Millions of American teenagers will go to proms this year. He then wrote down his number, encouraging Allman to give him a call, and signed off 'Barry Obama'. Pothead. Associated Press "He was a very provocative thinker. "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. 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. Some, like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, counted later acquaintances among political donors as friends. These previously unpublished photos, obtained exclusively by TIME from Obamas schoolmate Kelli Allman (ne McCormack), show a 17-year-old Barack Obama on the night of his senior prom. After high school graduation Obama went to Columbia University and then Harvard Law School, where he met his future wife, Michelle. But after practice theyd hit the public courts. 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 said Obama may have come across as easy going, but he was no pushover. Bendix said he and Obama learned most of their basketball moves on the playground. 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. Sheriff: Cleveland man shot after attacking man with hatchet at Morgan County campground 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. Hes kind of in and out. But twice that year the group gathered in Hawaii in August before the Democratic National Convention and in December after Mr. Obamas election. And he clearly didn't appreciate that," Orme said. Like Obama, Topolinski had to straddle a racial divide. News. 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. The annual gatherings perhaps speak to Mr. Obamas greater need for their connection now that he has what is called the loneliest job in the world. Their new neighborhood was only 3 miles to the west, but a world away. But those talks, Kakugawa said, were not about race. 14:27 GMT 23 May 2013 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 White House said Obama's foursome included childhood friends Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos. "He never verbalized any of that," Orme said during a telephone interview from his home in Oregon. Mr. Titcomb was golfing with the president within hours of the Obamas Dec. 21 arrival on Oahu. I think if people were one-on-one with him, theyd see things his way Look at how hes treated President-elect Trump. Obama, the son of a black father and white mother, stood out. "He liked drawing Spider-Man and Batman," said another friend, Widiyanto Hendro Cahyono, 46. The perfect tummy control bodysuit, a popcorn gadget, more bestsellers starting at $8. Those are qualities a president should have. He was the only foreign child in the neighborhood. Greg? He is 9 years old, living in Indonesia, where he and his mother moved with her new husband, Lolo Soetoro, a few years earlier. Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital. Orme would stay for the games. Obama and his. Teachers, former playmates and friends recall a boy who never fully grasped their language and who was very quiet as a result. A close friend of Obama's from their teenage years, Greg Orme, spent so much time with Dunham that he, too, called him "Gramps." 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. The White House says President Obama has been updated on progress made by Iraqi force against the Islamic State group in Ramadi. He added: "I can't say that I've avoided all, or any, of these hazards successfully." 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. Obama is. "You need to find Greg Orme," instructed Obama's old basketball coach, Chris McLachin. Obama has told the story--one of the watershed moments of his racial awareness--time and again, in remarkable detail. Although the Choom Gang has come to define Mr. Obamas high school circle owing partly to the presidents memoir, Dreams From My Father, and a notation that Mr. Obama made in his senior yearbook thanking the group for good times Mr. Ramos said in an interview after leaving Oahu this week that the phrase does not describe their circle. But Furushima, too, is learning to be on guard around the press. "Junkie. 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. One of his incredible legacies will be how he modeled being a family man. He would carry his books in one hand and his ball in the other," he said. Were the minorities here.. He would bring up worldly topics far beyond his years. 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. Bailey, who coached Obama during his junior year and now runs an ambulance service, said young Barry was a "gym rat. ---------- Kirsten Scharnberg reported from Honolulu and Kim Barker from Jakarta, Indonesia; Tribune staff reporter Ray Gibson contributed to this report. In his day, he was a better basketball player than a golfer. And having a Hawaiian in the White House made them all proud. Far less is known about Obama's buddies, of course, than about the president himself. These previously unpublished photos, obtained exclusively by TIME from Obama's schoolmate Kelli Allman (ne McCormack), show a 17-year-old Barack Obama on the night of his senior prom.. Bush remained pals with men he served with in World War II. 'When you're president, everybody wants something from you and only these types of friends are able to simply want your well-being. 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. Titcomb has worked as a commercial fisherman and an airline employee, according to the school's alumni magazine. He describes making friends easily, becoming fluent in Indonesian in just six months and melding quite easily into the very foreign fabric of Jakarta. Still, the story of his early years highlights how politics and autobiography are similar creatures: Each is shaped to serve a purpose. Then, one day about a year after he had arrived, Obama was gone. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don't exist, say the magazine's own historians. We had to prove ourselves, focus on playing good ball. , updated While the foursome gets together in Hawaii over the holidays each year, Titcomb, Orme and Ramos. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Incredible footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Bakhmut, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts, Dozens stuck in car park as staff refuses to open gate for woman, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA. IE 11 is not supported. Many of the men were black. Obama and his mother joined her new husband, a kind man who later would become a detached heavy drinker and womanizer, family members in Indonesia say. He was always very focused.. Kelli Allman is the pretty redhead pictured in the photo. 'You are extremely sweet and foxy, I don't know why Greg would want to spend any time with me at all!' All three live mostly private lives when they're not being photographed with the commander in chief. Then and now, Punahou and Hawaii liked to see themselves as more diverse and colorblind than the rest of the nation. I don't know why Greg would want to spend anytime with me at all! Wed drive around in my van listening to Earth, Wind & Fire and looking for places to play, he said. I hope we can keep in touch this summer, even though Greg will be gone.'. In 2011, he pleaded no contest to soliciting a prostitute, but Obama has stayed fiercely loyal to his childhood friend. "All of them were imperfect but all of them loved him fiercely, and I believe he took the best qualities from each of them." For a reputed loner, Mr. Obama has remained remarkably close to a trio he met as a teenager at Honolulus prestigious Punahou School boys of Hawaiis year-round summer with whom he played basketball, bodysurfed, drank beer and, like so many other young islanders in the 1970s, smoked pot, the choom of that long-ago nickname. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. At the same time, several of his oft-recited stories may not have happened in the way he has recounted them. And he would be going to the gym to work on his strength and conditioning.. 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. Obama and his Punahou School classmates Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme enjoyed a sunny and breezy day on the links. Barack Obama as a sophomore with the junior varsity basketball team at Punahou School, Honolulu, in 1977. Yet those who knew him disputed that during recent interviews. 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. He was loving and generous." He was probably studying them and learning from them. 'You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes! Bendix added that he was not shocked when Obama was elected president. When she told him she loved him, he responded with 'thank you', according to Maraniss, and they broke up in May 1985. And like Obama, he found his place on the basketball court. Like Mr. Obama, he was of mixed parentage the son of a Filipino father and a Czech mother and his parents were divorced. Or f------ Eskimo." 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'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.'. "In the absence of his father, there was not a kinder, more understanding man than Stanley Dunham. 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. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. He is unyielding in the things he believes in., I think hes done an unbelievable job as president, he said. The Latest: Obamas, friends tour Hawaii Islamic arts center Still, all of his teachers at the Catholic school recognized leadership qualities in him. He was always very calm, very level-headed, very rational. Speaking up for yourself., I gave them more playing time, McLachlin chuckled. This article originally appeared in the May 23, 2013 edition of TIME magazine underneath the title, Obamas Grand Old Party. To subscribe to TIME, click here. 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. Barack in the Student Life section of Punahou Schools yearbook. Obama never became terribly close with the children of the new school--this time a predominantly Muslim one--where he was enrolled. "Barry liked to draw heroes." The fun may wear off, if history is any guide. The pretty blonde on the right was the future president's prom date. Cook wrote that she saw his perfect woman as 'very strong, very upright, a fighter, a laugher, experienced - a black woman I keep seeing her as'. 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. And once you started playing well, contributing on the court, pretty much the racial aspect goes away.. 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. If only I had saved that Nerf hoop we used to dunk on. I brood, Mr. Obamas friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. 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. 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. 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. Zulfan Adi was one of the neighborhood kids who teased Obama most mercilessly. (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obama . 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 . (Courtesy Maya Soetoro-Ng ), The life stories, when the presidential candidate tells them, have a common theme: the quest to belong. 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. "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. Hes off the grid, said Hale, who is now the schools head basketball coach. 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. "It was a really fun, happy time. The foursome, according to the Associated Press, teed off with another eight players. The Hawaii holidays became more and more appealing, he said in an interview just after he began his run for president. In his best-selling autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," Obama describes having heated conversations about racism with another black student, "Ray." Ramos is most often referred to in stories about his relations with the president as a businessman. 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 you know, he made getting better health care for Americans one of his missions.. 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. 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. But absent from those discussions, they say, was another student then known as Barry Obama. Topolinski laughed when he recalled how they both tried out for the schools football team. Hes exhibited class and dignity all the way through it. 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. He said they adored his slam-dunking style and no-look passing, but their coaches were not fans. "They own it and we in it. Even though Trump is a loose cannon at least he will stick up for what he believes.. I am not giving any interviews, Obamas grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, curtly interjected when a reporter phoned. ", We would be like, Hey lets go to the beach, Bendix recalled. We could all be hotheads at times, but he was very diplomatic, he said. The U.S. military was expanding on the island of Oahu, home to the new capital of Honolulu. Our coaches were much more conservative, he said. "I don't imagine the decision to let him stay behind was an easy one for anyone," Soetoro-Ng said. 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.. After years during which the friends grew apart, Mr. Obama reconnected with Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme a decade ago. 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. But the reality felt far different for the handful of African-Americans attending classes there. "He would be very helpful with friends. Elite Dutch colonists once lived there; the Japanese moved in during their occupation of Indonesia in World War II. We are just such a mixed-up bag of races. Not as well known is the fact that the many people who raised him were nearly as diverse as the places where he grew up. But Obama never gave up and his work ethic was second to none on this team. ', 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 brood," Mr. Obama's friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. He even scored a basket," 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. Greg Orme, a fellow varsity basketball player, was Obamas constant companion. She also sent advice about his future. But the foursome rarely goes more than a few months without reconvening in one arrangement or another. The three men Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. "He was very intelligent and witty. Former playmates remember Obama as "Barry Soetoro," or simply "Barry," a chubby little boy very different from the gangly Obama people know today. 00:53 GMT 31 Dec 2014 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. On prom night, the pair double-dated. 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. When kids teased him, Obama yelled back, "Curang, curang!" Obama wrote in the lengthy yearbook note. By '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.'.