I guarantee he would have won a third term if he could have run again. He has ethnic Chinese mother and his father was Polish. So far, the candidacy of the man known by his high school friends as Barry Obama has been good for the Hawaii economy and bad for newsroom budgets. The 1979 photo was snapped inside the home of former classmate, Kelli Allman, who was the prom date of the president's close high schoolfriend, Greg Orme. Of course, Obama embraced the image of the athlete, dribbling a ball to school and between classes. A boy wants to find his place in a family where he is visibly different: chubby where others are thin, dark where others are light. WASHINGTON President Obama has called Hawaii his refuge, and so it has been throughout his political life. ", We would be like, Hey lets go to the beach, Bendix recalled. The images from 1979 show a grinning 17-year-old Obama in a white suit with his arm around his date, Megan Hughes, before they headed to the party at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. In August, Obama kicked off his 53rd birthday weekend golfing with the three friends in suburban Maryland before heading to Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains. But one word Obama learned quickly in his new home was curang, which means "cheater." Zulfan Adi was one of the neighborhood kids who teased Obama most mercilessly. Hes not like that.. Associated Press The Latest: Obama plays golf with longtime friends in Hawaii Still, Bendix said, his old pal should have been a starter at Punahou and insisted he was not just being loyal to an old friend. He and I really clicked. Obama devotes many words in his book to exploring his outsider status at Punahou. The three men - Mike Ramos (right), Bobby Titcomb (not pictured) and Greg Orme (left) - are among the few people still in Obama's life who knew him long before he was famous. The fourth person in the picture is Obama's date,Megan Hughes. For most of their high school years, Orme and Obama lived and loved basketball, even if their hours of practice never translated into much playing time on game day. He didnt have to see me, but he was a man of his word, he said. They're not his wife and daughters, who came with him, but a trio of pals whose friendship dates back to Obama's high school days in Hawaii. In 2011, he pleaded no contest to soliciting a prostitute, but Obama has stayed fiercely loyal to his childhood friend. Hail to the chief's pals: Obama spending vacation relaxing with three Now lots of people are interested in helping graduates of Punahou School jog their foggy memories, trolling for revelations about a young man who spent much of his time that season riding the bench. The sailboat the Manu Kai (bird of the sea, in English) is about to set sail behind him. But, said Mr. Ramos, who is in the process of a divorce, We probably spent more time talking about my situation than we did about his., Visits With School Pals Are a Touchstone on Presidents Trips to Hawaii, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/us/politics/visits-with-school-pals-are-a-touchstone-on-presidents-trips-to-hawaii.html, opposite sides of the debate over crime and policing, prohibiting the use of the gender-neutral term in government documents, an array of forces has bolstered this groups presence in Congress and state legislatures. Barack Obama as a sophomore with the junior varsity basketball team at Punahou School, Honolulu, in 1977. I always knew he would do something, of course we never expected hed be in the White House, teammate and lifelong friend Greg Orme said. Then his young mother, now divorced, met and married an Indonesian student studying at the University of Hawaii. Some seem to make Obama look better in the retelling, others appear to exaggerate his outward struggles over issues of race, or simply skim over some of the most painful, private moments of his life. Barry did a good job but I think we needed a change," he said. "Luckily he could swim. He sketched decidedly American cartoon characters during class. He describes making friends easily, becoming fluent in Indonesian in just six months and melding quite easily into the very foreign fabric of Jakarta. "I don't imagine the decision to let him stay behind was an easy one for anyone," Soetoro-Ng said. As he had at the old school, Obama sat in a back corner. From his earliest moments on the national political stage, Obama has presented himself as having two unique qualifications: a fresh political face and an ability to bridge the gap between Americans of different races, faiths and circumstances. The experience of being part of a winning team was important to Barry, to all of us.. He can really relate to people. I think hes done great with all the stuff he inherited, like the recession and the two wars. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. While the foursome gets together in Hawaii over the holidays each year, Titcomb, Orme and Ramos. The Obamas did skip Hawaii in 2007 and instead the friends joined Mr. Obama in wintry Iowa for the January 2008 presidential caucuses. Those of us who were black did feel isolated--there's no question about that." His love for Michelle and Sasha and Malia is outstanding. And they have cheered Obama on even when they disagreed with him. The handful of black students who attended Punahou School in Hawaii, for instance, say they struggled mightily with issues of race and racism there. All Rights Reserved. Chris McLachlin is seen at his house on Jan. 4 in Honolulu, Hawaii. But he took the high road and showed a lot of integrity. In December 2006, as Mr. Obama decided on his first presidential campaign, the friends talked about how the race would complicate their next getaway. (Photo by Joaquin Siopack-Pool/Getty Images) He showed leadership and caring for his teammates, McLachlin said. Basketball was the great equalizer, he said. Topolinski, who now lives in Washington state, said he lost touch with Obama after high school and they moved into different political camps. They were like brothers, says Allman. The White House says Obama is playing golf with some of his longtime friends including Mike Ramos, Greg Orme and Bobby Titcomb. Barry would be the only black person. "Suddenly we asked, `Where's Barry?' Or Japanese. So far, it has been a narrative spun almost entirely on Obamas terms and in his own words -- most prominently in his bestselling memoir, Dreams From My Father.. Now, I think hes a better golfer., Orme and Obama became pals not long after the future president arrived at Punahou as a fifth grader. They divorced after seven years of marriage and have a daughter. Were the minorities here.. But spokesman Bill Burton said Obama "stands by his recollections of these events as related in his book." Since 1995, Kakugawa has spent more than 7 years in California prisons and months in Los Angeles County Jail on cocaine and auto theft charges. We were all cracking up and everyone was smiling," she told the magazine. And a young, iconoclastic white woman who had defied the social mores of the day by marrying a dashing black man from Kenya was coping with the fact that her new husband essentially had abandoned her and their young child in 1963 to study at Harvard. IE 11 is not supported. "It was a really fun, happy time. In Hawaii, our diversity defines us, it doesnt divide us, said Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obamas father in graduate school in the early 60s. But it has revealed the vagaries of memory, as well as the ambivalent emotions stirred among old acquaintances when someone they once knew becomes famous. Israella Pareira Darmawan, Obama's 1st-grade teacher, said she attempted to help him learn the Indonesian language by going over pronunciation and vowel sounds. Barack Obama, Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme - Bobby Titcomb Photos - Zimbio Barack Obama as a baby. Many of the men were black. HONOLULU (AP) The Latest on President Barack Obama's annual two-week vacation in Hawaii (all times local): 4 p.m. ", Every day after practice hed stay to play pickup games against the coaching staff," he said. These have been the stories told about the first two character-shaping decades of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's life, a story line largely shaped by his own best-selling memoir, political speeches and interviews. He also thanked the "Choom Gang," a reference to "chooming," Hawaiian slang for smoking marijuana. Likewise for Mr. Obama, it seems. His partners matched Monday's team of Greg Orme, Darrell Harrington and Bobby Titcomb, and the foursome spent more than five hours on the course. But he wanted to make everybody happy." Choom Gang Reunites on Golf Course for Obama's Birthday Weekend - Breitbart Kakugawa explained that he had meant they were playing in the world of the elite people who populated and ran Punahou--famous Hawaiian families like the Doles, owners of the pineapple fortune, or the original developers of Waikiki, the tourist mecca. We had to prove ourselves, focus on playing good ball. He'd pick them up if they fell down,'' Darmawan recalled. The photos and interviews are in the new issue of TIME, which is out on Friday. Obama's Final Hawaiian Vacation as President - ABC News "Stanley loved that little boy," said Abercrombie, now a Democratic congressman from Hawaii. With a trimmed Afro, Hawaiian flower leis around his neck, Obama was surrounded by the disparate people who shaped him. Get-togethers in the decades after high school were rare as the men built careers and families, although Mr. Ramos, Mr. Titcomb and Mr. Orme attended the Obamas Chicago wedding in 1992. If someone is brown, they can be Samoan or Fijian or Tongan. Yet many say they have trouble reconciling their nearly 30-year-old memories with Obamas more recent descriptions of himself as a brooding and sometimes angry adolescent, grappling with his mixed race and the void left by a father who gave him his black skin but little else. Obama, however, was not a part of that group, according to Anthony and Smith. He was the only foreign child in the neighborhood. In fact, it is surprising, based on interviews with more than two dozen people who knew Obama during his nearly four years in Indonesia, that it would take a photograph in a magazine to make him conscious of the fact that some people might treat him differently in part because of the color of his skin. Obama and his date Megan Hughes, a student at the Hawaii School for Girls at La Pietra, joined Orme at Allmans house, where the two couples sipped champagne before going to the dance and then an after-party. There are, however, chapters in Obamas high school narrative that are not subject to dispute. Memories of a racial awakening? They were joined by two other teenagers - his best friend Greg Orme and date Kelli McCormack. In one family photo before the mother and son moved to Indonesia, Obama walks barefoot on Waikiki Beach, arms outstretched as though embracing the entire beautiful life around him. TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. With Obama just days away from turning over the reins to Donald Trump, Coach Mac and some of the guys young Barry played ball with at their Honolulu prep school reflected on his presidency and their playing years with pride. He thanked "Tut and Gramps," his nicknames for Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, but didn't mention his faraway mother. He said he does recall long, soulful talks with the young Obama and that his friend confided his longing and loneliness. After graduating in 1979, Maurer wound up at Stanford where he made the team as a walk on and found God. Obama admits in "Dreams" that during high school he frequently smoked marijuana, drank alcohol, even used cocaine occasionally. We all come from so many backgrounds, we have to get along., Obamas teammates for the most part are careful not to judge an old friend, even if his memories of racial attitudes at Punahou differ from their own. The Obamas attended a luau on Oahu's North Shore at the home of the president's childhood friend Bobby Titcomb, spending more than six hours at the gathering. Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb, and Greg Orme-friends from Obama's high school daze in Hawaii-joined the president for a round on the links at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Saturday morning. I cant tell if someone is Fijian or black.. His character, the way he conducts himself, thats always been his footprint. Obama also made golf outings,. He even scored a basket," he said. Their new neighborhood was only 3 miles to the west, but a world away. Young Barack Obama in a 7th grade photo in 1974 at Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii. Mr. Orme was unable to travel to Hawaii for the recent holiday, but the others called him twice. Hes exhibited class and dignity all the way through it. Arkansas is filled with people still burned from their interactions with the national news media, which descended on the state during Bill Clintons 1992 campaign and stayed for his presidency, continuing to poke and prod at his business and personal dealings. Obama never became terribly close with the children of the new school--this time a predominantly Muslim one--where he was enrolled. A spokeswoman for People said the reporter, West Coast correspondent Maureen Harrington, did not take the list. They marked the 10th year of their rendezvous by looking through old photos, Mr. Ramos said, of when the kids were young and the dads had dark hair. And of course, he said, they all the president included reflected on the past year. Greg Orme, a fellow varsity basketball player, was Obama's constant companion. You can see how he was much more sensitive than the other guys, even back then.. While Obama rocketed to political prominence, his friend headed down the troubled road Obama had feared he was following. They agreed to rendezvous in Hawaii every year for the holidays, and their reunions became regular even as Mr. Obama was busy climbing to senator and president, a path none of them imagined nearly four decades ago and 5,000 miles from Washington. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. And while they did enjoy marijuana, Mr. Ramos acknowledged, we played a lot more basketball than we smoked pot.. He is undergoing what some have called the Profile Primary -- which is testing his ability to keep control of his public image, as journalists sketch portraits of the candidate as a young man and comb for contradictions and potential embarrassments in his past. Mr Obama has remained close to Mr Orme over the years. When youre on a school team, theres more discipline involved, he said. But Orme is a hard man to find. Although their paths have long since diverged, they've made it a point to gather for frequent reunions, in one of Obama's most visible links to the days when his life was much simpler and his problems more mundane. For the past two weeks, he has been recharging on Oahu after an unpleasant year in the job. Then and now, Punahou and Hawaii liked to see themselves as more diverse and colorblind than the rest of the nation. Hopefully now that hes done well get to see each other more, he said. We didnt aim high enough., Every time I see him on television its surreal, said Topolinski. Just as he was the only African-American on the basketball team, he was also the only jock working on the schools literary magazine, Ka Wai Ola. Hed tell us to move on if we got into it with another player. The three men Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. Every time out hed come over and chat with me about my stroke, my health, he said. I know that was hard for him.". The first family has attended Titcomb's annual luaus in the past. The number at Dunhams apartment in a nondescript Honolulu high rise has not changed in more than a quarter-century. They compose notes to friends and family and include photos or quotes that best represent them. As it made its way over the mountain pass, he took in views of the lush, green and misty Koolau mountains. Cook, who was 25, and Obama, then 22, dated for 18 months, passing their time discussing books and cooking. Our coaches were much more conservative, he said. Greg Orme Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Obama's motorcade left his Kailua vacation rental home at 10:48 a.m. under partly cloudy skies. And from the first day of 5th grade right up until his graduation in 1979, the young man was one of only a small number of black students at a school heavily populated by the children of Hawaii's wealthy, most of them white and Asian. Obama confirmed in an interview earlier this month that the Ray character in "Dreams" actually is Kakugawa. ---------- Kirsten Scharnberg reported from Honolulu and Kim Barker from Jakarta, Indonesia; Tribune staff reporter Ray Gibson contributed to this report. Allman said Obama didn't date a lot in high school but had plenty of charm. They were. Wed drive around in my van listening to Earth, Wind & Fire and looking for places to play, he said. In an essay about what he wanted to be when he grew up, Obama "wrote he wanted to be president," Sinaga recalled. He said they adored his slam-dunking style and no-look passing, but their coaches were not fans. Bush remained pals with men he served with in World War II. , updated Others almost certainly illustrate how carefully the young man guarded the secret of his loneliness from even those who knew him best. The Latest: Vacationing Obama dines at Hawaii restaurant Pothead. Bendix added that he was not shocked when Obama was elected president. Their Jakarta neighborhood resembled a village more than the bustling metropolis the city is today. The president was returning to the White House on Monday. No such photos, no such article. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy. Life without a father It was a complicated time. All say he was teased more than any other kid in the neighborhood--primarily because he was bigger and had black features. While Obama got saddled with the nickname Barry OBomber, Maurer said he also "got teased a lot for taking hard to make shots.". Tucked away in someone elses shoe box of adolescent artifacts, there might be a picture of you in garish clothes and with an outdated do, your arm around a high school squeeze. President Barack Obama Prom Photos | Time "In the absence of his father, there was not a kinder, more understanding man than Stanley Dunham. "He would be very helpful with friends. Journalistic excavations of a presidential candidates past often turn ugly. Though Orme spent most afternoons with Obama and considered him one of his closest friends, he said Obama never brought up issues of race, never talked about feeling out of place at Punahou. You had three part-Hawaiians, one Filipino and me., But Hale said he is still enjoying the novelty of a famous classmate. John F. Kennedy had his band of brothers from wartime. In the early 1970s, diplomats and Indonesian businessmen lived there in fancy gated houses with wide paved roads and sculpted bushes. "Did you know that in Thomas Jefferson's day, and right up through the 1930s, anybody who had the price of tuition could go to Harvard? Obama and his. Mr. Titcomb was golfing with the president within hours of the Obamas Dec. 21 arrival on Oahu. In an interview with the Tribune on Saturday, Kakugawa said he always considered himself mixed race, like so many of his friends in Hawaii, and was not an angry young black man. Like Mr. Obama, he was of mixed parentage the son of a Filipino father and a Czech mother and his parents were divorced. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. He made an appointment to see me one day and he brought along a couple other guys who wanted more playing time, Chris McLachlin recalled. He said that of the three, only Mr. Orme, another Punahou hoops player, was in the gang that Mr. Obama described. He said Obama may have come across as easy going, but he was no pushover. It can be very racially hostile, especially if youre white or black. That thoughtful poet is not remembered by any of his basketball buddies, coaches or friends. Millions of American teenagers will go to proms this year. If this story is eight paragraphs, seven of them go to Greg. Titcomb and Orme are part of a group of Obama's friends who reunite in Hawaii every year, a practice that continued even after Obama became president. Obama and his family have been in his native Hawaii since December 20 for the Christmas holiday. Far less is known about Obama's buddies, of course, than about the president himself. Once content to join their parents for outings to the aquarium or to get shave ice, Sasha and Malia are now more independent. He was tenacious.. They're not his wife and daughters, who came with him, but a trio of pals whose friendship dates back to Obama's high school days in Hawaii. Obama, the son of a black father and white mother, stood out. With rain drizzling over Oahu, Obama's motorcade whisked Obama across the island to Titcomb's beachside home in Waialua, about an hour outside of Honolulu on the North Shore. Darin Maurer and then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Franklin D. Roosevelt made frequent trips back to Hyde Park, N.Y., throwing picnics or barbecues for former neighbors and friends, and George H.W. The Latest: Obamas, friends tour Hawaii Islamic arts center The Secret Service stopped a man who briefly flew a drone near the president's motorcade Monday as the president and his friends were returning from golf at the Mid-Pacific Country Club. As you know, he made getting better health care for Americans one of his missions.. The havoc time wreaks on fashion spares no one, not even the president of the United States.In a newly unearthed photo published Thursday in TIME magazine, a 17-year-old Barack Obama is seen wearing a white dinner jacket as he poses with friends on the night of their senior prom in Hawaii. Secret Service stops man flying drone near president's motorcade President Obama may have had a tough couple of weeks, but newly-released images will remind him of his more carefree days. But I was pretty wrapped up in my own world back then.. Anyone can read what you share. remembered Ati Kisjanto, 45. When Obama was in 4th grade, the Soetoro family moved. Back then, Punahou was a completely open campus, with several basketball courts where 20-something men from Honolulu would come in the late afternoon for what often turned into flashy, highly competitive pickup sessions. The Hawaii holidays became more and more appealing, he said in an interview just after he began his run for president. So did Maurer, who is now a pastor in Houston. But any struggles he was experiencing were obscured by the fact that he had a racially diverse group of friends--many of whom often would crowd into his grandparents' apartment, near Punahou, after school let out. As a result, the handful of black students at Punahou informally banded together. The reality was less tidy. "The brothers," as Lewis Anthony Jr., an African-American in the class of 1977 put it, hung out together, often talking about issues involving race and civil rights. He knew the really small apartment that Mr. Obama lived in with his grandparents and what a talker Gramps was. Ann and the boy lived with the Dunhams in Honolulu until Obama was 6. Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital. But those talks, Kakugawa said, were not about race. He posed in lifeguard stands. "He was very intelligent and witty. Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama's friends from . Titcomb, who golfed another two days with Obama this month before the others got into town, was a year behind Obama at Punahou. If young Obama had struggled to find a place at Punahou, it was well hidden on this day as well. "Barry liked to draw heroes." HONOLULU (AP) The Latest on President Barack Obama family vacation in Hawaii (all times local): 10 p.m. President Barack Obama and his family dined with friends Wednesday night to cap off another day of their Hawaii getaway. A close friend and track teammate of Kakugawa, John Hagar, also said he was surprised by Obama's description of the character representing Kakugawa as an angry young black man. Orme recalled that years later, at Obama's wedding reception in Chicago, Obama brought the crowd to tears when he spoke of his recently deceased maternal grandfather and how he made a little boy with an absent father feel as though he was never alone. "It's their world, all right," Ray supposedly shouts at Obama. As Obama's senior year drew to a close, his mother sent him letters from afar, about life in Indonesia and her work there with non-profit groups doing economic development. In April 2011, Mr. Titcomb was arrested on a charge of soliciting prostitution in a Honolulu sting operation, but the reunions with the president never stopped. You are extremely sweet and foxy, he wrote. Magazines, Digital I don't know why Greg would want to spend anytime with me at all! Thats when we see each other. It was a really fun, happy time. Ramadi fell to IS in May, marking a major setback for Iraq and the U.S. McLachlin said he told Obama he was volunteering for the American Heart Association and the president urged him to keep in touch. But Obama never gave up and his work ethic was second to none on this team. Hawaii is a remarkable place, he said. One place Obama has said he found a sense of community was on the basketball court. "We live in a world of bullies and the U.S. has been bullied around. Id put that up on e-Bay., Alan Lum, another teammate from the championship squad, who now teaches second grade at Punahou, has done enough interviews that his fellow teachers have started to rib him about his newfound fame. Some, like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, counted later acquaintances among political donors as friends. So just get the f--- outta my face." When asked about the discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, "It might have been an Ebony or it might have been who knows what it was?" The attention on Obamas time at Punahou -- a country club campus with nine tennis courts, an Olympic-size pool and an endowment of $180 million -- represents the next important challenge for a celebrity politician who leapt onto the national stage with a few swift strides. Their. The Los Angeles Times weighed in the other day. As he listened, McLachlin never dreamed that one day this determined young man, who had spent most of that season warming the bench while the Punahou High School varsity basketball team was marching on to win the Hawaii state championship, would grow up to be Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Obamas prom pictures released. "They were like brothers," says Allman. "I did say we were playing in their world," he explained, "but that had nothing to do with race. For much of their childhoods, Orme and Obama were more like brothers than buddies, constant companions both on and off the basketball court who even double-dated on senior prom night. He always made time to see his old coach I didnt play him as much as I should have and he had every right to say 'Ill show you coach.' "He's not like that." Mr. Ramos was a year ahead of Mr. Obama's Punahou class of '79, but played with him on the basketball. I was certainly oblivious to a lot of what he references, Hale said in an interview. But asked what he believes Obamas biggest accomplishment was, he had a ready answer. They sought out parties, especially at the military bases on the island, where African-Americans would be in attendance. Allman said that she thought highly of Obama, who was 'very intelligent and witty'. Here is how some of Obamas former teammates and coaches remember those years: To understand President Obama, you have to understand his Hawaiian roots, Maurer said. 'You are extremely sweet and foxy, I don't know why Greg would want to spend any time with me at all!' His middle school yearbook captures the multiracial mood that many Hawaiians say has always defined the Aloha spirit. In front of a chalkboard with Mixed Races of America written in a students hand, Obama waved the peace sign for the camera. "I went to those parties up at Schofield but never saw him at any of them." When his mother, a woman said to have been born with a keen sense of wanderlust, announced she was returning to Indonesia, Obama, then a teenager, asked to stay in Hawaii, according to Soetoro-Ng, 36, who still lives in Honolulu. Yet even Obama has acknowledged the limits of memoir. In a new introduction to the reissued edition of "Dreams," he noted that the dangers of writing an autobiography included "the temptation to color events in ways favorable to the writer [and] selective lapses of memory."
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