I think hes done great with all the stuff he inherited, like the recession and the two wars. The photos appear in the new issue of TIME, which hits news stands Friday. Through the haze of the 70s, they recall only the rat baller who was always up for a game. For the president to be able to be with a group where he can be absolutely relaxed a group that knows him from his youth on, and who he knows are friends with him not because of what he became, but because of who he is is a really comforting and warm thing, said David Axelrod, Mr. Obamas longtime strategist. (AFP OUT) U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and friend Greg Orme (R) wait to warm up on the driving range to play golf with friends December 29, 2008 in Kailua, Hawaii. 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 own it and we in it. The White House says Obama is playing golf with some of his longtime friends including Mike Ramos, Greg Orme and Bobby Titcomb. He'd pick them up if they fell down,'' Darmawan recalled. Asked Saturday about Kakugawa's recollections, the Obama campaign declined to make the senator available. remembered Ati Kisjanto, 45. 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. Coaches have recalled how he never went anywhere without a ball. The motorcade arrived in Kapolei around 11:30 a.m. ___ The comments below have not been moderated, By Obama and his Punahou School classmates Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme enjoyed a sunny and breezy day on the links. But after practice theyd hit the public courts. (Courtesy Maya Soetoro-Ng ), The life stories, when the presidential candidate tells them, have a common theme: the quest to belong. Most of his teachers and friends express sorrow that they did not know of Obamas racial anguish or inner demons. One place Obama has said he found a sense of community was on the basketball court. Only Mr. Titcomb stayed in Hawaii. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. I remember when we were seniors in high school, somebody said Barry would be on the Supreme Court, he said. "He'd go right up to the coach during a game and say, `Coach, we're killing this team. College would be his next stop. 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. 'When you're president, everybody wants something from you and only these types of friends are able to simply want your well-being. 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. If only I had saved that Nerf hoop we used to dunk on. "Stanley loved that little boy," said Abercrombie, now a Democratic congressman from Hawaii. 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. Daily Mail Reporter Made a strong case for them.. "Luckily he could swim. He learned to adapt to unfamiliar territory. His character, the way he conducts himself, thats always been his footprint. All say he was teased more than any other kid in the neighborhood--primarily because he was bigger and had black features. Bendix said he and Obama stayed in touch and he was at his 2008 inauguration. Having their back. In the second term, presidents have often sought refuge from the pressure by disappearing into nature to fish or hunt, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. 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. "In the absence of his father, there was not a kinder, more understanding man than Stanley Dunham. 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. It was hard to imagine that he felt that way, because he just seemed happy all the time, smiling all the time, she said. He knew that." The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white. We had to prove ourselves, focus on playing good ball. His love for Michelle and Sasha and Malia is outstanding. The same as in Washington, Orme said. This is my man! a delighted Obama said, Maurer recalled. 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. Mr. Orme was unable to travel to Hawaii for the recent holiday, but the others called him twice. A member of the varsity squad, though not a starter, Obama and his teammates brought Punahou the state championship in 1979, his senior year. Barack Obama, #23, during his senior year at Punahou School, Honolulu. But Kakugawa, a convicted drug felon, said Saturday that he had never been the "prototypical angry black guy" that Obama portrays. Adept at nailing long jump shots, Obama was called "Barry O'Bomber" by teammates. HONOLULU (AP) The Latest on President Barack Obama's annual two-week vacation in Hawaii (all times local): 4 p.m. Last year, a book delved into his teenage years and claimed that Obama and his friends formed The Choom Gang - slang for smoking marijuana - in which he invented inhaling techniques and rode a car called the Choomwagon. ', The comments below have not been moderated, President Obama waves his veto pen in the face of incoming Republican majority, Americans again name Hillary Clinton the most admired woman in the world and Obama the most admired man (and Princess Kate outranks Elizabeth Warren), Secret Service agents blame White House security lapses on post-9/11 demands to protect more people with less money but lawmakers say agency has been unaccountable for years, Military couple 'not at all' upset that President Obama's golf game had them booted from Hawaii course hours before their weddingas groom boasts he could beat his boss at golf, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, TN residents say Jack Daniel's distillery spews black mold, Incredible footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Bakhmut, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' I don't see that we are producing many Thomas Jeffersons nowadays. 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. 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. By Even though Trump is a loose cannon at least he will stick up for what he believes.. A close friend of Obama's from their teenage years, Greg Orme, spent so much time with Dunham that he, too, called him "Gramps." Back in 1979 he was known as Barry and he had a beef with his basketball coach. The three men Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. Once again, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, who had been as much parents as grandparents throughout the young man's life, said he could live with them. "It is a shame we have to worry so much about [grade point], but you know what the college entrance competition is these days," she wrote. But one word Obama learned quickly in his new home was curang, which means "cheater." All four were classmates at Punahou School in Honolulu, which Obama has described as 'a prestigious prep school, an incubator for island elites. Or Hawaiian. Our second string should be playing more.'" ', 'I'd made my share of friends at school, gone on the occasional awkward date,' Obama wrote, 'And if I sometimes puzzled over the mysterious realignments of status that took place among my classmates, as some rose and others fell depending on the whims of their bodies or the make of their cars, I took comfort in the knowledge that my own position had steadily improved.'. , updated ", We would be like, Hey lets go to the beach, Bendix recalled. 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. In the early 1970s, diplomats and Indonesian businessmen lived there in fancy gated houses with wide paved roads and sculpted bushes. 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. Hawaii is a melting pot, a very intense place if youre a kid. But spokesman Bill Burton said Obama "stands by his recollections of these events as related in his book." 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. The other kids would scrap with him sometimes, but because Obama was bigger and better-fed than many of them, he was hard to defeat. On prom night, the pair double-dated. The president was returning to the White House on Monday. In one photo he hugs his beaming sister. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital "I never knew, until reading the book later, how much that night had upset him." I am in poor health.. First Lady and her two daughters 'planning EXTENDED summer vacation at exclusive retreat', High school senior rejected by Kate Upton for prom asks Sports Illustrated model Nina Agdal instead - and she says YES, Report: Michelle Obama once dated inspector general at the center of IRS investigation into anti-tea party political favoritism, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S WOMEN: BARACK OBAMA'S FORMER FLAMES, Ukraine soldiers shoot down enemy drones with drones of their own, Mark Gordon arrives at Crawley Police Station after remains found, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' 'We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling.'. But generally, said the presidential biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, It does seem like these presidents need to find a sanctuary whether its a place or a group of people where they can just be themselves and feel the connection from the present to the past. High school friends who predate adulthood and professional attainments often know each others siblings, parents, even grandparents and know each other in a way that later friends often cannot. Throughout his youth, as depicted in his first book, he always found ways to meld into even the most uninviting of communities. There was his mother, Ann, a brilliant but impulsive woman; his grandmother Madelyn, a deeply private and stoically pragmatic Midwesterner; his grandfather Stanley, a loving soul inclined toward tall tales and unrealistic dreams. "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. 00:53 GMT 31 Dec 2014 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. He attended a college basketball game with the first family the next day, and this week he and his wife hosted their annual barbecue for the other families, including those of the Obamas Chicago friends Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt. "Barry's biggest struggles then were missing his parents. I was certainly oblivious to a lot of what he references, Hale said in an interview. His wife and daughters are skiing in Colorado. Still, all of his teachers at the Catholic school recognized leadership qualities in him. 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. Yet no such Life issue exists, according to historians at the magazine. As it made its way over the mountain pass, he took in views of the lush, green and misty Koolau mountains. 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. 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. They only did it to Barry." 18:47 GMT 23 May 2013. In the spring of 1979, Obama's mother and Maya, Barack's younger half sister by almost nine years, flew to Hawaii for his high school graduation. Isnt that sweet? she asked. As is usual when on the island, the president has been far from political advisers and hangers-on, and has instead spent time with the high school friends who have come to be known collectively, if inaccurately, as the Choom Gang. But its fun to imagine that in one of those pictures, theres a girl in a pastel dress or a lanky guy in a white sport coat who will end up becoming the leader of the free world. No such photos, no such article. Those are qualities a president should have. 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. TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. 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. IE 11 is not supported. 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. 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. Yearbook note Obama left for classmate Tom Topolinski when they graduated in 1979 from the Punahou school. I cant tell if someone is Fijian or black.. Bobby Titcomb Photos Photos - US President Barack Obama repares to putt on the 18th green as friend Greg Orme retrieves his ball and Darell Harrington (2nd R) and Bobby Titcomb (R) look on at the . Obama and his. They compose notes to friends and family and include photos or quotes that best represent them. Ramos is most often referred to in stories about his relations with the president as a businessman. Known as Ann throughout her adult life, she kept to herself. Aging photos show Obama and Orme decked out in 1970s fashion with their dates before attending a high school prom. The White House says Obama teed off Saturday at the nine-hole course at the Sunnylands retreat in Rancho Mirage with childhood friends Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos. Obamas presidential prospects have been fueled in large part by an arresting life story: The son of a Kenyan goatherder, he wrestled with his dual identities to become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review and a member of the U.S. Senate. Zulfan Adi was one of the neighborhood kids who teased Obama most mercilessly. The U.S. military was expanding on the island of Oahu, home to the new capital of Honolulu. He played several rounds on the nine-hole course with Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme, childhood friends from Hawaii who flew in to meet the president. When kids teased him, Obama yelled back, "Curang, curang!" In an essay about what he wanted to be when he grew up, Obama "wrote he wanted to be president," Sinaga recalled. I don't know why Greg would want to spend anytime with me at all! She said a woman from People came to visit with her and then walked away with the Punahou reunion list and all its phone numbers. The first family has attended Titcomb's annual luaus in the past. But asked what he believes Obamas biggest accomplishment was, he had a ready answer. Allman said the two couples sipped Champagne before going to the dance, and then an after-party. 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. Whatever misgivings Obama had about Punahou, attending the school was largely his decision. And they have cheered Obama on even when they disagreed with him. By 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. Old friend disputes memoir Every senior graduating from Punahou gets to design a quarter-page in the yearbook. The fourth person in the picture is Obama's date,Megan Hughes. For the past two weeks, he has been recharging on Oahu after an unpleasant year in the job. 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. "Junkie. She wistfully showed a reporter the love note Obama wrote in June 1979. Titcomb has worked as a commercial fisherman and an airline employee, according to the school's alumni magazine. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. According to the book, the characters representing Orme and the other friend asked to leave the party after just an hour, saying they felt out of place. Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama's friends from . 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. "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 admits in "Dreams" that during high school he frequently smoked marijuana, drank alcohol, even used cocaine occasionally. But absent from those discussions, they say, was another student then known as Barry Obama. He said he does recall long, soulful talks with the young Obama and that his friend confided his longing and loneliness. Daily Mail Reporter, Images show Obama ahead of his prom night in Honolulu in 1979, The Obamas to return to Martha's Vineyard? The 1979 photo was snapped inside the home of former classmate, Kelli Allman, who was the prom date of the pr, Fashion alert! But we never talked race." Those of us who were black did feel isolated--there's no question about that." "But it wasn't a race thing," he said. On this visit alone, Obama has spent more than 22 hours with the group on the lush golf courses that dot the island of Oahu. Im a Republican, but Ill endorse Barry for anything he wants, said Tom Topolinski, who backed his old buddy twice and voted this time for Trump. 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. Among his supporters, his likability and credibility have only been boosted by his stories of being an outsider trying to fight his way in. But those talks, Kakugawa said, were not about race. He also thanked the "Choom Gang," a reference to "chooming," Hawaiian slang for smoking marijuana. Mr. Titcomb was golfing with the president within hours of the Obamas Dec. 21 arrival on Oahu. After high school graduation Obama went to Columbia University and then Harvard Law School, where he met his future wife, Michelle. Increasingly, the reunions have become the focal point of Obama's family vacation in his second term as his teenage daughters spend less and less time at their father's side. And once you started playing well, contributing on the court, pretty much the racial aspect goes away.. With a trimmed Afro, Hawaiian flower leis around his neck, Obama was surrounded by the disparate people who shaped him. Their new neighborhood was only 3 miles to the west, but a world away. "He didn't say what country he wanted to be president of. "It was a really fun, happy time. A young black man struggles for acceptance at an institution of privilege, where he finds himself growing so angry and disillusioned at the world around him that he turns to alcohol and drugs. We played a lot of playground ball.. 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 made an appointment to see me one day and he brought along a couple other guys who wanted more playing time, Chris McLachlin recalled. But Furushima, too, is learning to be on guard around the press. They got back in touch when she visited New York in 1982, before continuing a long-distance relationship that eventually fizzled out, according to his biographer David Maraniss. Greg Orme, a fellow varsity basketball player, was Obama's constant companion. 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. It remains a refuge for me when I travel there during the winter, my family and I, and see friends from high school.. We have so many tones of brown here. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. Hopefully now that hes done well get to see each other more, he said. In another passage from the book, Ray complains that white Punahou girls don't want to date black guys and that he and Obama don't get enough playing time as athletes, speculating that they'd be "treated different if we was white. In a May 21, 2008 Sports Illustrated interview, Obama spoke of the importance of basketball in his life. KAILUA, HI - DECEMBER 29: (AFP OUT) U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and friend Greg Orme (R) wait to warm up on the driving range to play golf with friends December 29, 2008 in Kailua, Hawaii. They divorced after seven years of marriage and have a daughter. Obama is playing golf with three of his friends, Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme. The Latest: Obamas, friends tour Hawaii Islamic arts center He and I really clicked. Chris McLachlin is seen at his house on Jan. 4 in Honolulu, Hawaii. But we didnt really become good friends until the seventh grade. Not many presidents retained friendships from as far back as high school, although George W. Bush had close friends from his prep school days at Andover. All three live mostly private lives when they're not being photographed with the commander in chief. I dont know why people have slammed him like that, said Maurer. "He was a very provocative thinker. 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. The teacher, who still lives in Obama's old neighborhood, remembers that he always sat in the back corner of her classroom. All Rights Reserved. When it rained, Obama and his pals went bowling, instead. With his friends, he would drive the Choomwagon, a Volkswagen microbus, to Mount Tantalus, biographer David Maraniss wrote. "He never verbalized any of that," Orme said during a telephone interview from his home in Oregon. He sketched decidedly American cartoon characters during class. 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. Darin Maurer and then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. You gotta give him that.. 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. He would bring up worldly topics far beyond his years. "Punahou was an amazing school," Smith said. Obama and his family have been in his native Hawaii since December 20 for the Christmas holiday.