You Have An Enormous Soul

The Ratajczyk Family  is very thankful to a wonderful lady (and friend) Jeanne (dunebuggy4) who graciously takes our worn out old photos, restores them and sends them back to me. Jeanne - You are amazing ! Thank you for your beautiful friendship and help in making our treasured photos clear again ! Sending some pug love to you:

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 House With The Garden Where A Single White Egg Sits

Thank You Christine Batchelder  For Sharing Your Peter Story:

Hello lovely members of the Ratajczyk family,

I stumbled upon for the love and I thought it incredible and touching and I wanted to share my Pete story.

My dad always supported my shenanigans, if i wanted to dye my hair green and listen to "music with bass lines that cause a sonic massage" he was fine with it, but he'd be damned if his baby girl was going to a rock show un-supervised!  So on or around halloween, from age 14-16 my 5'4 father would accompany and watch over his 4'11 daughter, in a shitty dive bar like "club" in Boston (either axis or avalon), even if i would give him a ration of crap for wearing ear plugs that glowed under the black lights. 

My 17th year of existence, we both got jobs working security for their concert crew (mostly so i could afford my friday night concert addiction).  So when I got the go to work both nights of TON's scheduled gigs I could've done back flips.  During set up for the security crew, which was after TON's sound check had wrapped up I found my 4'11 inch self standing infront of a 6'7 Pete and his red-headed lady friend.

 I craned my neck back to look him in the eye, and the only thing that would come out of my mouth was "God damn I'm short!"  and he in kind responded "Well you have an enormous soul."  So my father and I talked about the nature of the soul, and how music can affect peoples moods. My dad, true to form, gave Pete shit for the volume of the music at the shows, and apparently (he didn't tell me this till 10yrs later) pulled Pete aside to ask why he was conversing so freely with his 17 year old kid, and Pete shook my father's hand and told him he raised a polite girl with wisdom beyond her years, I don't know if he was buttering him up to avoid "angry dad" or what but it was still nice to hear 10yrs after the fact.

The next year I didn't work security, but still wrestled my way to the front, and pete handed me a set list at the end of the show.

The next TON show I made it to was in Worcester for the Life is Killing Me tour and the largest venue I'd ever seen them play in, after the show as I was walking to my car I saw Pete as he was heading out the back, he took the time to say hi and chat for a few minuets despite the fact it was freezing out and his ride was waiting.

I feel privileged to have had even those few short conversations with him, I only wish I could have had a chance to talk to him at length.  He was articulate, polite, and genuinely nice.  He took the time to talk to an awkward girl with hair the color of a safety cone and her crazy over protective dad. 

Type O's music offered me refuge, solace, peace, and as odd as it may sound a feeling of kinship.  Type O would become my coping mechanism, when shit hit the fan, or I found myself emotionally gutted, Peter's music was always just a button press away, a balm to my tattered mind.

I just wanted to share the brief kindness Pete showed me, even if having written it out it seems trivial and passing, but it's always meant something to me.

My deepest condolences for your loss.

All the best,
Christine

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Thanks to Michelle Frost to pointing us to a website about "old Brooklyn." Here is her note to us:

Dear Ratajczyk Family,

Thank you for the wonderful website about Peter. It makes me feel that he is still alive--in our hearts--because of all the love and devotion he inspired in so many. Reading your posts helps get me through my dreary workdays. I especially enjoy the old family photos.

These photos of Old Brooklyn, in particular, Coney Island should prove entertaining: http://www.screanews.us/NewYork/BrooklynOld.htm

Best Regards,
Michele Frost, cat lover
>^o_o^<

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Want to know WHOA's best songs to work out to? Jessica Cassino

was gracious enough to recognize TON for her gym playlist

October 11, 2011

A Gym Playlist For A Bearable Workout

By: Jessica Cassino

Working out sucks. I hate it. The cheesy Top 40 hogwash they play at the gym doesn’t help either. It is distracting and makes me want to jump off the treadmill. I made a playlist to get me through my daily sweat sessions.

1. “Shoot to Thrill” – AC/DCThis song should be playing while I am doing crunches. 3 sets of 15. It will make me forget about the burn that goes with ab tightening.
2. “Dog Days Are Over” – Florence +The MachineThis song has gotten me through plenty of Spin classes. It makes me forget about my shitty day and helps me focus shrinking my butt. It is also good for running. Florence says it herself, “ The horses are coming/So you better run”.
3. “Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)” – The Vaccines
   Great song to do pull-ups OR push-ups to. It is catchy and fast.
4. “The World Is Not Enough” – GarbageWhen you are lifting that Olympic bar, put this on and keep going. It is well worth the blood, sweat, and tears.
5. “Main Offender” – The HivesThis is a great warm-up song. Go get your jump rope.
6. “Too Fake” – HockeyFast enough for the StairMaster or the Elliptical. “I do everything that I’m told to.” Yep, like not eating a jar of Novella.
7. “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” – JetI still fit into my gym pants from freshman year of high school. I am 30. While I am doing lunges and squats, this song is blaring.
8. “A Dustland Fairytale” -The KillersAnother good song for Spin class or lifting my 15 lb. weights.
9. “Zero” -Yeah Yeah Yeahs
   Every gym should play this song. Everyone is there to become a size 0. “Can you climb, climb, climb higher?” Karen O asks. Does going to the gym 6 days a week count?
10. “Pain” – Type O NegativeWhile I am pushing myself to the point of almost puking, Pete Steele is screaming macho crap into my dainty, pink Urbanears.
11. “Fundamentally Loathsome” - Marilyn Manson
    I wish they would play this in my Pilates class. It would make it so much more bearable. It is one of Manson’s lighter songs, if you ask me.
12. “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake” -The Sounds
    “You know it hurts so bad/Just like I knew that it would/But I’d do it again/Do it again if I could”. That is how your workout is supposed to feel.
http://whoamagazineonline.com/2011/10/11/a-gym-playlist-for-a-bearable-workout/