GUEST,Emily F. and Martin Gibson, I don't believe the apparent lack of response to this thread necessarily indicates a lack of interest in folk music here. In a very real sense, it marks the end of an era. Sometimes such things as Pete's retiring from public performing produce such a personal response that they don't seem to call for any particularly public response or display. Rather, it seems to call for a period of contemplation: something similar, perhaps, to a period of mourning. And that can feel very personal; almost too personal to discuss in open forum without, at least, allowing a little time to pass to absorb it.

In fall of 1954, when I had only been playing guitar and singing for a couple of years, Pete gave a concert in a small auditorium (seated about 100) in Seattle's University District. Pete wasn't getting many singing jobs at the time because his battle with the House Un-American Activities Committee scared many people away, but that didn't stop Walt Robertson from arranging the concert, nor did it stop the auditorium from being packed. There was a party for Pete after the concert, and since I was taking guitar lessons from Walt at the time, I was included. It was a great party with lots of singing (Pete wanted to hear local singers), but it was a Tuesday night, and since many people had to work the next day, they began drifting off around midnight. But the party went on, because Pete was game to stay as long as there were people there who wanted to keep singing. About six of us, including Pete, wound up sitting on Carol Lee Waite's living room floor until four o'clock in the morning passing a guitar around—my very recently purchased Martin 00-18—swapping songs and asking Pete questions. As you can imagine, it was an unforgettable evening. And morning.

Those few hours had a lot to do with the course of the rest of my life. So I am certainly not indifferent to Pete's retiring from public performance. And I doubt that I am the only one who Pete's boundless enthusiasm affected in that same way, and who now feel rather sober at this recent news.

Don Firth