Big Pete, 1887-1929

Sudden Death

His given name was Peter John Farley, but everyone called him Big Pete. He worked at the mill, loading hundred pound sacks of grain onto wagons or flat bed trucks. In the spring of ‘29, it was wet, then icy. Big Pete took off his coat and covered the sacks with his Macintosh. He was a big man, and heavily muscled. Laughed at the cold and pounded on his chest. Soon after, pneumonia took him. Both lungs, according to Dr. Veach.

Years later, Hal and I were in Florida and I told the story of Big Pete’s death to a Roman Catholic fortune teller who could see the future and had answers to the mysteries of life.

Okay, I told her, answer me this.

I told her the story of Big Pete’s death. That such a man could die in a blink had always bothered me. He’d been a giant, solid a a stump. The teller listened with her head down, then lifted kohl-filled eyes. She was younger than I thought. “His death broke the cold snap.”

Ever since, I’ve believed that.