and a fellow lived next door to me, eddie mccarthy, who was a professional fighter, 135-pound, lightweight, very good guy. and he took me under his wing. but then he went off to the korean war. just before he did that, he turned me over to a local boxing hero, kenny isaacs. and he told kenny, "kenny, take young paul here under your wing. he's my protege." kenny did that. and i was gonna retire as soon as i won the flyweight championship of north america, but i never got that far. i got up to the silver medal for the aau in new england at the age of 17. and that was about it. after that, in the follow-up fight, getting ready for the nationals, i got knocked out, the end of that career. another big influence on my life was burl grey, a sign painter that i met back in the late fifties. burl was painting in miami and i was assigned to paint with him. no one else would paint with him because there was a rumor going around about him that he was, yeah, one of them. he was accused of being, and i found out for myself that old burl was an intellectual. and intellectuals didn't cut it at the sign pa