Bill Stanley, my old friend from another lifetime ... imagine my sense of loss and frustration as I searched the Internet for you only to discover that you had left us just three years ago. Adding even more disappointment to that discovery was the fact that we were only a few miles away, as I have also spent the majority of my adult life in Oregon, in the Portland area. How many times our paths may have crossed over the years with neither of us knowing it. I think back, so often, to those crazy times in the sixties when we were in the Navy together, due to a war neither of us believed in, nor wanted to be part of, yet we did what was required of us. How well I remember the stories of your high school pal, "Poochie", back in Los Gatos, and how you plied the waves at Steamers Lane. Many years later I visited that place solely to see what you had been raving about so often. I also tried to find you in Los Gatos while I was there, but you were, obviously, long gone from there. Who could have guessed that you were in Oregon, practically next door to me? I remember, too, when we spent a weekend at your sister's place in ... was it Bethesda, or Chevy Chase? I'm too old to accurately recall that particular detail. We shared many good times and created many great memories before the demands of the war, and of life, got in our way and we lost track of each other. I'm just so sorry that I ended up finding you in this way. I hope you're resting in peace and catching every wave wherever you are, and may those waves be far better than your memories of Steamers Lane. Just imagine ... two California boys meeting each other a continent away from home, becoming good friends, losing track, and ending up in the same place. If I weren't so old and worn out I'd write a book about it. Soon enough I will truly be in the same place as you ... hope to see you and do some long overdue catching up. Goodbye my friend.