One of the cast of characters.

I've known Pete since high school. We both went to Westfield High School in the Spring school district. Pete transferred in from Bellaire High School.

Westfield was a much different school then, in terms of the demographics of the students. Whites are only 18% of the student body now, back then they were about 90% and FM1960 was a semi-affluent area. Only "semi" though, it was I guess a pretty typical example of 80s middle classness back when we were there. The Breakfast Club seemed very familiar.

Pete and I got to be friends through David F. Pete and I immediately hit it off because we were those guys in the honors classes who didn't quite fit in. Pete was "artistic," he always had a pencil and a sketchbook. He listened to The Doors, Hawkwind, and old Pink Floyd. He cut his own hair, read Kerouac, and wore very nondescript clothes, almost anti-fashion.

I wore Army boots, often a fatigue jacket, whatever else I picked up at the NAM Thrift Shop, where I volunteered on Saturdays. I listened to Dead Kennedys, Ramones, and whatever else New Wave was around that the cool kids made fun of.

So Pete and I were kindred spirits. I have a very vivid image in my mind of Pete and I being in the principal's office when we were informed that we were Merit scholars or some such thing. We were called to his office and not told why. We sighed with relief when we saw the crowd in there, it turned out that we hadn't gotten caught.

We were different in some ways, I was a libertarian even back then (actually a Libertarian) and Pete was always vaguely left of center, but anti-authoritarian. We enjoyed shocking the sensiblities of authority figures and our fellow students, most of whom seemed to dress something like Brad Pitt on the left there.

I don't have any ill feelings towards our fellow alumni, don't get me wrong. Some of my best friends were preppies.

Nevertheless, many of these kids didn't want to hang around with us and we didn't want to hang around with them. Pete and I listened to a lot of Tom Waits and got into hanging out at a diner before school. We'd drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and talk about books, music, whatever...

We ended up going to different colleges. Pete went to North Texas and I went to UT. We lost track a bit of each other when I went into the Navy, but Pete was at our wedding in 1991.

After that I can't remember talking to him until a couple of years ago. One of my co-workers moved next door to Pete's younger brother Jake. We got back in touch and started hanging out.

I consider myself a lucky man that we've renewed our friendship. We were only friends for a couple of years a long time ago, but those years were so important. We also have good conversations, our politics are still, um, readily distinguishable, but we're both very anti-dogmatic and rather unique in our takes on things.

I call him the "former artist" because when we were young, I always thought of him as going to be an artist. He constantly sketched things, always had a painting in progress, that seemed to be his identity. He did go on and study art, got a Master's in it even. He earns his living in the construction industry now, but he did make it out to our paint-your-own-pottery studio to do some pieces.

That's one of his pieces on the right, it actually explains Pete and his sense of humor pretty well. That's a vegetable tray. There's four sections around the tray and one for dip in the middle. You've probably noticed the interconnected screaming faces. Pete's idea is that when they have people over, they'll fill up the tray with carrots, celery, etc. and then as people pull the veggies away, they'll see faces screaming at them in horror. I hope I haven't ruined the surprise for anyone.

Pete's been through a major change recently, he and Janice (his missus) have a son now, Jonas. He was a long-awaited joy for his parents. Having a kid changes everything as they say, and that's a generalization that's pretty true. Pete is less likely to come see me, but I'm always welcome to drop by there. I can handle that kind of change.

Yesterday the missus and I did just that. We were at Texas Art Supply, Pete and Janice live in the Sixth Ward. Pete had made a bunch of lasagna so we all had a plate and a discussion of poop. Baby poop, cat poop, dog poop, chicken poop, and variations of that. Cat poop on dogs, baby poop on people, etc.

If you asked anyone in 1985 if Pete and Rob were going to be having discussions of poop in 20 years, I think they would have looked at you funny. I guess we're now old, but I can think of much worse alternatives.

Quite interesting web site Rob. As time passes we tend to forget stereotypes we previously placed on others. I do remember the fatigues and the Army Boots. The image that entered my head when I read the email was from you, was of one @ UT outside your dorm. I used to come by, from SWT, on the weekends and party with Stacey, Nancy and the like. My image is you, in fatigues, smoking a cigarette and your giving some political insight on a subject I had no interest. After pondering your website I realize,now, my perception was that you were far too intellectual for your years (@ 19) and I had no clue. As I've aged I too have become feedup with the system and have gandered more right of center.

see you soon,

Tommy Ripley