We did a lot of incredible things as kids; the one I liked the best was our "skull club".

As you all know Johnny was the only son of Dr. John Bradford (a true icon in the history of Chuqui); and, as a consequence we could wander into the Chuqui Hospital as much as we wanted.

One day, as I recall, we wandered into the morgue and stole a skull that we quickly smuggled out of the hospital and into the crawl space under Johnny's house. It was to become the center and symbol of our club.

Richard Dickenson quickly joined us and it was then that our smoking habits began.

I guess that we can now reveal the secret sessions that we had in the darkness of the crawl space: firstly we would all sit down around the skull and light a candle inside or above the head, then we would proceed to cut a small wound on our hands, join them together, and become blood brothers.

I am sure that we must have become real blood brothers as we still can talk to each other with the same frankness that we did then.

Once the above ceremonies had been completed we would all share in a good smoke using cigarettes that each of us honestly stole from our parents. I recall cigarette brands such as OLD GOLD, PALL MALL, Richmond and many others. I guess I smoked so much that I decided to quit when I turned eight or nine years old!

We shared many other adventures together, and did many things that we dare not mention even today (except, obviously to other skull members).

That was the past; let us skip now to the present

I managed to find Johnny Bradford by doing extensive searching in the Internet, one day I reduced my potential candidates to four or five people living in the Houston area surroundings.

We finally had the chance to meet once again a couple of months ago when my wife Elena and I had the opportunity to visit Houston.

We met for lunch and had a great time talking about all the things we had done and most importantly who we are today.

Johnny studied mechanical engineering and worked for a petroleum company for over 30 years( he recently retired). He is divorced since many years, has two children, Caroline and John; both children lived with him. Caroline is into the arts and is now part of a music group working in Austin. John is pursuing an engineering degree and still lives with his dad.

The photos that I have included show Johnny and me, as well as Johnny and my wife Elena. Please note the photo that shows me standing behind Johnny measuring his saintly aureole, it certainly has grown over the years!

Charles