I miss him.

 Tomorrow is Carlos's Birthday.  I miss  him.  

He was born on July 19, 1956.  He passed away on 1/14/2021.  We had a memorial for him at the Optimist Club in Pembroke Pines.  

At the Optimist Club baseball field, Ramon and LMT participated in the Celebration of Life of Carlos Lopez.  There were more than 100 attendees. Considering this was during a pandemic where everyone was encouraged to not gather, that is saying something.  

Present were Betty Juan Lopez & Carlos and Betty’s 4 kids: Melissa, Stephanie, Carlos “Chuckie” and Gabriel “Gabby”.  Each child came to the park with their significant other: Chuckie with Alejandra, Gabby with Shelby, Melissa with her girlfriend, and Stephanie with her boyfriend. Most of the Lopez-Trigo’s were there: LMT & Ramon, Elena & Elena’s boyfriend-Grant, and Paula were present. Cristina was out of town in Georgia where she lives and Robbie was busy working for Apple. Rob worked for Apple till 9pm and then needed to work on coding for his IT boot camp. Others present were: 1) Gus Caballero and his wife Lilly; Gus and Carlos Lopez were friends and Gus temporarily worked with Carlos; 2) Pedrin and his wife Lourdes; Pedrin is Betty’s brother; 2) Teresa, Glenn, & Frederica, Glenn’s girlfriend;  3)  Ana & Armando and their 2 daughters: Emily and Jennifer; 4) Rosa Maria; 5) Marta, the second cousin of Betty Juan Lopez. 6) Friends of Carlos and Betty and their children : Camping friends and sports-related friends and work friends including Del, Carlos’s former boss; 7) Elvis, a La Salle alumni, and classmate of Ramon. Juanpi could not make it since he had an upset stomach. Paula & Rosa Maria broadcasted the event via zoom to Cristina, Juanpi, Anna Julia, Josh, and Danny. The music that was playing were all of Carlos’s favorites. LMT & Ramon entered the park via west fence entrance in the area to the right of first base & beyond the baseball diamond. The main table up was up against the west fence and to the right as one entered the baseball field. On the table were numerous frames containing photos of Carlos with family and friends during the many stages of his life. Hung on the fence in back of the table and to the right was a photo of Carlos and to the left of the table was another copy of the same photo. This photo of Carlos seems to capture his essence and is one of his kids’ favorite images of their father taken while he was sitting by a lamp. On the table were also bouquets of flowers and a box with numerous lined stationary papers each labeled Memories. The attendees were asked to write a memory they had of Carlos. LMT wrote: “Carlos I remember talking to you when my child and your child were both ill. I wish I could have had more of those conversations with you!” Other tables were set up against the north fence. The tables had chicken wraps, fried boneless chicken, pastelitos, croquetas, Colombian empanadas, cupcakes, and assorted drinks in coolers with ice. Drinks included soft drinks and Francis Ford Coppola Sofia sparkling Rose wine. LMT ate 3 fried boneless chicken pieces & a Colombian empanada and drank a cup of Rose wine. At first every one set up their chairs and tents and mingled and ate and drank and talked while social distancing and while wearing masks due to COVID-19 Pandemic!. 

Rosa Maria opened the ceremony by talking about Carlos. She said that when he married Betty, his main role in life was to be Betty’s husband and a father to Melissa, Stephani, Chucky and Gaby.  She said he did his best for all for them.  She said that he has not left.  He is still here, among us.  And he is very proud of what his family had done for him and is now doing. Rosa then led everyone with “The Lord’s Prayer”  

Melissa followed with a story of how Carlos was always quiet and set the example of making things not so complicated. She said  Carlos was not prone to anger except when it came to sports. She told us of one particular event where she was on a volleyball team and the coach did not let her play at all. After the game Carlos went to the coach and started yelling at him. He said to the coach: “How can you not put her in; she is only 10 years old.”  Ramon thinks that what he meant was that at 10, after working so hard, not being put in to play the game, even for a while, can leave a lasting impression on a child. This was Ramon’s impression since he has had the same feelings. .

Stephanie followed up by saying he was a simple man who enjoyed life. He worked very hard; but he always made sure that he enjoyed life. Chuckie talked about how he provided for his family and at no time did he ever complain about it. He worked very hard.  Even towards the end, when he returned home, he woke up, and started saying that he had to hand in a lot of work assignments to Del, his former boss before Carlos set up his own company!  Ramon was behind Del at the time and just saw Del look down. Del was with the company who gave Carlos many of the cases. Del also helped Carlos and is helping Chuckie with the business right now.  

Gaby then talked about Carlos. Gabby said that Carlos was always there for him always there to converse with him.  No matter how late Gabby got home, he could speak with his dad and his dad was always there to listen and talk about Gabby’s problems. 

Gus Caballero then spoke about how Carlos and he were both Dolphin fans to the extreme and today Gus wore his Dolphin Jersey, which Gus got when he turned 60, in honor of Carlos. A fellow member of the Cuban American Camping Association otherwise known as the “ CACA” club also spoke and said Carlos loved to go camping with him and another gentleman, whose wife is from New York. Carlos would always greet her with a New York accent saying “So How you doing?” similar to how Joey in the TV show “Friends” would greet others! He said Carlos just enjoyed to sit around and share food and drinks and carry on “small talk” - conversation with his fellow campers. 

Ramon then spoke of childhood memories of Carlos. Ramon spoke of one particular memory of Carlos; he believes it is his earliest clear memory. Carlos and Ramon for some reason both slept in the same bed when they were children. There was a reason, but Ramon does not remember what it was. Apparently, during the night, Ramon would move in bed and hit Carlos while asleep. Carlos kept talking about dividing the bed in half; Carlos drew an imaginary line. Ramon did not know how he would be able to know where the imaginary line was, particularly when he was asleep, so Ramon kept coming up with ways of building a barrier. Carlos just kept it simple. The imaginary line was sufficient. Carlos and Ramon were treated as one in those days. It was always Carlos y Ramon. One word: Carlos y Ramon. One time a stranger said Ramon y Carlos; no one answered since it was said it reverse.  It was always said: “ Carlos y Ramon”. Carlos y Ramon did everything together. We learned English together.  Papi would teach us English. We had one book.  Papi was able to teach us only a few sentences. We only knew one verb.  When we arrived in 1965 Carlos was 9 and I was 8.  We were both placed in the same school. It is amazing how much easier things are when you have a big brother in the same class. Carlos and I were together in Coral Way Elementary.  

The first day, Mrs. Lecours gave us an assignment. We could not leave until we finished it. We had to write 10 complete sentences.  I remember all the other students left because it was time to go home and they had finished the assignment. Carlos and I remained in the back of the portable classroom, trying to think of how to do the assignment. I remember I asked Carlos “Carlos tu sabes que es un sentence?” (Carlos do you know what a sentence is?).  I think his first sentence was “I have a book”  mine was “I have a tree”. We were there for quite a while. I am not sure how we were allowed to leave. I know we did not write 10 sentences. This was a mixed classroom.  Half of it was for third graders, the other for fourth graders.  I was in third grade and he was in fourth grade. We did not sit together.  In fact I sat on the second seat in the second row.  He sat way in the back in the fourth or fifth row.  During class I would look back to find him and he was always there. One day, after around a week, Carlos was transferred to another school, Citrus Grove Elementary.  In order to arrive early at school, Carlos had to wait for a school bus to pick him up and take him there. This change alarmed me since it was the first time we would not be together. 

I remember looking back, searching, and he was not there.  I got a bad a feeling.  A feeling similar to the one I am feeling now. I look around this field and I see all of you.  I am expecting to find Carlos and I cannot find him. But, I know he is here. At the event, Ramon was pleasantly surprised to see Elvis a fellow alumni from Ramon’s La Salle class of 1975.  Ramon, LMT, Paula, Elena and Grant spent some time speaking to Elvis.  Elvis wrote an email to the  Class of 1975 alumni:  “Yesterday’s memorial to Carlos Lopez, brother of our beloved Dr. Ramon “Moose” Lopez, was a very nice event.  The family set up this beautiful tribute, with a custom-made banner and photo table with flowers. This was against the outfield fence of a baseball field at a park, a place which was significant to his brother.  Overall Ramon thought it was a beautiful event.  His family said goodbye to him in a way he would have been proud of.  

This park was were Carlos would help coach his kids; Melissa and Stephanie in volleyball and Chuckie and Gabby in baseball. As the family was packing up; to the sounds of Jimmy Buffet singing Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitudes: It's these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes / Nothing remains quite the same / With all of our running and all of our cunning / If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.

Ramon kept thinking that it was a very fitting ending to a wonderful afternoon.

July 4th

Tomorrow is the fourth of July.  I can remember three fourth of July's in  particular in my mind.  The first one is July 4, 1976.  The other was on July 4th 1978.  The last one was once when we went to the Epcot Center for the second time and watched a huge fireworks show. I do not remember the exact year.  It may have been 1992, since I do not remember Rob being there and I was carrying Paula.  

On July 4, 1976 I became a citizen on the United States.  I began working towards it when I  had to do a paper for Mr. Koziol in 1975, our senior year in high school. I did it  to kill two birds with one stone.  I had to write a paper and I needed to find out how the citizenship papers were filed so I came up with a paper entitled "becoming a citizen of the United States".  I cannot remember at all the paper but it did get me to file.  At some point someone from the Social Security Office interviewed me.  In my case it may have been a little different. Teresa was already working for the social security office.  I remember because Teresa ran the interview and I made the decision to change my name to Lopez de la Vega, rather than my legal name previously which was Lopez.  Once you become a citizen you can change your name for free.  Lopez de la Vega was my original name but it was changed once I landed here on November 1965.  I am not sure why my name was changed to just Lopez but it was.  I remember Teresa was already working at the social security office and she handled the name change etc...  Teresa did not like that I was changing my name. I should not say she did not like it but she was worried about other things that might occur due to the name change.  I only did it since the name Lopez was so common that I thought it was best to change it to Lopez de la Vega.   Around half of us did change it.  In the end, Teresa changed hers also many years later since there was a person who had her same name and the social security differred in only the last two numbers and was a criminal of some type.  Teresa was almost arrested once because of that issue.  

On that day mom and I had to go to a ceremony since we were both becoming Citizens of the United States. I remember being unsure of whether to go through with it or not.  I was proud and still I am proud of my heritage.  I had never really wanted to become a citizen of the United States.  In part that was because dad did not want to do it either.  The reason I did become a citizen is that I had heard that there were numerous scholarships that would only be availalbe to us if we were citizens.  However, I cannot remember which ones they were.  They may have been either the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant or one which was sponsored by the state of florida, I believe it was the State of Florida Assistant Grant. I may be wrong.  It would not make that much of a difference in the beginning of my college career.  But it may make a difference later, and it did.  I decided it was best for me to go through with it and become a citizen.  This was literally the only reason I did this.  

The ceremony was not extravagant, but I felt I was in a different place.  Only mom and I attended the ceremony, I am not really sure why.  Since mine occurred on the bicentennial, it was kind of a big deal.  There were ceremonies all through the United States.  I believed there was one in the orange bowl but I looked it up and did not find it.  I was with mom at the Miami Beach Convention Center.   Halfway through the ceremony I could tell mom was sad.  She may even have been crying.  I never asked her why. I knew.  It was the drummer.  There was a drummer in a band that was playing.  He was a very enthusiastic drummer.  Sometimes his bandmates would have to tell him to take it easy.  And, he looked more than a little like my own brother, Robert.  He did not remind me of Robert, but when I saw my mom crying, he did.  This was only 7 months afterwards.  I never spoke to her about it, in fact I pretended not to notice, but it was obvious. I love my mom. 

The second fourth of July I remember was in 1978.  Lourdes and I began going out approximately May 27, 1978.  I say approximately because that is what I and Lourdes determined at that time.  I am not actually sure that was the date.  It is our best estimate.  We had been going dancing and getting to know each other all summer going out with mostly with Maria and Victor and Fabio and Marlene.   I am not sure if Fabio and Marlene had gone on the picnic. We decided to go to TY park in Broward County.    We actually had a great time.  I was trying to find pictures of that time.  I have not been able to find them, although I know I have them  

Chuck Lebess

 Early in our Junior we were in football practice, and we were told we would be going one-on-one today. That meant I was going to be going full out trying to not be blocked out of the play and to tackle one of our classmates; and send a message. I loved the drill. You have to understand that Coach Parsons always criticized me for not being mean enough. He would say “Do not apologize to the quarterback after you hit him!!”  I actually did that. Today I was going to make it a point to have no friends. Mean Moose had entered the building.  

In this drill the goal of the offensive tackle (OT) is to block the defensive tackle out (DT). I was the DT. The running back just had to get past me. The DT had to stop the running back and hit the running back as hard as possible.  

We began the drill. I am not sure who the OT was, I have been trying to figure it out, but I really do not remember. The running back however I do remember well.  

I saw who was playing against me and was not worried. All I had to do was resist. If the OT pushed you to left, you push back to the right. If he pushed to right you pushed to the left and try to get a clear shot at the Running Back, Chuck Lebess.  

The play began. OT tried to push me towards his left. I maneuvered and was able to push hitting hard to the right. I was able to get rid of whoever it was. I had a clear shot at Lebess.  

Lebess is a good guy. He ran track (hurdles) good running back, surprisingly nice guy but, during this exercise we had no friends. I put my head down. He put his head down. I was going to hit him as hard as it was possible. At this time, you really do not think. You just run forward and hit. I hit him as hard as I could. Apparently, so did he. At least I hope he did. It was such a hard hit that it really hurt. I really do remember the collision. I do not think I had a concussion, but I was worried. He was unscathed.  

 I have never been hit so hard during the years I played football.  That day Chuck Lebess earned my respect as a football player.

Someone’s toughness as exemplified by how hard they hit or how well they played in football games pales in comparison to that measured by how one handles the hard knocks one has been dealt with in life.  After reading our friends comments about Chuck Lebess and how he is doing, I can honestly say that Chuck Lebess is one tough dude.  

-Fight on  

Moose 

Crazy thing called computers.

I have been working with computers for a long time now.  I can remember my first time. 

It was my freshman year in college, at the University of Miami and Fabio told me about how they used computers in his line of work.  Fabio was a business or accounting major.  I am not sure.  I frankly cannot tell the difference.  Fabio asked me if I wanted to go to the place where the computers were at the UM.  I said sure.  I am not talking about the computer facility, I am talking about the classroom building at the UM.  The first thing was connecting to the mainframe.  This was done via a modem connected to the phone.  The phone literally sat on a modem and you would dial the number sand it would connect.  I am not talking about the phone line, I am speaking about the actual phone.  It was a very slow connection, I believe it was a 300 baud which all I knew was that it was the slowest way to communicate with the computer.  It literally asked me if I wanted to play a game?  This later reminded of that movie War games with Mathew Broderick.  The computer did not talk, we just wrote to each other.  The movie was made in 1983.  My experience with Fabio was on or about 1977.  It is amazing how far we have come. 

I was asked if I wanted to play tic tac toe.  I did, and I was hooked. 

I never thought of it as something that would be so useful.  I was just very curious at the time.  I then took a course in the basic computer language (Beginners all purpose symbolic instruction code) and later would expand how much I would use and depend on computers. In that course, as a final project, I made up a program that would play chess with you.  I am being very generous to myself here.  All I did was begin the game when you only had two pieces left.  And your opponent had one piece left.  I had to get the new queen with the pawn.  It worked okay but both players had to know something about chess.  If the defending player just moved away, the player with the pawn would just move back and forth.  He acted as if he was confused.  Oh well.   

As I am sure all of you are aware, I am part of a large family.  My oldest brother, most probably never used a computer.  Nowadays I find that hard to believe.  As one looks at the whole family, all of used computers to varying degrees. The younger members of the family used computers or actually studied computer science or engineering.  I always wondered at the time if I would have finished my career in chemistry if I had the opportunity to work with computers.  I think I would have in the end. I know some colleagues that later studied computer science after chemistry.  

The Last Farewell.

The Last Farewell is a song by Roger Whittaker.  At the time Lourdes and I began dating, I was working at a record store at Variety Records in the Omni mall. Lourdes was about to go to Europe, with her good friend Silvia Cajigal. Sometime before she left, I asked  her if there was any music she liked that I could get for her.  She told me there was this song she really liked and all she knew about it was one line ...for you are beautiful.....  I promised myself that  I would get that song for her and give it to her when she arrived....  Normally this would have been an easy task since I worked in a record store but in our case, it was almost impossible to accomplish.  

When I first started going out with Lourdes was around May 27, 1978.  She was about to finish her Bachelor of Science in Biology, and I would finish my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry a year later. We had met many times; it was almost a joke how many times we were introduced to each other.  The first person to introduce us was her boyfriend at the time, Philip Sanchez.  I was a pretty good friend of Phil's.  He was the guy at the bowling alley who would charge for each game you played.  Since if any mistakes were made he would allow it.  I always ended up playing for free.  He would make a mistake on my bowling sheet.  The charge was 0.35 cents per game.  Mistakes were made. Phil and Lourdes were in my Organic Chemistry I class, Dr. Wellman's.  They would always study together.  I of course, would always study alone.  It was there where Lourdes and I we first met.  I remember telling Lourdes about it and she was always surprised that Phil referred to her as his girlfriend.  I am still not sure if she was trying to minimize their relationship. 

I would always have lunch at the Ibis cafeteria with a number of friends including Fabio, Victor and Georgina.  Sometimes I noticed that Lourdes was also present, although we never sat together.  I did not think she liked me at all.  The first time we actually spoke, she inadvertently touched my hand.  I withdrew my hand and pretended to be grossed out.  We actually met more extensively when she was taking Organic Chemistry laboratory, CHM 203, and she had to identify an unknown made up of a dipeptide. I was in the library and several students were discussing it.  After several tests on the dipeptide, Lourdes was pretty sure she had the answer.  Phil was around and Phil asked me if I could help. We were supposed to come up with the answer by judging how far each peptide travelled on a chromatography plate.  After Lourdes had the answer I asked, "but how do you know they are not the same peptide, just repeated twice?"  I had no idea what the answer really was. Her laboratory exercise was different from the one I had carried out. The two peptides seemed to travel at very similar pace which would indicate they were the same peptide. Lourdes became upset because I think she realized I was right.  I later found out from one of the teaching assistants that the peptide was not repeated and in fact she was right.  I did not speak to Lourdes for a while after that.  

We were never really together but we shared common acquaintances.  Then I started playing volleyball with the Friday night volleyball games in the physical education field. We were around 10 students, and we would play with a group of friends from Kuwait.  Also, there were a number of people from the labs and people we had met elsewhere.  One day, Lourdes decided to join us for the Friday games.  There we actually spoke a little. At the time I liked this girl named Yasemin, from Turkey.  I have no idea how she is doing now.  I have always kind of wondered.  

At the time, I and a couple of friends, would go to the Rathskeller.  This was a bar in the back of the student union at the UM.  I normally would go but since I did not really dance I was limited in what I could do. Victor and Maria were great dancers.  Fabio did not really care but had fun. I started to think, who can I ask to dance? and there was Lourdes. I remember dancing with her a couple of times. I had fun but was a bit embarrassed since I did not really know how to do so. 

I kind of wanted ask her out so I told Victor and Fabio and Maria and Marlene so, later in the week i spoke to VFMM (Victor, Fabio, Maria and Marlene) about it.  I finally did ask her to go dancing.  Only problem was, I had not idea how to dance.  I told VFMM and they came up with the idea that we would all meet at Maria's house.  Just to clarify, Maria and Victor were a couple.  Fabio and Marlene were another couple.  I and Lourdes would be the next couple. At the time Lourdes and I hardly knew each other. 

You may find this hard to believe but this was my first date, ever.  I had never officially gone out with a lady before. This was late in the school year of 1978 so I was going to be 21 years old. We arranged a time to pick her up.  It was at LMT's family's house.  Juanpi also went.  He must have been around 15 years old, perhaps younger.  It was good to have him there although he seemed to dominate the conversation a bit. I was happy he was there.  

All of us met at Maria's family's house and Fabio and Victor and the ladies all did their best to make the Moose look and move like John Travolta.  His movie, Saturday Night Fever had just been released around 1977.  

We learned many of the steps used in Disco Dancing.  Sad thing is that if anyone asked me to dance nowadays, that is exactly how I would dance.  

That weekend the whole group went dancing.  I still remember Victor spoke to me before we left and we were discussing if it was best for me to drive or for him to drive.  Victor knew I was nervous.  This was my first date ever.  He wanted to see if it was better for me to drive or for him to drive.  At the time i had my second car ever. It was a volkswagen station wagon, beige or tan, I do not remember.  I think it was tan.  I believe Fabio and Marlene rode in the Fabio mobile and I, Victor, Lourdes and Maria rode in the tan volkswagen station wagon. I drove.  We both felt that I would not get as nervous if I had to drive.  

We went to either Pete and Lenny's or one in Miami right next to the airport.  We may have gone to both. That whole summer we spent the time disco dancing at several locations somewhere along mainly Fort Lauderdale.  

Time was coming up for her trip to Europe. I had told her I would get that song with the lyrics "For you are Beautiful" for her.  This was not an easy task.  I have forgotten the date she left.  I remember I wanted to get the song.  I asked several buyers at the store (Variety Records,, Omni Mall). The conversation would proceed thus, girlfriend is in Europe.  I promised I would get this song for her. What was the name of the song, I do not know.  All I know is that sometime during the song, the singer would say: For you are beautiful. That is all I knew.  You would be surprised how many of the ladies actually tried to help me.  I first asked George (I believe his last name was Morris).  Very nice guy who really tried. He really tried but he did not know.  I then asked Charlie, still no answer.  I literally spent days asking people this question. They would ask me Can you sing it?  And I would sing the only portion of the song that I actually knew.  It went something like this ...For you are beautiful.....All the ladies at the store were trying to be helpful.  No one had heard the song.  Finally someone told me that the manager may know.  I went up to her and I asked her.  She said that was a Roger Whittaker song.  I  had no idea who Roger Whittaker was.  She actually bought the song for me.  When I heard it, I was sure that was the song. 

Lourdes was returning in around two weeks so I really got it just in time. I think I still  have it at home but I am not sure. 

Lourdes and I were married on August 1, 1981.  

The Spring Concert 1971

 One of the first times I actually did extra curicular activities in grade school was in seventh or eighth grade during something called the Spring Concert.     It was difficult for me to participate in these things since I never thought I had enough time.  It was fun to do.  It may have been in eighth grade since I do not remember any upper classmen in the class being in the choir.  They may have been there but I just do not remember.  One of my friends asked me who I was going to vote for in the what I think was the Harvest Queen competition.  I remember there were two main competitors that I knew.  One was in my class, the other in another class.  I know I liked both of them.  I do not remember what the actual name of the position or title was, although I do remember who I voted for.   

The choir director was Sister Mary Williams, although I am not sure that was her actual name.  It has been a long time.  She was one of my sister Teresa's favorite teachers.  I may remember the name wrongly. We were going to sing a selection of tunes such as The Bridge over Toubled Waters, Songs fom Carousel, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Man of La Mancha, and the Sound of Music.  I had never sung in a choir before although I had always been interested in doing so.  I actually had a lot of fun doing so.

I remember we nixed the Bridge over Troubled Waters since a lot of us could not reach the high notes anymore.  All the boys were at that age, or just past it.  I was kind of sad about it.  My brother Robert was going to use that song as his graduation song in his class as he graduated from LaSalle High School.  The person who was going to sing it was Francisco Batista. He was the lead singer of the Antiques, a locally popular group. He did a great job.

Mom was very supportive.  She had always been supportive of my efforts but I was surprised since she was always so busy.   She was always so busy.  She was raising nine children, and doing it very well and I would not really speak to her about it very much since at this time she was already working either at the Topps Factory or the Juliette factory or raising another child.  She worked all night so if she was needed at the house, she could be there and help. This was when I was thirteen so my little brother and sister were still very young.  When I think about it now, I am very pleased when I realized how supportive she really was.  I am also very impressed as to how much our parents had to go through.  Although at the time, I may not have fully realized it.  In fact I was a bit surprised when I saw she had attended the concert. She always showed up for me and I was very happy she did.  I do not know why I was surprised.  Sometimes we took our parents for granted I guess.  I believe right after the concert she went to work. At that time she may have been working as a baby sitter at the Montmartre Hotel.  Stuff to think about when we think we just have too much to do.  This is partly why I write this blog so my kids will realize how hard our parents worked so we could go far.  

I remember a little bit about each of the songs we sang.  I remember all the words to a few of them. I remember Sister kind of scolding in my direction to keep the noise down.  I guess I did not sing as well as I thought I did.  I slowly started learning the songs and from where they originated.  Some of them I knew, some I just did not.  The one I had the hardest time learning was "On the Street Where You Live" by Rodgers and Hammerstein.  Later on it became my favorite of the repertoire.  There were a few others which I did not know but they had simple melodies and I could figure it out.  To this day, if I hear any of those songs, enjoy it and I am back in the choir.  

That was probably the first time I had signed up for extracurricular activities.  I would play football and baseball and basketball but never really be on the team.  It was surprising how few extracurricular activities there were available at that time.  My first time was the Spring concert mainly because my sister, Teresa, told me that Sister Mary Williams was a good choir director. 

The most significant memory from that experience was mom telling me how proud of me she was.  That is a nice memory!

I wrote this in 2018 - approximately 7 years ago

We have gone through 8 presidents, Five popes and between 6 and 8 wars depending on we define them.  

Remember when US troops would never be sent into action.  It is different now.  We would then be afraid to be drafted.

We have invented new languages.  Phrases such as “email me the answers’, “I am going to buy a new mac, my old one has no memory”, “text me your phone number”, “all I have is three and a half inch floppy” (speaking about computers of course); changes that would make Aldous Huxley pause. 

Languages have come and gone (remember beeper codes?)  143 very different from 43.  I got in trouble with that one.

Remember dialing the phone.  You hate calling people with 0, 8 and 9’s in their phone numbers. Finger got tired.    Remember no area codes.  There was only one phone per household; when your sister had a new boyfriend, the whole house could not communicate with the outside world.  Remember when you got a call from a land line and you would answer it?

We could go to college and not owe the cost of the house. We could send our kids to school and not worry about whether they will be safe; bullying stopped once your child arrived home.  College afforded you a decent salary.

Although one would sometimes not trust politicians, now it is uncommon to trust one.

We would carry out research in the library; we would use the card catalogue; perhaps meet someone.

That is how I met my wife ;-) we would have wondered why the semicolon followed by dash followed by closed parentheses.

 

Now we go to the library online and google everything; our concentration being challenged by every possible popup.

Things just go too fast. 

To quote something Nestor posted on facebook; My mind is like my internet browser…  I have 19 windows open, four of them are frozen and I do not know where the music is coming from.  Can you imagine hearing that phrase 43 years ago? 

You had to cheat in person.  Now you can cheat  via email or dropbox.

We used to hand in our homework, now we upload via turnitin. 

Phrases like you’ve got mail became movie titles. Our kids would wonder “what a strange title for a movie”

Now we talk to our computers.  Can you imagine getting one of those gadgets and your wife’s name is Alexa or Siri?

Remember buying records?  There were no music videos.

In the old days sometimes we would want to be with our friends rather than our parents, it was cool.

I would give anything to be with mom and dad again. 

Some things are still the same.

We all still love our children; we all still love our parents.  We still love our friends.

We all know what is right and what is wrong, although sometimes we need a small reminder. 

I know that will never change.

 

God bless all of you, proud to call you friends.  

 

Happy Anniversary!

 

Moose.

Ramon Lopez de la Vega

Associate Professor and Associate Chair

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

CP 329

305-348-3086 - office

I did not mind taking the bus

 I did not mind taking the bus.  

I first remember taking the bus, “la gua gua”, when I was maybe 6 in Cuba, and we were going to my grandmother’s house in bus number 32 from El Nautico to El Vedado.  I was enthralled by the system where one would pull the cord on the side so the bus driver would know to stop on the next stop.  I thought it was ingenious. Who would have thought of that?   

In the old country, the bus had two attendants.  There was the driver, “chofer”, and the conductor.  The conductor was the person who would collect the fare or the transfer, “transferencia”.  He would also give advice on how to get to a certain place using the bus system.  I was always worried that when the conductor asked, we would not find the money or transferencia.  What would they do?  Kick you out?  Shoot you?  Luckily, I never found out.  Remember I was six. I was surprised that in the US there was no conductor.  Who could you ask about the connecting bus?  I kept thinking, when would it be the best time to pull the cord?  Right before the stop, or right after the previous stop? I could not reach it anyway.  But, in a bus we always had time to think about such things.  It is not like we were going to go anywhere fast.   

What I liked about riding the bus was that I had time to listen; I could observe, strike up a friendship, or just think about anything.  Or I could read a book, which I did often.  These were usually books about sports or something my sister recommended.  Nowadays, people seldom exercise the art of doing nothing. 

Late on a Sunday afternoon, I was going home from the Montmartre Hotel in Miami Beach.  I had worked three shifts in a row with my dad and I was tired.  This was in 11^th grade; it must have been in the Spring.  I had to transfer from the T bus to one of the Flagler buses, then to the 27 bus at 12^th avenue.  We went westbound on the south side of the Omni Mall.  And, as the driver took a left onto Biscayne BLVD, an old Cuban guy commented to his friend beside him: “La mujer Cubana.  Ha sido comprobado que son las más bonitas del mundo”.  (The Cuban woman.  It has been proven that the Cuban woman is the most beautiful woman in the world).  I found this statement amusing, did not really disagree with it and did what any other young Cuban man would do.  I switched to the other side of the bus to get a better view. I almost laughed out loud since the lady we were looking at was a classmate, someone I knew well both from Saints Peter and Paul and ILS. She was walking north on Biscayne Blvd in front of the old Jefferson Store with presumably a family member.   I thought to myself “that is not the most beautiful woman, that is just __________”.  I have known her for years.  Then I thought, “esperate … esperate. (wait..  wait)……”   I kept looking at her.  She looked different.  She was wearing high waisted blue jeans and a blouse tied in such a way as to show a bare midriff.  The blue jeans were not tight yet nice fitting enough to delineate her Cuban attributes.  Either she had changed, or I had.  As the bus drove away from the Jefferson Store, I could see her and her Cuban attributes and just thought: Old Cuban Guy was right.   

Experiences like that you miss when driving.  Of course, this was in 1974.  The buses were air conditioned then.  There was no smell of gasoline or diesel.  I was not in a hurry.  Although bad for one’s health, I kind of like the smell of gasoline. 

Just random thoughts, since right now I am on vacation practicing the art of doing nothing.   

Be well my friends. 

Moose 

The day it snowed in Miami, January 19, 1977

I remember it being cold.  I lived in an old house on 12^th avenue and bordering the roads.  It had been built in 1926.  My bedroom was the old Florida room in the back of the house which had been converted to concrete and walls were added but it was covered with windows and had no insulation.  It had four windows in a very small room. This was before Rocky, I and a couple of other friends but mainly Rocky built a wall to separate it from the kitchen.  That day, the day it snowed in Miami,  I awoke and went outside in a hurry since I was customarily almost late for my 8am class at the University of Miami.  The class was taught by Professor Harry Schultz in SA 126 in the Cox Richter Science Building.  It was a difficult class.  I remember that room very well since in 2014 I was asked to teach in that same room at UM.  And it is also where I met my wife and her fiancée.   

The previous night I heard that it may snow in the morning and I kind of was looking forward to it.  When I went to the car, I did not see much difference.  I bundled the best I could and was surprised when all the windows and the windshield of the car were covered in ice. I was driving a 1965 Volkswagen which I had inherited from my brother Robert.  He had used while he was in Gainesville at UF.  I had an emotional attachment to it. It had no heating, no air conditioning. The little side window could not be opened, which was a problem since it did not have a defogger either.   It had an am radio, so I could listen to WQAM or WFUN.  The speaker was blown so the sound was not the best.  The front windshield was already cracked and although it did have a sunroof, it could not be fully closed.  It could be opened but I was afraid to open it since it may not close again.  When it rained it would also rain inside.  I once went out with a lady friend, and she asked me why I had an umbrella in the front seat.  I only went out with her once.  I am not sure why.  I had to leave the driver side and passenger side windows slightly opened.  Also, since at one time the battery acid had spilled, a lot of the floor was missing.  The battery was tied to the bottom of the back seat with very strong rope.  I could see the road asphalt from inside the car, kind of like Fred’s car from the Flintstones.  You could see if the road was flooded from the inside.   The car had other issues.  It had a short circuit. I could not listen to the radio, turn on the lights, put on the turning signal, or the brake lights and honk the horn at the same time.  I could only do some of those.  When I honked the horn the lights would dim. I had to rely on arm signals to let people know which way I was turning and when I was stopping. It was a great little car.  Probably my favorite car, ever.  At night, making a left turn while listening to the radio and braking was a real challenge.   

So I went in my great little car to my Organic Chemistry II class at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.  As I drove south on South Dixie the water vapor coming out as I exhaled was remarkable.    There was what seemed to be white fumes coming out of every possible place in the car.  Some was coming out the windows, some from the sunroof, even the floor and the exhaust pipe.  It was so cold I had to think about it when I had to shift gears. I just kept thinking, laughing at myself.  I must be doing something wrong.   

It seemed to take a long time but finally I arrived at the intersection of Granada and US1.  There was late model Volvo on my left and I heard subtle honking. The lady in the car to my left needed to make a right turn and with hand signals, asked for me to allow her in in front of me. I could not see her well since there was so much water vapor.   I was grateful since now I could keep my hands warm a little longer until I had to shift into first.  As we looked at each other we both began laughing. She with her hands resting on the steering wheel of her comfortable Volvo which was at just the right temperature and I emanating white water vapor and rubbing my hands trying to keep warm and trying to make this turn without having to shift into second gear and trying to see through the white smoke.  She was a nice lady, one of my classmates. She was an excellent student.     

I do not really know what she was thinking nor what I was thinking but that image remains with me to this day.  I am not even sure why we both laughed simulaneously except that possibly right at the last minute after we had a full blown conversation with hand signals, we recognized each other. 

I remember that scene very vividly.  I am not really sure why.   

Just remembering my youth! 

Be well my friends.   

 Ramón López de la Vega

Associate Chair

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,  CP 323A

305-348-3086 - office/786-897-3206 - cell