Caravelle Friday Nights

It was common that after band practice (Northern Lights, Carnivore, Fallout), was an eating festival at Nettie's house, with all the guys barging in looking for food, or Peter raiding the fridge for pies, cakes and a huge gallon of milk to bring down to the basement for his friends. It was common to see Josh and John at the house eating dinner with us or the boys bringing back 7 or 8 bags of McDonalds as the guys would devour burgers, shakes, fries, and apple pies in handfuls and gulps.

An old picture of Pete's friends (and some girls) in the basement

Looks like Josh, John and Peter standing

But it was the night time phone calls from Pete to meet him outside our house to walk down to Caravelle Restaurant  (on Avenue M between East 19th Street & Ocean Avenue) to have a late dinner with him or meet him for dessert. Since he knew everyone there, the waiters knew that when he sat down he wanted a huge glass of soda or milk, an order of salad with their trademark russian dressing (which was amazing), and then Pete would order 3 or 4 entrees for himself with side dishes and desserts.

He loved to joke with the owners and waiters by telling them he was ordering the entire page 3 of the menu, asking them with a smirk to just bring out everything at the same time. The waiters would give us a questioned look, not sure if this giant was being serious with them, and we would giggle while the owner gave Pete a hardy smack on the back saying to "give this big guy anything he wants."

And we'd stay hours, sometimes with various band members popping in, girlfriends, guys from the neighborhood who saw Peter walking by - and Peter would invite them to his table willing to share whatever he had infront of him and ordering other food for these people. During this time, Pete would talk about various songs he was thinking of writing (like Christian Woman) asking us (his young nieces & sisters) what we thougtht about a woman who loved God so much she was turned on by him. We just thought he was kidding when he asked us our advice about things like that - joke was on us when we heard the songs or saw the videos.

We never knew what those late night dinners with Pete would bring, or who we'd meet, or what we'd talk about. For instance, for the longest time Peter told me he was going to remake hip hop singer Stacy Q's song "Two of Hearts." He would even sing the song to me first in a high-pitched girl voice. Then he'd change the tempo into a hardcore grunt. You just never knew when Pete was serious about anything. And he was always so lively.

Can you imagine Peter redoing this song?
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBdGT4dn4E&ob=av2e