The inspiration for writing this photo journal began when I found my old 35mm black and white negatives, and several old prints of friends and family. Those seemingly crazy days growing up in the South Bronx. I got so excited about sharing these images I created several albums and posted them on Facebook.

Facebook; that technological social media networking wonder of today... Facebook, the new drug that has everybody engulfed in drama. Facebook is very addictive! You can get hooked for hours and hours and worst of all, people substituting live interaction with each other. You could drown in the amount of information Facebook throws at you, and miss doing something constructive with your precious time. Sad to say, Facebook has replaced the pen and paper for our youth.

Within a few days I received numerous requests to post additional pictures.

Friends wanted copies of these memories emailed to them, printed, framed, hand delivered, snail-mailed, and even faxed. Faxed? Well, at least my older friends.

I did not expect such reactions. Their genuine interest warmed my heart knowing all these people felt the same way I did about such wonderful memories. A time so well spent laughing our asses off. Friends and family, not only asking but demanding for more photos!

 "Oscar, please post more!"

Emotional messages wet my keyboard, tears of happiness of new-found memories...

"Dude, these photos are the bomb!!" . . . "Oh shit, look at my hair!,"

"The Big Park!" . . . "Oh ma God Oscar, that's my brother, how I miss him!" . . .

"I don't even have a photo of Celo" . . .

"What ever happened to Melo?" ... "Is that Little Louie?"

The one quote that really got me going came from a dear friend's wife, musician Juan Ma ...

Maria said "Oscar, you have gems here my dear, you must put these in a book!"

So I of course proceeded to do exactly that ...