Friends: Chapter 1, “The Sandbox”

How do you begin a story that is almost sixty years in the making? You start at the beginning.

I met “Pete” at the sandbox on the playground. I was three years old. He was four. We lived in small community that consisted of what seemed to be only two streets. The area was rich in tradition as it sat on the banks of the Severn River with the United States Naval Academy directly across the main road. Both historic locations were within walking distance. Remnants of the once active AWB and WB&O Railroad that stretched from Annapolis to Elkridge ran adjacent to the community. Residents could walk to the banks of the Severn River to watch the annual aerial display of the Blue Angels for the Naval Academy graduation.

Pete and I became instant friends. We hung out just about every day. There were other kids in the community. There was a  kid named Herb about our age. We later had to refer to him as “White Herb” as another Herb (Black Herb) would emerge.

When Pete turned five he no longer was available to play as he headed off to school. I had another year to go. Pete liked school. He would come home and describe his day with enthusiasm as he met new friends from different communities. When the school year ended we all moved from the community as it was purchased by the Naval Academy.

Our families moved to different locations so for a couple of years we were out of touch. And then my mom moved to a community called Bywater. Pete’s famiky was already there. And suddenly we were old friends once again. We got into all sorts mischief. I mean…….phew! Boy, we knew how to have fun! 

You see, if you weren’t one of Pete’s close friends you could not have known the comedic talent he possessed. He was literally a damn clown in the best sense of the word. He did great voice imitations, crazy facial expressions and physical comedy that a boy his age should not have been capable of. Jim Carey had nothing on him! We laughed and acted silly all day long. So much so that our moms spent the majority of some days yelling “y’all stop acting so damn silly”. That made us laugh even more….

As we progressed through adolescence Pete became my big  brother. Most of what I learned through sports came from him. He introduced me to the sport of football, both professional and college. He loved football and did a great imitation of Hall of Fame Sports Reporter Howard Cosell. Even in elementary school he possessed vast knowledge of the history of the game. He could probably name every player on every team in the NFL at that time and could imitate their voices and body movements as well!

Pete could have easily been a comedy skit writer if not a performer himself. Really! He watched a lot of comics on TV at that time (Lucille Ball, Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson,Three Stooges) and knew all of their lines.

We were both music fans and I recall the time Pete told me that the bass line from Parliament Funkadelic’s “Flashlight” was from a keyboard. My brain could not comprehend and so I challenged him unsuccessfully. (This happened a lot…lol)  You see, Pete’s Uncle Dean played keyboards so he was exposed to the early technology. I met Dean in my teens and it changed my musical trajectory. Dean played a song that he had recorded. I noticed that the song had multiple voices that sounded like Dean. He explained that he used a “multitrack recorder”. I was astonished and hooked. My world shifted that day. Bought my own multitrack recorder a few months later.

As you can see I learned a lot from our friendship. Too much to even try to include in this post. Many of early interests were fortified through our growing up together. You know what? We are still friends today. Almost sixty years from the sandbox.