God Im sure, I have all of the paperwork to show how rediculous the healthcare system is.
The picture of the girl with Mike is Beth I believe. He often talked about his Punk Rock Days. Terry Marine, Ronnie Haik, Lou Scum, Comander Delander, Twitch, Wally, Arturo, Country Dick, Henry….and many more.
Lori Woods
Thanks for sharing your story. I’m sorry you guys had such a terrible time with the health care…it’s ridiculous.
BTW, nice to see you mention all those old friends too. We all had problems…believe me.
Lori, you’re amazing. Thank you for posting and God bless you. I am so sorry for your loss and all you’ve been through. I have a feeling you’ve made much more of a difference than you’ll ever know.
justin,
my dad died when i was twelve, too.
you already know your pops was a brave man and he loved you and all your family……and you should be proud to be his son.
i wish you strength and wisdom for you and your family…..
nothing less than what your father would try to provide himself.
and justin,
you be just as proud of your mom and help her and listen to her.
in a world of so many voices you can always trust hers to be true.
clay
>>if you could please link the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as a place for treatment and information it will undoubtedly save some lives.
Lori: It would be my pleasure … Porphyria — Diagnosis and Treatment Options at Mayo Clinic
I’ve learned a lot! Thank you so much for sharing your story. My thoughts are with your family.
Justin and Lori…great posts.
heff
I appreciate all of your words, thoughts and prayers, thank you again.
Lori
im that kid in the black flag t shirt they got pictures of me on victori convention center.com singing with the misfits i knew all the words so he brout me up and lowered the micrifone
i ment to put victoria convention center
>>i knew all the words so he brout me up and lowered the micrifone
Justin: Ha! That is REALLY cool. They usually have to lower the mic for me, too, ’cause I’m not very tall. 🙂
Only if your mom says it’s OK, maybe you can share those photos — your dad’s friends would really enjoy them! (But only if your mother thinks it’s all right and if you want to.)
Is this you Justin…wasn’t easy to find!!!!!!!!!
Hope I didn’t jump the gun. I thought you were an adult, i.e. 18+
>>Hope I didn’t jump the gun. I thought you were an adult, i.e. 18+
Bruce: He’s mature for his age! 🙂
(This picture’s already public … I’m pretty sure Justin’s mom wouldn’t mind sharing it here.)
You are one impressive kid, Justin. Your dad will always be proud of you.
Here’s Justin singing with the Misfits!
Touche’
I have no problem with posting his pictures. The misfits played at a place the size of Mission Bay High Schools auditorium, I dont know how Mike talked me into going, sorry but its not really my favorite music, the bar made it somewhat tolierable. Robo was hanging out in the crowd and no one but Mike knew who he was, so I took pictures of Robo with Mike and Justin, and we got him to sign Justins shirt. When the Misfits started playing we got Justin right in front of the stage, a minute later I looked up and there was Justin crawling up on stage, I thought we were gonna get kicked out, but Jeri asked him to come up and sing cause Justin knew all the words, it was pretty cool. Turned out to be an alright night.
BTW
Mike adopted Justin, he has two biological sons of his own, they live in northern California. And Yes he is a Great Kid. Thank you.
Tim Oshea, dead Ted’s brother, had one little girl last time I saw him. So yes there are children and grandchildren who will read this.
And to answer some of your questions as to if I knew about Mikes past, yes. Edmund, do you not have any skeletons in your closet? Come on now, we all have done a thing or two we wish we could take back. I’ll tell you like I told Mike, we cant change anything we’ve done in the past all we can do is move on and try to do our best. What else can we do? Were all just passing thru. If you dont get it then oh well.
Toby, Mike still told people that they were too smart to be in certain situations, for what ever reason they listened to him more often than not.
I have some old pictures, how do I post them?
Lori
>>I have some old pictures, how do I post them?
Lori: Please send them to me (Matthew, Che Underground cook and bottle washer) at cheunderground@gmail.com. Thank you very much!
BTW, Justin: That took a lot of courage to disagree with a whole group of adults you don’t even know and tell them how you feel about your dad. I don’t think I’d have had the guts to do that at age 12. Thank you, sir. 🙂
For accuracy’s sake- he didn’t disagree with me. 😉
>>For accuracy’s sake- he didn’t disagree with me. 😉
… OK, OK — ” … to address a whole group of adults”! Sheesh, Mr. Picky. 🙂
The kid has a posse. 😉
he learned that from his dad, the speaking up thing, and i think its “balls” or you can call it “guts” if you want…
Justin has been taking guitar lessons, you can see him playing suicidal tendencies “alone” and “rise above” by black flag, on youtube.com/likerocks and that was from 2 years ago--
Thanks for letting him vent
Oh and Mike also made and wore a FONO shirt
later
>Thanks for letting him vent
This is the last group of people who should ever forget the potential consequences of not letting a 12-year-old vent.
Your right…sometimes we just have to let things go…otherwise we don’t move on…thanks for reminding me of this…TM all is forgiven.
heff
Lori,
Thanks for posting that Youtube link. For anyone who has any doubts about Mike’s redemption, see the video called “Woods Boys & Dad.”
The older I get, the more I tend to see my life as a series of chapters, each ending when the lessons I was supposed to learn have been completed. To paraphrase Schopenhauer, when you reach an advanced age and look back over your lifetime, it can seem to have had a consistent order and plan, as though composed by some novelist. I have no desire to be stuck in a chapter I finished years ago, nor do I wish to shackle anyone else to the mistakes he made years ago. I hope the little video provides many here the opportunity to replace those images carried around for decades with some new, gentler scenes of love and family.
By the way, Lori--you should be very proud of the little guy you’ve raised. At his age I lacked the wisdom, balls and musical taste he possesses.
I always wondered why people had mean streaks. I never was cursed with that, but kinda always figured folks who were had some baggage that put ’em in that frame of mind.
Best approach I thought was to be awake and aware when they were around, and learn to NOT be around when they were on the rampage.
Yeah, that was not always possible.
My own dear departed dad was a mean violent drunk. He was also an amazing funny intelligent person. Depended on what day it was.
We all spent a lot of time in and around quite a bit of violence. San Diego was a very violent place. I saw more happen there before I was 17 than ever since. Most of us sobered up, grew up, and grew out of all that…some of us did not.
Being a white kid in the barrio who went to school in a Crip neighborhood meant for me that learning to steer clear of violence was imperative and due to my sticking out like a sore thumb, sometimes very very tricky.
All the boys in SDSH etc were no different than the gangsters around me, they just went to shows we were at…but the same volatility and rep followed them as any of the others.
We had kids shot dead at my high school (Gompers) over nothing more than a $10 drug deal. I got put on the ground with a pistol on my head when I was 15 just for being dressed in a suit on a summer day…I looked like I might have money or something…
Point here is my violent dad became a very peaceful buddhist later in life…I survived the violence of my youth despite a couple of pretty good beatings, and most of our more brutal friends either grew out of it or got locked up.
I never knew Mike ’cause I didn’t hang with his crowd. I knew Bid much better, and used to run into Tim Brown all the time ’cause we were from the same neighborhood. (BTW Tim was the best natural chess player I’ve ever met).
You never knew with some of those guys which was the wind was going to blow. They’d show up at my parties, sometimes wreck the place, and then I’d see ’em later and they’d be pretty apologetic…
“sorry yer house got thrashed, but that guy was a real d*ck and needed a beating” or something like that was a speech I heard more than once. Then we’d go into a conversation about whether the guy should have been beat or not.
I saw too much violence in my family to sympathize with the perspective of those who used it so much. But I also understood how so many were quite literally possessed (sp?) by something, perhaps in Mike’s case this disease discussed here.
When my dad was on a rampage, we learned to stay away. When some of our scene were the same way, it was pretty much the same…and yeah we all remember appreciating Mike taking on a truckload of meathead jocks who started shit…more than once.
I’m glad Mike found some peace, a family, and the love that clearly followed him to his end in Texas.
My dear dead dad would have told him about 12 step processes, and making amends. I don’t know what Mike would have thought of that, and many here seem to think he’d have had a long list of people to make amends with. Whatever.
That’s Mike’s gig with the Big Guy right now…and between them alone. I’m sure they’re thrashing it out somewhere right now. I don’t believe in hell, surely don’t think myself qualified to decide who’s going where, but will say this…
If God won’t let Mike into heaven without taking a beating for all those he handed out over the years, Mike certainly will not back down…he never did.
Patrick Works
Always Knows Where the Back Door Is
>>If God won’t let Mike into heaven without taking a beating for all those he handed out over the years, Mike certainly will not back down…he never did.
Patrick: Thank you for your post … I’d rate it one of the most insightful ever on the blog. Miss ya, Pat! 🙂
there are times when i come here and find myself thoroughly moved.
well for all its worth I believe that the people who Mike beat down probably had it comin to them, if not from Mike then from somewhere/someone else or it wouldnt have happened….sorry it just works like that.
As far as the 12 step program I personally call it the quiter club, and if it works for you then so be it, I just think if you know you cant handle drugs or booze then dont do it, sitting around going over how much they screwed your life up is stupid, move on.
I think God was preparing Mike early in his life for what he went thru the last 2 years, just imagine a muscle cramp that doesnt go away……its all good, his boys wont have to go thru what he went thru, or what his mother had to endure, its how God works.
I think there are alot more people with Porphyria and other “rare” diseases out there that are misdiagnosed…………….
Lori
Hey Lori,
I survived and managed to escape what my father suffered. I did so in large part because of the lessons my father taught me. He was not perfect and neither am I.
Neither are any of us.
I hope Mike’s kids get what I was blessed enough to receive…enough time with my dad to understand what he had to give.
It was my job to appreciate what he was giving while he was here.
I think I did that.
It seems really clear that Justin appreciated what Mike did for him too.
God bless all y’all. I mean that.
Patrick Works
aloha y’all, i was looking up ‘san diego punk band manifest destiny’ and ended up staring at ‘mike woods’ yowza! i am just now learning how to use a ‘puter.i was a neanderthal/carpenter,till i was disabled. now i’m just a verbous, illiterate,disabled neanderthal w/ to much time on my hands.please overlook the preamble. this information superhighway is just that.seeing that name onthe ‘little screen’ brought a flood of memories from san diego to la la and on again to austintatious. mike woods who i met once at dirk.l’s house in ‘its the sweetest’, i think you were there toby so was ricky f***n’ reefer, and a cpl of other times in more southern climes.every time he was not living up to his reputations fullest thank God. lori ,justin i feel for your loss and will lift you up in my prayers.i have two boys who along with there mother were instramental in my growth as a human and a christian.justin i am sure that as an irreplaceable part of his life he loved and needed you [just to be you] always remember that as im sure you do. i hope im not speaking out of line here not knowing you or you mother . does anyone know where i can get any m.d. cd ,tape or record . hrp tj says aloha ps damage i had the biggestcrush on you.also whatever happened to denis dean?toby the other tobe sup you stay in hawaii to?
I liked Mike,didn’t like some of the things he did to some people but he was always decent to me.One of my best memories of him was at my house on Swift Ave.I had my “pet” caiman in a childrens wading pool out back and Mike was determined one day to pick it up.”I’m gonna pick up that thing!”he boomed.I said”Mike,you better not mess with it…”He stormed out back,a few minutes later he returned,looking a little worse for wear.”Cliff,the god damn thing almost took my hand off!”,he said.We all had a good laugh!
how have you been Cliff?
I feel as if I know all of you here, Mike told me all of the same stories that everyone here has shared. He was special, annointed is more the word.
He was so full of himself, he told me before we got married “there would be sadness all over the world when he passed away, girls would be sad everywhere, crying because Michael was gone”….
thank you all for your prayers and well wishes, really.
Lori
Thank you Lori- for hanging in there. Some of us miss him a whole lot- a lot of guys just dont post stuff on the internet. You know.
Love you guys. Aloha- Toby
So much pain. I forgot but it all comes back now. So much hate. My jaws are clenched just thinking about the brutality. Taxed after 20 years.
Great story!! So good to hear from you Tom.
now i remember why i wrote for you at one time mr. griswold!!!
i did, dinn’it i?
a sentence or two?!
nice to see you>
or was that mikel toombs?
please…someone drag me back into my cell before i hurt myself.
Mike was a great friend for many years. I will miss him and I have thought of him many times throughout the years. I wish I would have stayed in touch with him after I moved up north. I am happy that he became a family man. We lived together at different places in Pacific and Mission Beach. He was well known around the beach area and many were afraid of him and many more just wanted to be around him to because of who he was. We had a place in Mission Beach between 2 courts that nobody was aloud to hang out at, people would ride thru on bikes or walk, but couldn’t hang unless he allowed you to stay, he would throw people out of the area daily. He was very tough, but also had a huge heart and would protect the weak and never back down on anything he beieved in. He gave me shit all the time and made fun of me when he was in his mood, but fought for me and kicked many asses up and down the beach. I remember a party on the bayside that we went to and were not invited, it was a prep party and we went in and started our normal shit and about 4 guys followed us out after we drank most of there booze. I remember he told them off and they came up to him out on the sand and started kicking and punching him and he got down in his normal almost fetal position,taking punches and kicks and when they tired out, mike rose up unhurt and kicked all there asses up and down the bay until they were crying for him to stop.
We had a place on Promentory, a studio apartment next door to my sister, Dusty and every wall in the house was covered with womens underwear pinned up. He also protected her and at one point she got slapped around from her boyfriend and he never said anything to her, but took care of the situation. There was a party up in La Jolla and we decided to crash it, he walked in, drank a beer quick, found the asshole who was beating my sister and kicked his ass all over the party. He never said anything to her, just took care of the situation.
We did cause havoc for along time, but Mike was protecting what he believed in and the underdogs. He was a good guy with a huge heart. I had many good years hanging with him, never ever a dull moment with Woods. I will never forget him, he was a mystery and I’m happy I knew him.
I met Mike when I was 17 and he lived in the Whitman St house. My friend & I used to hang out there pretty regularly. We went to parties with him down in MB and I saw him at shows too. He was intimidating to a lot of people and I saw him get into a lot of fights but he was always extra nice to me and I was sad to hear about his death. Like others here though it was cool to know he made a new life for himself and kind of rose from the ashes of the violence of SD.
hey Lori,
thanks for finally getting me to say something. This is really tough on me right now. Lupe, how about them Vikings! I miss you so much, but you’ll be able to get me when its our time to reunite!
your loving brother,
Lupe
ps more to come
Hey Scotty—-what about Justin calling you “little scotty”, whats up with that? Mike loved you, he thought it was the funniest thing when you were about 3 and you’d dance for everyone when the family was out at dinner. He told me how you would talk shit, long shit to guys his age on the sidelines at the rec when they played football…..love you Scotty
~MLW~
Lori
I also didn’t know Mike very well but knew him well enough to know he loved his family, and his family loves him. God Bless you, Lori. You’re in our prayers.
http://www.youtube.com/likerocks
Introspective.
Msr Mmrothenberg didn’t really have much to say there. 😉
>>Msr Mmrothenberg didn’t really have much to say there. 😉
Oh, sheesh! Guess my Command-V isn’t what it used to be. Take Two:
Sure
I just had to read about how several types of drugs affect people with porphyria. If half the stories I’ve heard about Mike are true, he was living in a house of pain for a long time. Thank God he had the strength to get the help he needed.
There is also a disease where people dont feel physical pain, and thats not good either, I often wonder…
Yeah. That’s very insightful. That’s something to consider for awhile.
It’s good he found you. Stating the obvious, I know. But some things bear repeating.
I love you baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!New Year, New Decade, wouldnt have done anything any other way, love you Michael Dean!! See you when I get there~
Me
I wish I had the chance to make amends with Mike. He was a good guy who learned to trust no one.
Ken Masters, brother of Ron and Dan?
Okay, first of all I LOVE MIKE WOODS! Even though he MERCILESSLY persecuted me when I was 14 ( and he was at least 20!) we both discovered later on in life that we had loads in common; Chris Jarhead told him he HAD to be respectful toward me (age 25 by this time) and once we actually began communicating we got along like a house a-fire! He really was one of the funniest people i’ve known-- He could have had a pretty successful career as a stand-up comic. He sent me some of the most entertaining, suprisingly well-spoken letters ever [only when incarcerated, of course 🙂 ] which I saved for years and years. He trusted me with serious issues, as well--LORI: MAN did that guy love you!!! To say that people don’t / can’t change is to negate the hope of redemption [personal, not religious] that has been the only glue holding me to these waning years of my life on this earth…
… but to say that everyone he ever hurt had it coming? Sorry, but i just can’t co-sign that one!
Hear, hear!- for both of those
A week before Mike passed away he looked at me and asked me to not let him die, I told him I wouldnt.
Michael was definetly someone who made an impression on people, just something about him.
He was funny, he made me laugh. Before we got married he told me about this idea he had to make an “adult stroller”. I would crack up laughing when he would talk about it, how it would have a place for a sippy cup and a cover over the top to block the sun, just like a baby stroller only bigger for adults. It was funny, I thought he was joking, I told him they already made those, they are called wheelchairs--we laughed about that for a long time, but he wondered why everyone else agreed with him about what a good idea it was.
It was odd to me how people were afraid of Mike that didnt even know him, it was odd to me how people we didnt know would offer him drugs, or kids would ask him to buy them beer or cigaretts--Im talking about people who didnt know us, we were in Tennessee on vacation at the Walmart we and thought it was funny how they have this big banner over the beer section that says ‘NO BEER SALES ON SUNDAY’ a guy approched us offered to sell us moonshine. It was always odd to me that people would go out of their way to let me know what a nice guy Mike was after actually talking with him for a bit.
I dont think people “change” you either have morals and values or you dont.
I want to thank everyone who took the time to share their Mike Woods stories, he is loving every minute of it. If you didnt like him-thank you too because you took the time to say so. Personally if I dont like someone I dont waste my time.
I feel nothing but LOVE when I read all that has been written about my Mike Woods.
~~ LOVE is how you stay alive long after your gone~~
thank you again, with love
Lori Woods 🙂
MLW
I didnt know Mike very well but i lived in Corpus Christi for awhile with Jesse and James and got to spend few months with the fam!!Reading Loris comments above me is making me bawl my eyes out!!Mike was someone to fear if you crossed him but he was also an awesome father, grandfather and loves Lori with all his heart!! Lori is such a strong and beautiful woman and she has a gorgeous family and my heart breaks for them but now they have a handsome guardian angel by there side 4 life!!I remember Mike for his crazy sense of humor and his dedication to his family!!!I wish i spent more time with the fam when i was in Texas i want to give them all a huge hug and toss a few ones back and have a few good laughs!!!!i miss them alot i wish nothing but the best for them!!!!Rest In Peace Mike Woods you will forever be loved and forever be missed!!
Shelly Belly
man i just watched that video with Gavin and Grandpa and started bawlin my eyes out again ;@(
Here under the Lurker Amnesty Program. This is undoubtably one of the most intense and fascinating threads on this site. Didn’t know the man from Adam, but I wish I could hear him talk about his life more than just the bare facts I’ve gleaned that he used to get into fights a lot and then I guess he found Jesus. Somehow that just doesn’t say enough about someone who seems very emblematic of a certain punk mindset that was never properly contextualized, at least to this lurker. Sounds like there’s a real story to tell here, but alas, he’s not here to tell it. How sad.
>>Sounds like there’s a real story to tell here, but alas, he’s not here to tell it. How sad.
Lurker: No kidding, huh? That fact’s haunted me ever since we got word of his passing. I’m glad how many people are around to tell their own stories, but this is one I deeply regret we arrived too late to hear.
Do you know how hard it is to have a conversation with someone not from the San Diego PB/MB area? I find myself trying to use real words in conversations instead of the slang like ‘lurker’ or ‘skode’ that I’ve used for so many years………… thank you Che Underground for the conversation and understanding…..
Lori
Thank you for posting, Lori Woods.
No, thank you Robin…….really….but by the Grace of God its a wonder how I get through some days…………and heaven forbid I cry…………NO CRYING!! not because of Mike Woods…………….
“Mr. All That” Big Bass Ass couldnt stand to see a woman cry. He was my friend and I miss him dearly………..
now I’m crying : ) Do you think Mike is beating up God?
No, I dont
I think Mike lives in the hearts and souls of the people who loved him most…
Then he is in God’s Heart and Soul
I have some funny video footage of him cutting up, hitting on gals and goofin’ on boys [circa 1989-ish]; Unfortunately it’s on SLP VHS, about the worst possible format imaginable…
Lesha I’d love to see that tape, get with me and I’ll pay to have it converted—I’ve got more videos of Mike as well and plan on uploading them to youtube eventually, I recorded a video of him a month before he passed away working on our neighbors house-- the videos that are on youtube now were all uploaded about 6 months before he passed away………..He was funny……..
HI LORI. MAYBE SOME OF THESE PEOPLE DON’T KNOW HOW LONG I/WE HAVE KNOWN MIKE FOR. THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY. BUT NO MATTER WHAT WE KNEW MIKE AND WE LOVED HIM AND ALWAYS WILL. EVERY THING ABOUT HIM. I STARTED BAWLING WHEN I WATCHED THE VIDEO OF MIKE AND JUSTIN. I’M SORRY WE WEREN’T IN TOUCH WITH EACH OTHER WHILE YOU WERE GOING THRU ALL THIS WITH MIKE. HE WAS LUCKY TO HAVE YOU. MIKE WILL ALWAYS BE RIGHT HERE WITH ME. AND I AM GLAD YOU GUYS HAD EACH OTHER FOR THE TIME THAT YOU DID. I LOVE YOU AND THE KIDS, CUZ YOU KNOW YOUR KIDS ARE MINE AS NICKI IS YOURS. LOVE YOU, WHITNEY
your in my heart always Whit, love you too
Love you too Bruce 🙂
Love You Lori
Love you Lori and Lou. I’m lucky to know “real” people like yourselves.
ok I love you too Lou--
In response to “Guest Lurker”- I have a good portion of a manuscript in type on paper that includes Mike in a very prominent role, yet I hesitate to push forward because of several people who might be affected by the publication of it. Go figure- I never would have guessed I’d grow a conscience.
Lori: In response to your comment on the linguistics of stuff- It’s kind of funny how many ecuadorians and Nicaraguans have learned English in the kitchens of Southern California- and they learned our language that we grew up with, because there are surfers and whoever working on those lines. One of my best freinds in Junior High was an Iranian Immigrant whose family was fleeing the apparently unavoidable political ramifications of the new Ayatollah in Iran (I think then it may have been “Persia”.) My friend Ramin met us without any prior experience with English (american) language. He learned to speak our language from us- hanging with us at school and on the street, at the Pacific Beach rec center and down by Crystal Pier. It was funny when a couple years later I heard his mom amidst a sentence that something was “Gnarly”, and later his dad said something was “super-sketchy”. Our language was ours- but it was open for adoption, and despite what history might read, some of us really were pretty open to just about anyone.
Later- Toby
I Love You Too Toby
Whitney Costello: Hey Whitney. I guess we’re a long way from Crystal Pier, Mister Frosties, Iranian liquor, PBJH and that Alley across from PB Rec. Hope you’re well. Later- Toby/ JG. PB Rats.
Toby you can find Whitney on facebook Costello is her last name. I know Ramine, he was from Persia he came to school in 7th or 8th grade, PBJr High. How old are you? Im the same age as Ramine and Whitney. Class of 83.
My son says if you lookup the word “scoad” or “skoad” or however you want to spell it the definition is: from the Urban dictionary;
SCOAD
A low-life, trashy, dirty, smelly loser of a human being. Usually encountered at bus station, ghetto apartment complex, harassing you for change on street, etc.
or;
Someone who lacks in common sense. Simple tasks are difficult for them. When they do finally complete a task they totally screw it up.
or;
Someone that generally sucks at life. They are flaky and not dependable. They cannot be trusted at all. They would steal the shirt off your back if they had the oppurtunity.
or better yet; SKOAD
A rotten, trashy, skank. Stinky, dirty.
A toothless tweakwhore without a clue.
Mike and I found some of your writtings from some site a while back, your handle was ‘Tobylifehater’ you included Whitney, Braden, Mike, Wally, Teddy, Jack Rose and some others--Mike got a kick out of it--funny how people look at things. It was interesting but pretty acurate for the most part--strange days indeed--
later,
LW
if you google image “mike woods san diego” this site comes up first with the flick of Mike and I--and I can see the grin on his face~~Yep your the shit Michael!!~~
I would have been class of 83, had I been able to finish anything like that back then. I was at PBJH with Ramin, Braden, Brandy, Whitney, and Bid- I guess between like 77 and 80ish- I don’t do dates well that far back.
And yeah- at some point every day I will always and forever be “Tobylifehater”. 😉
Love is how you stay alive long after your gone~~~~~~~
Nothing but Love and respect!!!
I guess I’ve always been one to arrive a bit late. I came across the news of Mike’s passing through a long and circuitous route during a recent bout of nostalgia. That this thread has gone on for over 2 years is a real testament to what an influential person, irregardless of your opinion of him, Mike Woods was in life. It’s also a testament to the character of most everyone here that the vast majority of comments remained positive. Just like each and every one of us Mike was human, and subject to the same fallibility that we all are. Still, the words of Mike’s family and friends speak louder than anything to confirm that he was dearly loved and his memory will remain alive in very many hearts. I’m sure that Mike would be thankful that his friends and family have stuck up for him in such a good way. As many here have attested in regard to his deep loyalty, he would have done the same for any of us.
My sincerest condolences to Mike’s family. I’ve recently lost someone very, very close to me and although I can never know your sorrow, I do share in it. Rest in Peace Mike. May your journey be a swift and peaceful one.
Thank you…………..
m y m d w w a m h t y f c i m l~a m l y l
Happy Anniversary thanks for coming into my life Michael
~7-03-2001~
I miss you LOTS~
you were right Don is a nice guy……
sorry about your friends passing away RIP Ronnie Hake and Dennis Moreno
Thanks Che website for all of your support….Lori 🙂
Mike Woods, I love you like a brother. Tim Brown SDSH
love you Michael,
~ geckos everywhere & big bright full moons~
thanks for coming into my life
I just read this whole thing, and it made me cry again. Cest la vie. BTW- Hoping Whitney and Braden are doing well. Wish I could have caught up with you last time I was on the continent. Take care- Toby.
miss you happy birthday always in my heart, mlw~
MIKE I AM SITTING HERE DRINKING COLD BEER SMILING FROM EAR TO EAR WITH FOND MEMORIES OF DA GR8 TIMES WE {BID, BILLY,YOU & I} HAD TAXING MFS ON DA BOARDWALK.
YOU WERE ONE OF A KIND, A TRUE ONE PERCENTER LIKE ME & MINES…SAN DIEGO SKIN HEADS*81*
MIKE WOODS I LOVE YOU LIKE A BROTHER AND MISS YOU ALOT.
SINCERELY WITH *MLLHAR81*DAGOS*GR8*1*
TIMOTHY BROWN*S.D.S.H.*81*
RIP Justin Woods, the kid who came to his dad’s defense in this thread. I’m thinking of Lori and the rest of his family.