Nick announces the half-time show of the NSU Demon's Spirit of Northwestern Band

      I met Nick Pollacia in the fall of 1963.  My  college room-mate was an announcer at the local radio station,  Nick was too. We became friends, and as young guys do, we planned a future.  We had this idea that we'd open a radio station together. 

     Turbulent times; somehow that never happened.  I went into television, Nick became an Army officer and  then lots of other things, including  the first director of the Louisiana Film Commission.  He also bought a radio station in Leesville. We kept up over the years and when I had the opportunity to move from New Orleans to Natchitoches, I called and told him I was coming back. He said, "Guess what? I am too." 

     My youngest was about 18 months old. It turned out that Nick and his wife had a kid the same age! Nick and Lissa eventually moved next door to us.

     A few years ago, my wife Kathy asked if I had ever thought that Nick and I would be friends and have kids that played together.  I told her, "I always thought that would happen.  I just thought it would have been thirty years ago." 

       Tonight Nick, his family,  my family and our friends the Phifers ate chicken gumbo, a beautiful salad and Kathy's fresh home-baked bread.  We drank some really good  wine, some excellent Irish whiskey, and ate a dessert called "pumpkin crunch" that Lissa makes. 

     Here's to you, my dear friend Nick. Forty  years we've been pals. Not the most flattering picture of you I have ever taken, but it is the best one of you this  week, and here you are doing what you do best, talking on a microphone.  

    With love,

     Sonny