Pete Mom, (Jessie), used to tell the story about Pete and the day he first learned the word, "Damn." This was a forbidden word in our home. Pete was about two and when she put him down for his afternoon nap one day, she heard him say, "Damn." She stood by the door and Pete continued to try out the word, saying it as a question, then an exclamation, then softly and then loudly. Pete tried it over and over. She let him wear it out and then he finally fell asleep. She claims that he did not use the word again for a very long time. I'm not so sure. Pete made a parachute out of an old bedspread and some rope and tried to jump off the library roof toward the driveway. He landed in the lilacs by the back porch in a failed attempt that did no permanent damage. Pete stepped on a nail, while the family was vacationing on Lake Michigan at George Burke's cottage. (A distinguished lawyer friend and mentor of Dad's- Franklin) Mom, (Jessie), insisted that the nail be found so nobody else would step on it. Mom and Pete went back to find the nail and Pete stepped on it a second time and even harder this time. It penetrated this foot, which then required medical attention. The nearest doctor was Dr. Wessinger, the city physician, who was on vacation at his family's cottage at nearby White Lake. Dr. Wessinger gave Pete a tetanus shot, which was made from horse serum and Pete had a shock reaction. He first complained of a headache, which Mom felt was unusual because of his young age. She took him to the hospital and he almost died of shock and hives. To this day his answer to the question " have you any allergies?" is "yes, an allergy to horse serum, even though it hasn't been used if half a century or more and shouldn't have been used by Dr Wessinger except he was very old and used an old fashioned remedy. Dr. Wessinger was the grandfather of a family of close friends of Pete (John,) Mike (Jim) and Bev (Alice.) At Martin Place Mom, (Jessie), used buy Pepsi by the wooden case and have it delivered from a store (I think the beer depot.) She would drink them but since they were not good for us and we were not offered any. Pete discovered that after Mom returned the almost empty bottles to the case. If he went into the back porch cupboard, where the bottles and cases were stored, he could get several drops of sweetness from each of the bottles, by tipping them up again and waiting patiently as the last drops trickled into his mouth. When Pete was in the seventh grade, he was allowed to go into an advanced metal shop class with ninth graders with Mr. Davis the teacher. He was hazed by the ninth graders and told to go ask the teacher for some elbow grease and for a left handed monkey wrench. He protested but was finally convinced by the older boys and asked the teacher, making a fool out of himself to the delight of his elders. (Doug Bock among others.) Pete and Mike carried sibling rivalry to an extreme. Pete admits that he started this particular series of events. To get back at Mike for something, Pete tied Mike's bedroom doorknob to his desk in such a way that when Mike came to open the door he would pull down his desk and it would collapse in a heap. Great idea. Mike discovered the rig before bursting into his room and took Pete's rope and tied it between Pete's doorknob and his closet pole, which was holding up all his clothes. Pete fell for it and his clothes fell into a heap on the floor, which provided a great victory for his little brother. Another time Pete tied a rope between Mike's doorknob and the banister and then sat outside his door refusing to untie it until Mike cried "uncle." So as not to be defeated, Mike crawled out his bedroom window, down fire escape to Mom and Dad's room. Mom, Dad and Mike then sat at the bottom of the stairs and watched Pete try to get Mike to say "uncle." Pete had a bit of a temper and most people knew when to get out of his way. One day Pete was working on a project in the garage and he hit thumb with a hammer. Mike, who was close by, started to laugh and then knew that he had to get away quickly. He ran down the driveway and luckily escaped the hammer, which came flying after him, bouncing along the asphalt. Mike and Pete had a fight over a pool cue and Pete had a hold of the tip and Mike the weighted end. Mike wouldn't let go and in an effort to make him release the cue, Pete pushed the cue forward, but instead the weighted end hit Mike in the mouth and broke parts of his two front teeth. Pete always said that Mike pulled the cue into his teeth and Mike said that Pete pushed it. Pete rode bike down Martin Place, with no hands, and a fly went right in his mouth. He spit and spit but didn't crash.