Pete Robinson Robinson

Sorry I wasn't able to attend the reunion, everyone. Our new business opened up that week. I wish I could have come. Hope everyone had a great time!

First off, I haven't the foggiest idea why I bleached my hair back then for that picture above. Never liked that photo! Young and dumb, I guess! Lol, oh well.

Well, since 1990, time has sure flown by. I moved to Seattle for a short time, missed home, so I came back. I lived in Auburndale for a couple of years and was working for Midas on 3rd Street in Winter Haven until 1996. After leaving Midas, I went to work for Meineke Car Care Center near the old Winter Haven Mall. In 1999, Meineke was going to close the store and offered me a position in Charlotte, North Carolina. I transferred to Charlotte with my wife and kids and have been here since. In an effort to be as positive as possible in recalling my life since 1990, I've omitted certain events of my life, but my advice to my kids has been "don't get married at a young age like I did!" (If you get my drift.. ) In 2006, I remarried a wonderful woman, Julie, whom I met in my church, and am living in Denver, North Carolina. She and I sang together in a Praise and Worship band I started in 2003. She is absolutely terrific, loves my kids, and I love hers.. Sometimes people tease us that we're the Brady Bunch, but that's ok. Julie and I have opened our own Meineke Car Care Center Franchise right here in Denver, NC. Unfortunately, the opening date was the same week as our 20 year reunion. Business has been great.

Also, ever since I graduated AHS, I've made an effort to go to church every Sunday. While there have been some rough times in my life, I've never felt like Jesus Christ wasn't walking right by my side, and even during some times I almost felt like I didn't want Him to.. I have no idea why anyone on this earth would choose not to believe in Him.. Because without Him, I would have been nothing today. He sure has blessed me with a wonderful family.

In the summer, my family and I took a Carnival Cruise out of Port of Tampa. We drove through Auburndale. I had gotten back in touch with a friend of mine from AHS c/o '91, Chuck Wagner. We stopped by to see him in our old neighborhood, Grimes Woods, off of Berkley Road. That was cool.. It's almost like, sometimes we change so much, and some things stay the same forever, but seeing Chuck really took me back in time.. He's been taking care of his Mom since his dad died. I plan on coming back again soon. Especially because on the day I was in town, I'll be doggoned if Peebles BBQ wasn't open! And I was craving standing in that long line and eating those ribs and potato salad in the hot, sweaty, old 1940's building. Those were the days.. I'm telling you, there are no BBQ joints around these parts in North Carolina quite like Peebles. Everyone here raves about eastern NC style BBQ, and it's good, but there are some times that I'd almost rather drive 650 miles home to Auburndale to eat there.

So, if anyone has gotten the "hint" and is driving through my area, I would gladly reimburse you for a gallon of Peebles sauce!! haha.. Heck, even if you don't have the sauce, stop in anyway. Love to see any of you.

There are a couple of great stories from back then. Several of my friends from AHS used to talk on the CB Radio. Remember those? I had a big CB antenna on my car, and we'd hang out at the Auburndale City Park on Friday and Saturday nights after I got off work at McDonald's on Havendale Blvd. After dark, we would begin our game of "Fox and Hound" which was like playing hide and seek with a CB radio. (My CB handle is "The Bandit") Anyway, one person would go hide somewhere around Auburndale (we used to hide around the AHS campus a lot) and the rest of us would try to find the person hiding by the clues they gave and by homing in on their CB signal strength. There were a lot of times we were run off from hiding places or had to deal with the Auburndale City Police when they saw suspicious cars driving all over town. Bill and Mike Corgnell (whose handles were L.A. Howler, and Sniper) were really involved in Fox and Hound too. But with cell phones nowadays, noone ever talks on CB's anymore, except truckers. I've still got my CB radio to this day. Gosh, that was so much fun.

Hey- does anyone still "Cruise The Cobb" these days? That was the thing back in the day. Well, my car was missing a hubcap for a while, so I took one from the passenger side and put it on the driver's side, so I could Cruise the Cobb from the same direction every time, so I would never let the passenger side face the movie theater. Why did I care about this back then? I don't know. I guess it's called being a teenager.

Both our Junior and Senior Prom's were a blast. After the Junior Prom, Steve Duvall had borrowed his grandmother's car and we cruised around all night. We went to Orlando, Haines City, drifted up and down Cass Road, just had a blast. Steve, if you join this site, who else was with us that night? I can't remember!! At our Senior Prom, I was soooo wired on coffee from the Waffle House, and it was like 3 in the morning, and I had dropped off my girlfriend, Stacey Blue, and got stopped by the cops on my way home. I didn't get a ticket, but my dad was mad! (I never could hide anything from my dad)

Another funny story I can remember from back then took place on Senior Skip Day.. Juan Barajas and I took off in his Ford 4x4 and went to a mudhole that was in the middle of a field off of SR 559. After barrelling off into the thick of the mud, and inevitably getting stuck, I found out his 4 wheel drive didn't work. So, we wound up walking about a mile down the road to Denna Wood's house, who gave me and Juan a ride back to AHS where my car was still parked. We drove to the Auburndale Wal-Mart, and I picked up a winch so we could hook the truck up to my own vehicle (an old Pontiac Grand Prix with a diesel engine) and pull it out. Needless to say, that didn't work, though.. and wound up getting it stuck, too! (Imagine that) Finally, we got a hold of a friend with a Nissan Truck and he got us out. It was an interesting day, and surprisingly, didn't get in trouble for Senior Skip Day!