Pete Huetter

Barnegat, on the bay, was an idyllic place to grow up. Doing so with Pete as your big brother was especially great for this "tomboy".  I was honored to be the only girl allowed in the tree house or the club house which we built in the barn. It was enough that his little sister was allowed to hang out with him and his friends but being the only girl really made me feel special.
We had such fun swimming, clamming, crabbing and fishing in the summer. Pete could spear more blowfish than anyone, with a homemade spear made from a broom handle and a sharpened nail, and boy were they tastey!! The whole family had adventures picking wild blueberries, baking potatoes under a bonfire at the cranberry bogs, biking down to the bay to spend the whole day, stopping along the way to cool off with a drink form the artesian well. Later, since Pete and I were the youngest, it was the two of us and his friends who shared adventures. Sometimes it was things our parents would not have approved of, like getting filthy sliding down the bins of coal at the train station, climbing in between the bales of hay stacked in the boxcars (this was probably dangerous but fun to work our way through the maze while we enjoyed the fresh smell, or following the streams until they broadened, seeing how wide they would get before we couldn't leap across and then washin g our socks in the stream , beating them with rocks and drying them by riding around with them our handlebars so noone would know. We hung around the train tracks alot, sometimes catching a ride on the cowcatcher of the engine. Can you imagine anyone letting you do such a thing today? Pete once (always the daredevil) tried to jump his bike off the train station dock and landed on his head. I can't remember if he ever actually mastered the stunt, but I bet he did. Move over Evil Kinevel. It was always new, always fun. Later, when I was dating age, it was a liittle inconvenient. I had to go out of town to date, because all the guys our age were like brothers to me.

At Clayton High, Pete was probably the best athlete. He did it all --  football, basket, track events -- and excelled at it all.  He was handsome and super popular, which helped my reputation a little. I'm sure I got to do things I would never have been able to were it not for Pete. For exanple, I got to go on the team bus to the away basketball games!! Some times I was the whole cheering section!

I regret that Pete and I didn't, due to the miles and our indiviual busy lives, stay as close as we were when we were young.  I'm sorry too, that I cannot make it to his memorial service.  I have so many more stories to tell. I'll never forget the great times we shared.