PETE AND JACK AND JOHN

Aaaaaahhh the 60's. The times they were "a changin'". You could feel it in the air. See it on TV. The 50's were gone. A new breed of people were making their mark on society. It happened at a time when my parents started renting out the basement in our home. Pete and Jack. Two fellows in their early twenties sharing an apartment downstairs, to save some of their hard earned dollars. I know what you're thinking and you are wrong. They were not gay. Far from it. At night, whenever I knocked on their door I was welcomed in. I learned so much from these guys. New shows were hitting the airwaves on TV and we watched them and laughed till we had tears in our eyes. Shows like "Rowan and Martin's Laugh- In"," The Smothers Brothers" and many more. They explained a lot of things to me because a large part of some shows made fun of politics. They would listen to music on the record player.(my favorite album was Frankie Vallee and the Four Seasons). They also had some ribald record with "Bawdy Country Ballads". Such as-

"Put on your old grey corset
If it don't fit , force it
for tomorrow there's a mortgage due.
Put on your old pink panties
That used to be your aunties
If you can't get five, take two."

"I am a gay cabellero, I come from Rio De Janero
I carry with me my long pompadee and two of my romp pompaderos
One night I caught a diseaso, a very bad diseaso
Right on the tip of my long pompadee and one of my romp pomaderos
I went to see a medigo ,a very special medigo
He cut off the tip of my long pompadee and one of my romp pompaderos
Each night as I lay on my peelow I see what I can feelow
And all that is there is a handful of hair and one of my romp pompaderos"

They were cute little "ditties", but the knowledge these fellows imparted to me were valuable. They taught me to see humour in simple things. I learned what it meant to have friends. Pete was artistic. Boy could he paint. Jack was more outdoorish and took me fishing and camping. In 1965 Jack was one of the first to purchase the Ford Mustang. What a set of wheels. For his holidays he was going to Florida and let me come with him.
Can you imagine, nowadays, someone in their 20's taking a 14 year old on a trip like that. Not. But the trust my parents placed in him was correct. What a trip.
When Pete met a girl he,"dug" and married her, he moved out. John ,a friend of Jack's moved in. He taught me how to fish and took me canoeing a lot. He drove an old beat up Ford from the mid 50's.It needed a paint job in the worst way. What he did was hand paint pictures all over his car using oil paints. Talk about going "out of the box". Everyone thought it was "cool" and "groovy". They were a very memorable part of my growing up and maturing. Over the past years some of my efforts have been to connect with them to thank them . Jack was found in an obituary of 2006. Pete and John seem to have disappeared. The three of them
are greatly missed.     Goodbye old pals. You still live in my heart.





  Trivia: The lifespan of a tastebud is about 10 days. Mmmm, Mmmm, Yum Yum

Did You Know?  A pet dog that was swept overboard on a sailing trip swam 5 miles through shark-infested waters and survived on a remote island for 4 months by feeding on baby goats. The grey and black cattle dog was reunited with its owners after being found by rangers on the largely uninhabited St. Bees Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia.