uncle gordon & aunty kay

every year each legislator is responsible for providing a person to open the legislative day in a prayer, or invocation. last year i did it and was asked to do it this year, but i deferred to uncle gordon, the only other christian man i know in our family. he and aunty kay are the cutest most affectionate couple i've ever been around. it's too bad they never had any kids... they would be some good-looking hapa kids fo shua.

uncle gordon has been uncle gordon to me... just my grandpa's little brother... just an old guy. but whenever i'm around him people treat him like some sort of legendary being, like their in the presence of greatness. at the invocation, this hawaiian man in his 60's was working at the capitol and realized that gordon chang was in the house. he told us that uncle was his football coach and his typing teacher at hilo high. "i feared him walking down the hall," he said, "but i respected him." when we were leaving the man went on and on about how he wishes that he is in such good health when he's uncle's age and all these other flattering things... basically he was saying, "when i grow up i wanna be just like you." uncle gordon turned a 65 year old man into a teenager. the guy looked like he was going to cry.

at one of dad's fundraisers, the mayor of honolulu turned to putty when he saw uncle gordon. "coach!" he screamed and gave uncle a huge hug. on the same night a middle aged hilo high grad admitted being so jealous of uncle for marrying aunty kay.

THE MYTH OF GORDON CHANG AS I UNDERSTAND IT
uncle gordon was a beast. as a 9th grader he was the biggest, most athletically gifted football player at hilo high school. he was so good that honolulu private school iolani recruited the outer island boy, which i think they had never done before. they flew him to the city and paid for his accommodations at a nice hotel. that's all i really know. i think that's all i really need to know. he became an educator and coach and married what i can only imagine was the hottest mama in town.

in dad's office after the invocation, they were telling football stories and dad brought up the leather helmets uncle used and how mouthpieces weren't invented yet and how illegal hits today was proper tackling form back then. "oh yeah," uncle said, "bloody mouth all the time. if you didn't have bloody mouth you weren't playing football." beastly.

oh and another funny thing he said... "wow, your dad is bigger than me now. he was such a runt. so skinny."