I wrote this in hopes of sharing it at the service but didn’t have the opportunity. Figure I will share this here with Ray’s family and friends…
First off, I want to take a moment to express my deepest sympathies to Ray’s family. Milli… Shirley, I’m here today with a heavy heart and I’m so sorry for your loss.
For those of you here today who don’t know me, my name is Tommy Luong, and I’ve been Ray’s friend for over three decades. I met Ray in the summer of 1991 at a youth summer program in Chinatown. It was there that I met Ray, Will, David, David, Wayne, Gilbert, and Edmund. Through this youth program, I not only met individuals who would become lifelong friends… they would become my extended family… my brothers.
Being the young pup in the group, it was initially hard to understand why these high school seniors would even want to hang with a lowly freshman. These guys had cars. All I had was a loud-mouth and a Muni pass. Nonetheless, they extended their friendship to me and I took the good fortune to accept.
As I reflect back to those formative years, I can’t help but think about the fun times and silly adventures we shared. They provided many laughs and made for good stories.
I think at these type of gatherings, we’re supposed to share personal stories and memories that highlight a person’s positive qualities.
Instead, I’d like to share a funny memory at Ray’s expense. But it is also a fond memory of Ray that I hold close to my heart.
It was the fall of 1995. I had just started my first year at UC Davis. Being a city boy all my life, I dreaded having to spend a minute more than I had to in Davis. So, every Friday, after my classes, I’d drive back to the city and hang out with the guys.
One Friday, on my drive home, I get a call from Ray asking me what I’m doing. He tells me to come with him to Oakland to retrieve his car from the shop. On the way to the shop, I asked Ray what was he getting fixed. He tells me that he’s not getting anything fixed but that he was lowering his car and getting new low-profiled tires. For some of you who haven’t watched any of the 347 Fast & the Furious movies, lowering your car means modifying your car’s suspension to reduce the vehicle’s ride height and bring it closer to the ground. People do it to make their cars look more aggressive and have it handle better.
So, we get to the shop, and you can tell Ray is super excited. The car is sitting up on the jack and he’s urging the mechanic to bring it down. The mechanic is juggling several phone calls and running in all directions tending to multiple customers. We patiently wait for 20 minutes but know we had to get going if we were going to make it back to the city in time to get dinner with the rest of the guys. Ray proceeds to ask the head mechanic (who I assume is the owner) if his car is ready. The owner, hurriedly, tells Ray that he’s surprised that we’re still here waiting and barks at one of his guys to immediately lower the jack. He tosses Ray the keys and we immediately hop in.
As Ray pulls the car out of the garage and onto the street, we hear some strange sounds emanating from the car. I tell Ray that something does not sound right and that we should head back to the shop. Ray pokes back at me and says, “What do you know about how a lowered car should sound like?” I reply back that, “I don’t know, but I do know it should not sound like that.”
Figuring my friend was excited and knew more about cars than me, I decided to dismiss it and instead egged him on. I tell Ray that at the stop light, kick it into 1st gear and floor it. Sure enough, we roll up to the intersection and wait for the light. While we’re waiting for the light to turn green, Ray is revving the car. VROOM VROOM, VROOM VROOM. It is loud because he previously installed a ginormous exhaust pipe. The light turns green and I yell, “GUN IT!!!”
Ray dumps it into first and floors it. The car lurches forward and we’re off! Within seconds, the strange sounds we initially heard got louder. I look over at Ray’s speedometer to catch a glimpse of how fast we’re going. Before I could even get a reading, the front driver side of the car collapses and we see a ton of sparks shooting up the side of the car. We look up and see one of his wheels rolling and bouncing down the street into the next intersection.
We both get out of the car (on the passenger side because Ray can’t open the driver side door) and look at each other in shock wondering what in the world happened. The car is sitting on three wheels and a brake rotor. Ray proceeds to run down the street to rescue his wheel that’s popped off. It’s lying in the middle of the intersection and impeding traffic. I check the other wheels and realize that none of the wheel lugs were fully screwed on.
I run back to the shop and tell the owner that one of the wheels fell off. The owner’s expression is priceless. He immediately barks at the mechanic who was working on Ray’s car to ask what happened. The mechanic who was now off the phone proceeds to tell him that he was working on Ray’s car and had just finished placing the wheel lugs into the wheel to be tightened until the barrage of phone calls and customers came in. By the time he got off the phone, he looked at the empty-lowered jack and figured another mechanic helped him finish tightening the lug nuts. The owner apologizes and proceeds to send a tow truck for Ray’s stranded car.
To top off the evening, as we wait for the tow truck, some cute girls I recently met at Davis roll up the same street and see me pathetically sitting on the side of the road and my buddy Ray hugging a wheel. They kindly offered to help but needless to say there wasn’t much they could do. The entire time, I’m thinking… of all the streets in Oakland! How embarrassing! It definitely was not one of our best and shining moments.
Eventually, we returned to the city and caught up with the rest of the guys at dinner. We told them what happened and all of us couldn’t help but laugh at Ray’s expense.
Looking back, this moment with Ray still gives me a chuckle. Needless to say, that moment didn’t quite work out the way he wanted it to. But for me, that moment was perfect as I look back with only fondness recalling how my good friend called me because he wanted to share a happy moment with me.
Ray, rest in peace with the certain knowledge that you were, are, and will always be, dearly loved and terribly missed. And thank you so much for being my friend and my brother.
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