Ray is a 50-year buddy, going back 50 years to Palm Springs Junior High days in northwestern Hialeah where we both grew up. We delivered the Miami Herald together, we dated girls together including Hialeah High's Senior Prom at the Fontainebleau Hotel, we both worked at Sears at Northside Shopping Center together, we both went into different branches of the military a month or two apart and we've played in many many poker games together over the years in the 70's and early 80's. Now we're both retired and we can drink many beers together just like high school days and many times afterwards.

Except for Ray being seriously wounded at Con Thien, Vietnam while serving as a Navy Corpsman with the Third Marine Division in October 1967, life has been good for both of us.