As a one-man company with demanding clients, I'm just not able to get up there from Florida for Fred's funeral. Probably just as well, since I'm pretty darn sure I'd fall apart completely. I'm all the way down here and I'm not handling it very well. So I thought I could at least share a little here. Sorry about the lack of paragraphs. Evidently this editor strips them out.   I grew up in Yonkers. From first grade up until I left New York for Florida in 1986, Fred was my best friend. In reality, he was like a brother to me (I was an only child). Fred and I were joined at the hip. We went to school together all the way through Yonkers High. Occasionally we skipped school together (not very often, honest!). When the race riots were happening in Yonkers (we were maybe 12 or 13), we actually broke OUT of Ben FranklinJunior High together because we'd heard the rioters were coming our way. Franklin had actually chained all the doors closed. Can you imagine that happeneing today? We found one door that was unchained and out we went.   Through childhood we always played together: Batman & Robin, Star Trek, Man from UNCLE, etc. Man from UNCLE was a favorite for a long time. Fred was Napoleon and I was Illya. Our grade school class took a trip to the U.N. once. Fred and I thought it made a GREAT Man from UNCLE HQ, so we actually left the group to play. We were pretty quickly hunted down by the chaperones and duly chastised, LOL!   In our teens we forrmed a band that went through various name changes. The musicians stayed pretty much the same: left to right in the picture are Fred, Bob Bailey, me, Bobby Orlando and Mike Losco. We performed in various venues, mostly in New York and New Jersey. We recorded an album once. We won any "battle of the bands" contests we were in, so I guess we weren't awful.   We spent several summers together at Ocean Beach on the Jersey shore. We'd go for a whole MONTH each year. What an awesome time we had there. As we got older, our families stopped going. In 1978, with Fred and me about to start "grown up jobs", we decided to rent a hotel room for a week just south of Ocean Beach, in Lavallette. We knew it was going to be "our last hurrah" in terms of summer vacations for a while. We had a blast! Well, except for the part where we got into a car with 2 drunk girls who drove across the Tom's River bridge doing about 100mph! We both saw our lives flash before our eyes, I think. And we definitely found a different way to get back to our hotel.   As young adults, we worked together at Empire Technical School in Manhattan, then at MAGI in Elmsford. While at MAGI, we started our own computer consulting business. We had ONE client project, as I recall. Hey! Computers were very new and difficult to program in those days! We decided it wasn't worth the trouble.   I left MAGI to move to Florida in 1986. Before I left, Fred told me "You'll be back in 6 months". Thirty-one years later I'm still in Florida and still love it. I took my family from Florida to New York in 2007 to see people and places that were part of my growing up. Of course we saw Fred and Lydia on that trip! Turns out that was the last time I'd ever see him.   I've never had another friend like Fred, and I know I never will. He was a big, BIG part of my life. Now he's gone and there's a hole in my heart. I can't believe I'm never going to see him again.   I'll miss you Fred.