Many Memories - by Robbie Ballard

I went to SA starting in kindergarten but I really remember Ray and his class starting in about the 3rd grade. When it came to break time my class would play football or kickball against the grade above us and Ray's class. I recall John and Ray doing this thing where thier whole class would run the bases when a person kicked that way there was know we could win. It was pretty funny to watch though. Once we got into middle school we all wanted to play football and we had to put our names on the helmets. I put "Da Bus" on mine because in lower school someone had said I was running over people like a bus when we played football at break. Little did I know that "Da Bus" would turn into what it did. I went out to practice my first day and Ray and John were giving me a hard time for it, all in good fun. Ray and John were like, "What does that say, Boose or something?" It was pretty funny when it happened and that made getting to know the people on the team easier because everyone knew me as Boose then. I learned from them if you can't laugh at yourself you are always going to be up tight and worried, so THANKS RAY for teaching me to laugh more. It was hard not to do around Ray. Without Ray and John there never would have been a Boose.

Ray and I played football and alot of baseball together throughout school. There are so many memories I have of him and they are all great. Ray looked out for his friends and family and was a great guy. Thanks for EVERYTHING Ray, the fishing tips(even though you never would say where you catch them all at), the jokes, and especially the friendship.