[Heidi Shenk]

I completely respect Pete's decision to focus on other things...especially 
if that means spending more time with his family.  Not that this is on the 
same caliber as the Oils, but my dad (who is about the same age as Pete) was 
in a band from the time I was born until I was in third grade.  He just now 
started to play again with his old band mates after I left this fall and 
went to college.  He took a 10 year break from what used to be constant 
gigging.  I was lucky that he acted as the stay at home dad while my mom 
worked during the day before I started kindergarten, but once I was in 
elementary school I didn't see him much because he was gigging about 4 
nights out of the week and a lot of family outings never happened because my 
dad had a last minute gig.  I'd often try to wait up for him to come home, 
but with no success because I'd fall asleep long before he got home.  
Whether it's on an international or local scale, I can tell you first hand 
that it's not the best situation for a kid to grow up in.  Don't get me 
wrong...I absolutely loved it when my dad was in a band and I'm glad that's 
he's starting to gig again, but I'm also glad that he decided to take those 
10 years off.  I don't know what I would have done if he wouldn't have taken 
that 10 year break.  There's a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than 
what people know just by watching musicians play at concerts...and there's 
plenty of stories of things I could tell you all that weren't the best 
situations for a little kid to be in.  I think most people don't look at 
this kind of thing from the family's point of view and often get caught up 
in the idea that being a muso is glamorous.  So with that said...if I was 
one of Pete's daughters, I'd want him home too.

Heidi




----Original Message Follows----
From: "Beth Curran" <bcurran@columbus.rr.com>
To: "'borg'" <oilsfan@the-borg.org>, <powderworks@cs.colorado.edu>
Subject: RE: [Powderworks] re the futue
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2003 15:26:29 -0400

Simon wrote:

.. all in all a life  style I would
have loved to have had..

Personally, I think it would be awful.  Traveling constantly, no home
cooking, seldom seeing your family, kids growing up without you half the
time, too much booze shoved in your face, and (probably) constantly
getting hit on.  No doubt while you're up on stage it's great, but the
rest would just suck IMHO.  I can't imagine doing that for one summer,
let alone 25 years. - Beth

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail