MY BLACK TWIN

Once upon a time, many years ago, I was sitting at a crowded bar in Bismarck, North Dakota, sharing a drink with a friend I'd made.

His name was Cornell Wiley and he was an African-American musician who would come through town with his trio several times a year.

They were very popular and this was at a time when I was spending a lot of time in bars.

Suddenly the guy on the other side of me who'd probably spent too much time in the bar that evening poked me rudely in the shoulder.

When I turned he said "what are you doin' drinkin' with that colored guy?"

I glanced at Cornell, then turned back to the interloper and responded "Oh, I thought I was the colored guy."

Apparently that shut the intoxicated fellow up.

I've always had friends of races other than my own and I never thought a lot about it.

All of which is to introduce you to another friend of mine who commented on my Facebook post of yesterday.

His name is Ron Brooks and he was a sportscaster back in the 70's when we both worked at a t.v. station in Phoenix.

That's Brooksie dressed to the nines for some event, shaking hands with my pal Baseball Steve back in the day.

Ron and I learned that we shared a birthday and one year our office gal, Sally Rojo, brought a cake to work that she'd made for our birthday.

One side had white frosting, the other side had chocolate.

Everybody laughed and we all had a good time eating cake.

I just spoke on the phone with Ron this morning and figured this was a good time to surprise him with this picture.

Take care, brother!