What is there to say about Pete Nightmare that hasn't
already been said? He 'struck gold' when
he was tinkering with some electrical bits.
He had discovered something that no one in the 1940s
had ever thought possible: how to string together
light bulbs on the same circuit to create the first
ever set of Christmas lights.
But he was atheist and so he didn't call them that.
Soon he patented the idea and built up a family
business.
Those colourful Nightmare lights were everywhere !
He and his wife were wrong for each other.
He was a total perfectionist with a fiery
temper, she was laxadaisical, one of those
delightfully slow-paced, women, almost ethereal.
One Christmas there was a blazing row in their
home and he stormed out, stayed away, and drove
around all day.
He was hard on his children, one of them
wanted to be a rocker and grow his hair.
Well that just caused a split and he had
to come and stay his grandparents.
He was too regimented, dangling the kids
off the edge of the factory building, and
scaring everyone in the house.
He was one of those people that are impossible
to deal with and not much escaped from his
attention.
I guess when they were big
enough there was a struggle, they cast
Peter out for good, and made it clear:
'Don't come back or you're a dead man'
Well the family did alright in life and Peter
continued too, wealthy but paranoid, believing
that he had created a hell on earth for
himself and that his family were
vultures circling overhead.
He had disinherited them in his will.
Eventually towards the end, his life ended
itself.
His sons unexpectedly hijacked the funeral.
They made an emotional speech
'I haven't spoken to him in 20 years'
At the pub later they told of
a reign of terror. Not much is known about
where Pete went after the burial but perhaps he
walks the earth as a fictional ghost?
/ / / iolfree
