Good-bye "Little Pete"

Goodbye Little Pete

Pedro Salazar

I just learned that a very good friend of mine, Pedro “Little Pete” Salazar passed away on January 15^th.  

I called him “Little Pete.”  When I was working at K.V. Country Store and Avalon Food Mart, Little Pete would come in and play the lottery.  He was the kind of guy you had to like.  He was always smiling and always making a joke.  He would purchase $10 worth of scratch-off tickets and hand me a $10 bill.  He would then say, “Keep the change.” 

One of the great things about Little Pete was he was always there to help.  One morning K.V. Country Store was broken into.  The owner’s nephews showed up when the police called to tell the family about the break-in.  Since these nephews were not really able to help, they sat on the hood of their car while the police came to my house to get me out of bed to come to the store and take care of things. 

When I arrived, we found a truck had driven through the front doors and everything in the store was in a total mess.  One thing was that the rack that had the powdered sugar donuts had basically imploded and sent powdered sugar everywhere.

The owner’s nephews never offered any help.  All they did was eat ice cream out of the ice cream freezer. Of course, they did not pay for it.  Little Pete drove by and without asking if he could help, started helping.  Little Pete, Suzanne, and I had to put that store back together.  Little Pete was that kind of guy.  You could count on him.

Goodbye, Little Pete.  I am sure that there is a scratch-off booth in heaven. I know you are there at the counter talking and joking and saying “Keep the change.”   When you left you used to say, “Lock the door.”  I wish I could hear you say, “Lock the door” one last time.

http://www.journal-spectator.com/obituaries/article_84705eb4-8380-11e3-982f-0019bb2963f4.html

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