August H. "Sonny" Hummert III, has a second-degree black belt in aikido, judo and karate. Not for just for recreation or exercise, and not because he's a Bruce Lee fan, but for protection while at work at his family's business."The purpose of [the black belt] was to be able to haul the winos out of our facility ... they would come in our store and harass our employees and customers or steal the flats of tomatoes or whatever we'd have out front. I'd have to go chase them down the block to stop them and get the flat back," he recalls with a laugh.That sketchy neighbourhood was the east end of Chouteau Avenue (pronounced show-toe) not far from the Mississippi river near midtown St. Louis. It was presumably a pretty nice neighbourhood when Sonny's grandfather, August Sr., founded A.H. Hummert SeedCompany in 1932. A German immigrant, August Sr. had worked for St. Louis Seed Company before deciding to go it alone at age 53. Wisely, he bought a building on Chouteau just half a block from the new St. Louis Floral Market, established just five years earlier on LaSalle Street. All the Midwest mum and rose growers would wholesale their flowers there and August capitalized on that.
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机译：August H.“ Sonny” Hummert III，在合气道，柔道和空手道中拥有二级黑带。这不仅是为了娱乐或锻炼，不是因为他是李小龙的粉丝，而是为了在他的家庭生意中工作时得到保护。“黑带”的目的是能够将酒从我们的设施中拖出。他们会进来我们的商店，骚扰我们的员工和顾客，或者偷走西红柿或其他我们要摆在外面的东西。我不得不去追赶他们，阻止他们并把它们拿回来，”他笑着回忆道：那个粗略的街区是Chouteau大街的东端（发音为露趾），离圣路易斯市中心附近的密西西比河不远。当桑尼的祖父奥古斯特（August Sr.）于1932年成立AH悍马种子公司（AH Hummert SeedCompany）时，这大概是一个非常不错的社区。一个德国移民奥古斯特（August Sr.）在圣路易斯种子公司（St. Louis Seed Company）工作，然后决定独自一人去世，享年53岁。买了Chouteau上的一座建筑，距离新的圣路易斯花卉市场（St. Louis Floral Market）仅五年前，后者在拉萨尔街（LaSalle Street）上建立。所有中西部的妈妈和玫瑰种植者都将在那里批发鲜花，八月利用这一点。
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