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Ray's Autobiography - Part 3
Tex wanted to go back to the ranch in Bivins and put it up for sale. Mom didn't want to sell it, but she finally gave in and they sold the ranch and moved back to Tampa. They talked Big Momma and Big Daddy into opening a Bar-B-Q restaurant called, of course, the Texan. Guess who wound up bussing tables and washing dishes?
It went pretty good for a few years until they built the dog track in Sulpher Springs. Tex got the gambling bug. More money went out than we were taking in. We sold the place, and Mom and Tex moved to Miami to form a new band. Tex knew a lot of people in Miami. He had worked there in the early 40's with his older brother George and a fiddle player named Ervin Rouse. Ervin wrote the famous fiddle tune "Orange Blossom Special". Tex played guitar on the demo that Ervin used to get his copyright.
Stepdad Tex in the center, with Ervin Rouse on the left
I was playing quite well by now and wanted to go with them, but had to stay in school. I really missed being on the road all those summers. I finished junior high and ran away from home to find Mom and Tex in Miami.

My dad had been killed the year before when his B-52 bomber blew up above the city of Merced, California. The Air Force was sending my grandparents about $500 dollars a month for school and clothes. Big Momma gave me $25 a week for allowance, and I had saved some money just for the trip.
Dad with one of the WWII bombers he piloted
When I got to Miami I found out where Mom and Tex were playing. I caught a cab and showed up at the club. Mom hit the ceiling. But I wasn't going back to Tampa and she knew it. I would just run away again.

I had figured-out what I was going to be by the time I was four years old when I started playing an old ukulele that belonged to my Aunt Jean. No kind of school was going to stop me now. School wasn't going to start for a couple months and I promised Mom that I would enroll at Miami Edison.

In the meantime, I got to know the guys in the band. Her guitar player’s name was Dan Robins.

When Dan heard me play he told Mom and Tex, “You don't need me! That kid already plays more guitar than I do. You need to put a show together with that kid on guitar!”