In high school, we would take off Friday evening and head for Surfside beach for the weekend in that old Cadillac hearse. OMG, that thing turned some heads. Bright yellow and about 25 feet long. :-) .Believe it or not, that thing was a chick magnet. ha! 

Later, Roy met and married Amy, the love of his life. We married shortly after and began making memories until the current days. Four of us school buddies would rent a beach house at Surfside for a few years and we and our wives would spend a week there. Each time we drove across that tall bridge in to Surfside, I would remember how Roy, somehow, forced that big Cadillac surf wagon over the top back in those days. 

Through the years we camped at state parks together. One of my favorite weekends was when Bruce (Amy's dad) and mom joined us at Huntsville State Park. We got in the boat about 6:15 in the morning and I heard a "pop a top" on a can of beer. Yeah, we lived in the moment. 

During the high school days, Roy and I would hit a place called The Groovy Catacombs. MANY of rock bands who played there went on the become famous. Probably the highlight of the music events was when he and I got to see Jimi Hendrix in Houston around the mid 60s.

Well, tons more of stories but bottom line people.... Live in the moment. Enjoy EVERY minute of time you can spend with friends because it's not forever.

They can take you away Roy, but never take away my memories of a true friend. Rest in Peace. We will all meet up again someday.

Joe Roberts. 

When I was a little kid, and I’ll add Bill in here because he was more so than I was, we were little brats.  I didn’t have much in common with Roy other than liking sports and wanting to hang out with my big brother.

As I got in my 20’s we had other things in common. We both enjoyed Lone Star longnecks, slow pitch softball and country western music.

Then in my 30’s and 40’s we both enjoyed NASCAR.  When they built Texas Motor Speedway, Roy and Bill would come up for the races. We would hang out together and this was really one of my favorite moments. It was during this time that I have to share a couple of funny moments. 

Then when I got into my 50’s the thing we had in common was that we were both retired. It was during this time period that I got to spend more time with he and Amy. I’m going to really miss him.

This hearse was purchased by Roy Bates, Frank Rogerson and Paul Neilson in 1967 in Houston to be used as a surf wagon. The purchase price was $500. It made many trips to Freeport and Galveston. Roy just loved to drive it and it was the ultimate gas guzzler. The old hearse was sold about 1976 to a man who had the vision of using the front end and back (chopped) in a restaurant.

The original postcard was framed and sent to Roy Bates in 2020.

This postcard was sent to me on August 6, 1966. Michael Cullinan. Mr. Cullinan was my Sophomore English teacher in 1963-64 at Aldine High School in Houston, Texas. In our senior year we would go to his house in River Oaks and hang out in the building behind his house. The “we” included Roy Bates, Frank Rogerson, Jerry Chestnut and John Charrier.

Mr. Cullinan sent this postmark to my home address on August 6, 1966. He was in Austin for some type of school training. On the text on the back side of the postcard he mentioned that “things got rather exciting for a while. I wasn’t on campus (University of Texas at Austin) but knew many who were, and many who had people shot right in front of them!”.

On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman had climbed up to the top of the tower on campus and started shooting at people.

At approximately 11:35 a.m., Whitman arrived on the University of Texas at Austin campus. He falsely identified himself as a research assistant and told a security guard he was there to deliver equipment. He then climbed to the 28th floor of the UT tower, killing three people within the tower, and opened fire from the observation deck with a hunting rifle and other weapons.

Altogether, Whitman killed fourteen people and wounded thirty-one] in the 96 minutes before he was shot and killed by Austin police officers Sergeant Ramiro Martinez and Patrolman Houston McCoy. They had raced to the top of the tower to stop Whitman.

Mr. Ramiro “Ray” Martinez is still living and is my neighbor in New Braunfels, Texas and lives three houses down on the same side of my street.