Peter

Peter and I have been friends for more than twenty-five years, through hardship and comfort. We have made sandwiches and delivered newspapers and pizzas together. We have been roommates and Halloween buddies, and have competed together in some of my earliest costume contests. He gave me a ride in the limousine trip he won as the Headless Horseman.

 

Peter and I threw a Halloween party at my house that year and left to go out on the town, leaving our roommate with a house full of our rowdy friends that she didn't know. Later that year, she had sense enough to ask us to watch over her car while she traveled to visit family over the Christmas holiday, so Peter and I drove it to a New Year's Eve party in Jacksonville, Florida, and had a great time.

Peter knew my first bicycle-riding cat Elliott, and he gave me Dave the Cat, who changed my life.

We have been on many road trips together throughout Florida and the eastern United States. Peter and I drove to Memphis, Tennessee to hold hands at Hands Across America in 1986.

We have shared many friends, some of whom are no longer with us.

We were big Major League Baseball fans in the 1980s. I especially remember the Halloween we partied together and watched the 1987 World Series between his St. Louis Cardinals and the Minnesota Twins, the first Series in which the visiting team never won. Unfortunately for Peter's Cards, they played away in four of the seven games. 

We played softball together for most of the 1990s on my office team in the Summer State Employee Softball League and had a real good time. This summer I played in my nineteenth season. As the summer is also our rainy season, Peter used to keep a giant squeegie in his car and would often scrape away puddles on the field after a recent rain to expedite game play.

Peter helped me party for Halloween last year and the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper featured us both in an article last October from my costumes' appearance at the Railroad Square Art Park.

My brother Jonathan was in town visiting from Denver for a few days this week. Jonathan and Peter and I used to play softball together, so we all met up Friday night at Beef O'Brady's on Thomasville Road to watch the National League Championship Series Game 5, and see Peter's Cardinals defeat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-1. 

It was quite the party that evening, as many Godby High School alumni were also gathering at the time and we visited with several until the end of the game and almost closing time. It was good to see Stanley and Cindy and many others, and Robbie and Lee and Vicki sat with us for a while.  

It was the first time since the 1980s that Peter and I watched a post-season professional baseball game, and it had been at least fifteen years since Jonathan and Peter and I had all been together.

Peter and I were each quite different people in the 1980s, so it is remarkable that our friendship has withstood the test of these many years.

Thanks, Peter!