GGM PEDOY’S HOUSE ROCKED
By GM Carlton Kramer
The Great Grand Master’s house rocked from early dawn to dusk, not from music but crowing.
The GGM and Mrs. Pedoy lived by Leeward Community College in half of a WWII Quonset House, built out of metal and placed on cement pillars to lift it off the ground about four feet, so the front of the house was level with the street.
Their house had two small bedrooms, one for the GGM and his wife and the other for their son EduardoPedoy. It also included a small porch and a living room/kitchen area. The other half of the Quonset house was rented by Mrs. Pedoy’s daughter, Rose.
Under the house, the GGM and Eddie built about 20 small up-coop cages for their fighting roosters, and these gamecocks make constant noise. Their house’s thin wooden floor vibrated from all the loud crowing. During the day, the GGM would train his gladiators and teach his students at night. The noise would surprise new guests, but those who regularly visited got used to the situation and pretended nothing was unusual.
Knut Peacock built a large wooden covered patio in the back of the GGM’s house for escrima training, and once completed, the GGM moved his school to his house. This was super convenient for the GGM and gave our training the privacy we desired.
I soon became the main supplier of new roosters for the GGM. I grew up in Kailua and many of my friends were chicken fighters with farms in Waimanalo. Nobody wanted the man-hater roosters in their farms because they were impossible to train, plus you never wanted a sharp knife on a man-hating rooster. Thus, my friends would give me all their man-haters. I, in turn, gave them to the GGM, and he had them tamed in just 3 to 4 days.
The GMM loved these man-haters because they were so cocky and fearless. I never told anybody how fast the GGM would tame these super-hateful birds. The GGM would wear an old thick Army coat, take these roosters into his living room at night, and watch television for hours. Meanwhile, the bird is trying to bite him through the coat, which goes on for hours and days. If the rooster wants to eat, he has to eat his feed out of the Master’s hand. Even the most challenging bird would soon accept the GGM as his master.
We almost always won with the GGM’s warriors during the chicken fighting season. After all, he spent every day, all day, training them. Eddie was an excellent knifeman, and I handled the money for betting with our opponents. Looking back, I can say those were “the good old days.”