I was born Oct. 04, 1936 in the small town of Lafayette, Louisiana in the heart of the Cajun Culture. I am of French, Spanish and Native American Heritage. At seventeen years of age I began to travel the world while aboard ship in the US Navy at the end of the Korean War. I spent my enlistment time aboard the USS Cape Esperance for three years and one year on shore duty. During this time I saw many wonderful and also dreadful things that remain in my thoughts to this day. I received an honorable discharge and went to work in the Oil/Gas Industry in 1958. This novel is based on multiple events that impacted my life many years ago. Most of the characters are real, only their names have been changed. All locations, streets, highways and byways are still there and I have traveled them all. Though I am not a published author I feel that I have put pen to paper in a manner that can be enjoyed by the reader. Some of the characters are portrayed as I remember them and others have been brought to life as I see them. Having lived in some of the cities I know the people and their lifestyles, and to portray them in a written sense was challenging, but most enjoyable. Now at the worldly age of seventy one I still remain faithful to my work in the same industry and some of what I saw in all my travels I have written about in Letters to the Editor and were published in The Banner Press. So, now Midaris has come into your life. I hope the avid reader of books will find this a book to enjoy and who knows, maybe it did happen as told. Robert Alexandre

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.