Bailey, who coached Obama during his junior year and now runs an ambulance service, said young Barry was a "gym rat. 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. Topolinski, who now lives in Washington state, said he lost touch with Obama after high school and they moved into different political camps. 'We had great vibes between us.'. A member of the varsity squad, though not a starter, Obama and his teammates brought Punahou the state championship in 1979, his senior year. Wearing a white shirt and dark-colored shorts and a baseball hat, President Barack Obama finished 18 holes of golf at the Kapolei Golf Course in Kapolei, Hawaii. So just get the f--- outta my face." The handful of black students who attended Punahou School in Hawaii, for instance, say they struggled mightily with issues of race and racism there. "I never knew, until reading the book later, how much that night had upset him." Once content to join their parents for outings to the aquarium or to get shave ice, Sasha and Malia are now more independent. He also thanked the "Choom Gang," a reference to "chooming," Hawaiian slang for smoking marijuana. But such solitude has become less and less attainable for presidents in modern times. Many of the men were black. 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. Cook, who was 25, and Obama, then 22, dated for 18 months, passing their time discussing books and cooking. Barry would be the only black person. These previously unpublished photos, obtained exclusively by TIME from Obamas schoolmate Kelli Allman (ne McCormack), show a 17-year-old Barack Obama on the night of his senior prom. Allman said that she thought highly of Obama, who was 'very intelligent and witty'. Coaches have recalled how he never went anywhere without a ball. He then wrote down his number, encouraging Allman to give him a call, and signed off 'Barry Obama'. Not one of `the brothers' As much as young Obama stood out physically in the classrooms of Indonesia, so, too, did he at Punahou School, the elite private prep academy his mother moved him back to Hawaii to attend. The three men - Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme - are among the few people still in Obama's life who knew him long before he was famous. One day while visiting his mother, who was working at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Obama passed time by looking through several issues of Life magazine. Maurer, who mostly played guard, said he and Obama were no slouches but they were on teams with some really strong jocks. Obama, who has talked and written so much about struggling to find a sense of belonging due to his mixed race, brushes over this time of his life in "Dreams." They only did it to Barry." ', In his memoir, 'Dreams From My Father,' Obama recalled a high school career that was, for the most part, ordinary 'marginal report cards and calls to the principal's office; part-time jobs at the burger chain; acne and driving tests and turbulent desire. A high school friend has shared photographs of Obama at his prom night withTIME magazine - as well as a very friendly note he penned in her yearbook, in which he calls her 'sweet and foxy'. The President of the United States is no different. Since January, more than a dozen news organizations from around the globe, from the BBC to TV Asahi to People magazine, have dispatched reporters to Oahu. He also liked to take outside shots and sometimes he got really hot.. The 1979 photo was snapped inside the home of former classmate, Kelli Allman, who was the prom date of the pr, Fashion alert! He learned to adapt to unfamiliar territory. Bailey, who owes his nickname to his quickness on a court, said he's been "impressed by the way Obama handled himself as president." 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. It wasnt until 2008, when Obama was making his first run for president, that they saw each other again at a fundraiser. Yet even Obama has acknowledged the limits of memoir. So neither of us ever started and that was hard, he said. (At the request of the Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled.) Their photos are more likely to be stored on Facebook than in a shoe box. He was always very calm, very level-headed, very rational. What America's Richest Ski Town's Handling of COVID-19 Shows. As it made its way over the mountain pass, he took in views of the lush, green and misty Koolau mountains. All three live mostly private lives when they're not being photographed with the commander in chief. Former playmates remember Obama as "Barry Soetoro," or simply "Barry," a chubby little boy very different from the gangly Obama people know today. Obama admits in "Dreams" that during high school he frequently smoked marijuana, drank alcohol, even used cocaine occasionally. ", Ive known Barry since the fifth grade, he said. 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. 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. Hes not like that.. Both of them seemed surprised to hear that in "Dreams"--which neither of them had read--Obama writes about routinely going to parties at Schofield Barracks and other military bases in order to hang out with "Ray," who like Anthony and Smith was two years ahead of him in school. "But it wasn't a race thing," he said. He thanked "Tut and Gramps," his nicknames for Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, but didn't mention his faraway mother. Obama and his Punahou School classmates Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme enjoyed a sunny and breezy day on the links. The Obamas did skip Hawaii in 2007 and instead the friends joined Mr. Obama in wintry Iowa for the January 2008 presidential caucuses. Standing up for your buddies. Since arriving more than a week ago, Obama has been out in public with one of his daughters only once, briefly, during a hike. I don't know why Greg would want to spend anytime with me at all! It was very important to me all the way through my teenage years.. For me its the unconditional love, its the nontransactional nature of the relationship that enduring quality that is something that I really value, he said. When youre on a school team, theres more discipline involved, he said. "Looking back now, I'd say he really is kind of the perfect combination of all of them," said his half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. Half the homes were old bamboo huts; half, including the Soetoro house, were nicer, with brick or concrete and red-tiled roofs. Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital. They were like brothers, says Allman. He's lived in Colorado, but was listed as a North Carolina resident when in 2012 he attended a state dinner at the White House that Obama held for British Prime Minister David Cameron. If you look at our teams, that year I was the only white guy on the starting five. His love for Michelle and Sasha and Malia is outstanding. "It was a really fun, happy time. The White House said Obama's foursome included childhood friends Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos. On prom night, the pair double-dated. He was the only foreign child in the neighborhood. 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. Only Mr. Titcomb stayed in Hawaii. Hed tell us to move on if we got into it with another player. Obama, the son of a black father and white mother, stood out. He describes making friends easily, becoming fluent in Indonesian in just six months and melding quite easily into the very foreign fabric of Jakarta. Right: Obama wrote the above note in Allmans yearbook at the end of his senior year in 1979. Adept at nailing long jump shots, Obama was called "Barry O'Bomber" by teammates. I really admire that.. Hes exhibited class and dignity all the way through it. With his friends, he would drive the Choomwagon, a Volkswagen microbus, to Mount Tantalus, biographer David Maraniss wrote. Titcomb, who golfed another two days with Obama this month before the others got into town, was a year behind Obama at Punahou. 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. When it rained, Obama and his pals went bowling, instead. They have a different level of affection for you than friends you meet later in life. Bendix said he and Obama stayed in touch and he was at his 2008 inauguration. What Obama and his companions talk about during their many hours alone is anyone's guess. 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. But he seemed to have coped pretty well.. 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?" 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. In his poem, An Old Man, there are glimpses of a tortured adolescent as well as a budding orator. 'It was a really fun, happy time,' she said. Anyone can read what you share. But after practice theyd hit the public courts. 'The sexual warmth is definitely there,' Cook wrote in her journal. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy. On page 271 of the 1979 Oahuan, Obama's entry reflects the crossroads he found himself at as he prepared for life beyond Hawaii. IE 11 is not supported. This is the Barry I remember.. And once you started playing well, contributing on the court, pretty much the racial aspect goes away.. This is my man! a delighted Obama said, Maurer recalled. All say he was teased more than any other kid in the neighborhood--primarily because he was bigger and had black features. But Orme is a hard man to find. He would bring up worldly topics far beyond his years. Most of his teachers and friends express sorrow that they did not know of Obamas racial anguish or inner demons. 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. 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. I saw an old forgotten man/On an old, forgotten road, begins the 12-line poem. The president was returning to the White House on Monday. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. 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. 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. On prom night, the pair double-dated. 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. And while they did enjoy marijuana, Mr. Ramos acknowledged, we played a lot more basketball than we smoked pot.. Others are more skeptical that the boy known as Barry felt the angst described by Barack. In his best-selling autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," Obama describes having heated conversations about racism with another black student, "Ray." He describes making friends easily, becoming fluent in Indonesian in just six months and melding quite easily into the very foreign fabric of Jakarta. He came across an article that he later would describe as feeling like an "ambush attack." Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. Zulfan Adi was one of the neighborhood kids who teased Obama most mercilessly. "In the absence of his father, there was not a kinder, more understanding man than Stanley Dunham. Others almost certainly illustrate how carefully the young man guarded the secret of his loneliness from even those who knew him best. Obama played basketball at Punahou with Orme, who the alumni magazine says is now a building contractor. "We were champions and I think it helped him become the man he is today. Those of us who were black did feel isolated--there's no question about that." On the lower half of the seventh-grade page is the same group, under a heading of Useless Races in America. The joke, it seems, is on intolerance. As a result, the handful of black students at Punahou informally banded together. Sheriff: Cleveland man shot after attacking man with hatchet at Morgan County campground 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. "Like being black was a funny costume in and of itself," recalled Smith, now a doctor who specializes in geriatrics in California. And he frequently made peace--even allies--with the very people who angered him most. FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2014 file photo, President Barack Obama, center, walks during a round of golf with Greg Orme, left, and Mike Ramos, on the 18th hole of the Mid Pacific Country Club in . It is the same one that a young Obama wrote in the yearbook of a petite black-haired beauty named Kelli Furushima -- the object of his high school crush. He added: "I can't say that I've avoided all, or any, of these hazards successfully." Or f------ Eskimo." Associated Press The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white. 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. 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. Our coaches were much more conservative, he said. The sailboat the Manu Kai (bird of the sea, in English) is about to set sail behind him. "I went to those parties up at Schofield but never saw him at any of them." Some of these discrepancies are typical of childhood memories -- fuzzy in specifics, warped by age, shaped by writerly license. Among U.S. presidents, Obama is not alone in carving out time regularly to reconnect with his roots. Obama, too, was about to journey far from these familiar shores. "You need to find Greg Orme," instructed Obama's old basketball coach, Chris McLachin. "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. "Not even close," he said, adding that Obama was dealing with "some inner turmoil" in those days. Memories of a racial awakening? Whatever misgivings Obama had about Punahou, attending the school was largely his decision. He said Obama may have come across as easy going, but he was no pushover. As he had at the old school, Obama sat in a back corner. "He would protect the smaller ones." One of his incredible legacies will be how he modeled being a family man. 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. But one word Obama learned quickly in his new home was curang, which means "cheater." "I brood," Mr. Obama's friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. One of those kids was Orme, a smart, respectful teenager from a white, middle-class family. Hawaii friends Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme, Punahou Academy classmates, were also on hand. We could all be hotheads at times, but he was very diplomatic, he said. But it was on the court in the off-season that Obama seemed to be even happier. 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. To them, the characteristics Obama displayed on the hardwood as one of the Sons of Oahu were evident in the way he handled the daunting responsibilities as leader of the free world. The number at Dunhams apartment in a nondescript Honolulu high rise has not changed in more than a quarter-century. Obama is playing golf with three of his friends, Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme. In its reissue after he gave the keynote address at the Democratic convention in 2004, "Dreams from My Father" joined a long tradition of political memoirs that candidates have used to introduce themselves to the American people. Likewise for Mr. Obama, it seems. Old friend disputes memoir Every senior graduating from Punahou gets to design a quarter-page in the yearbook. No such photos, no such article. The president turns 53 on Monday. But those talks, Kakugawa said, were not about race. News. You gotta give him that.. That first year, Mr. Ramos said, I remember coming home from a golf outing and literally starting to cry, so emotional was the contrast he felt between their friendships and the transactional ones he said he had since formed as a businessman. "We'd all do things together, but Obama was never there," Smith said, adding that they often brought along the few other black underclassmen. "At the time, it was about basketball," said Orme, who has remained friends with Obama over the years and who plays basketball with him almost every Christmas when the two return to Hawaii to visit family. She wistfully showed a reporter the love note Obama wrote in June 1979. 'We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling.'. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. "All of them were imperfect but all of them loved him fiercely, and I believe he took the best qualities from each of them." 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. The Latest: Obamas, friends tour Hawaii Islamic arts center "He never verbalized any of that," Orme said during a telephone interview from his home in Oregon. His character, the way he conducts himself, thats always been his footprint. Topolinski said neither he nor Obama were stars on their high school team. "But looking back now I can see he was seeking more from those guys than that. She became estranged from her husband, Barack Obama Sr., after his departure for Harvard and rarely saw the group of friends that they had made at the University of Hawaii. Or Hawaiian. HONOLULU -- Until recently, the players on Hawaiis 1979 state basketball championship team thought their glory days were behind them, consigned to yearbooks and faded newspaper clippings. From TIME's press release on the. If young Obama had struggled to find a place at Punahou, it was well hidden on this day as well. The tenacity and determination Obama showed to make his high school basketball team was an early indicator of the greatness to come. They were. He was always very focused.. I would go out there and be the only white person. Orme would stay for the games. Some, like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, counted later acquaintances among political donors as friends. 'But the rest of it has sharp edges, 'Tho he speaks sweet words and can be open and trusting, there is also that coolness - and I begin to have an inkling of some things about him that could get to me.'. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. It remains a refuge for me when I travel there during the winter, my family and I, and see friends from high school.. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Obama, his mother and new baby sister, Maya, moved into a small apartment near the school's sprawling, lush campus. John F. Kennedy had his band of brothers from wartime. In the six weeks since Obama announced his intention to run for the White House, he routinely has suggested that his diverse background--raised for a time in the Third World, schooled at elite institutions and active in urban politics--makes him the best-suited candidate to speak to rich and poor, black and white, mainstream voters and those utterly disenchanted with the political system. Mr. Obama and the others often would visit family members there at Christmas and on occasion the men would meet, but it was not until 2004 that they agreed to gather annually. Allman said Obama didn't date a lot in high school but had plenty of charm. Bendix added that he was not shocked when Obama was elected president. Allman said the two couples sipped Champagne before going to the dance, and then an after-party. In a striking snapshot with his grandparents, Stanley smiles proudly while Madelyn hugs him fiercely, as though she doesn't want to let him go forth into a world far from the remote island that for so long had been his home. A youth living in a distant land searches and finds new friends, a new language and a heartbreaking lesson about his identity in the pages of an American magazine. After Obama's prom date with Megan Hughes and before settling down with Michelle during his time studying at Harvard, President Obama seriously dated two women: Alex McNear was a 20-year-old literature lover he met at Occidental College in 1981 before he transferred to Columbia in his junior year. The havoc time wreaks on fashion spares no one, not even the president of the United States. Aging photos show Obama and Orme decked out in 1970s fashion with their dates before attending a high school prom. All Rights Reserved. 'You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes! "Barry's biggest struggles then were missing his parents. 'Many people call Obama aloof, and he hasn't made a lot of friends in Washington,' Brinkley said. Back in 1979 he was known as Barry and he had a beef with his basketball coach. Basketball was the great equalizer, he said. There are, however, chapters in Obamas high school narrative that are not subject to dispute. So did Maurer, who is now a pastor in Houston. Obama and his family have been in his native Hawaii since December 20 for the Christmas holiday. Obamas prom pictures released. Then, one day about a year after he had arrived, Obama was gone. Speaking up for yourself., I gave them more playing time, McLachlin chuckled. Rik Smith, a black Punahou student two years older than Obama, remembers a Halloween when white students would dress as slaves, coming to school in tattered clothes with their faces painted black with shoe polish. We were all cracking up and everyone was smiling," she told the magazine. Meanwhile, the search continues for Obamas closest high school friends -- the self-proclaimed Basketball Jones, who raced around the island in Darin Maurers two-toned beige VW van with the band Earth, Wind and Fire blaring from the cassette deck. 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. Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama's friends from . He and I really clicked. Its good for me, pre-Alzheimers, to try and remember this stuff, he said, struggling to recall something other than Obamas love for basketball and his improbable hook shot. Some of that crew has stayed in Hawaii, but others have moved off island. The race to track them down and coax them to open up likely will include reporters as well as opposition research experts for political rivals. I am not giving any interviews, Obamas grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, curtly interjected when a reporter phoned. Mr Obama has remained close to Mr Orme over the years. I don't see that we are producing many Thomas Jeffersons nowadays. But Furushima, too, is learning to be on guard around the press. "Barry liked to draw heroes." Bush remained pals with men he served with in World War II. WASHINGTON President Obama has called Hawaii his refuge, and so it has been throughout his political life. 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. It was pretty typical from there out as far as what happens at prom: the dinner and the dancing and the photos.. They compose notes to friends and family and include photos or quotes that best represent them. Through the haze of the 70s, they recall only the rat baller who was always up for a game. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Instead we are producing Richard Nixons." And when Obama came back for Christmas, he got invited to join the new president at a pickup basketball game. 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. I brood, Mr. Obamas friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. I think hes done great with all the stuff he inherited, like the recession and the two wars. Mr. Orme was unable to travel to Hawaii for the recent holiday, but the others called him twice. The Los Angeles Times weighed in the other day. In the early 1970s, diplomats and Indonesian businessmen lived there in fancy gated houses with wide paved roads and sculpted bushes. 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.

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