ERIC PETERS

Nov. 1995 – Feb. 3, 1996 is a period of my life when I worked in construction. The dreamy reality of playing music for a living was still distant. Here I was the proud new owner of a 4-year degree in history from Louisiana State University, and no career leanings and certainly no hints of a professional career using that particular degree. In a word, I was “unemployable”. I took the job thanks to a very generous and lenient boss. I was allowed to take time off whenever I had out of town shows. As an electrician's assistant, I pulled wires, pushed brooms, fetched conduit, tools, even fetching lunch for the crew. I was a $6/hour gopher, and I disliked most every second of it.

I must have stuck out like a sore thumb, and there were many due to my lack of mechanical skills. Here I was the gentle, sensitive artist-type working in a rough and tough environment. Not all the guys were crude though. One in particular, a fellow Christian, befriended me and soon became a ray of light on that job. Richard had quite a strange sense of humor in that he had a pirate fixation. Whenever he’d see me walking across the warehouse floor fetching something, he’d yell out “ARRRRR, young Peters lad.” It nearly always made me smile. I’m smiling now.

Richard was a kind man who encouraged me during those long days. He drove me nuts at times, but still to this day he remains fixed in my memory as a joyful reminder of knowing who you are and by whom you were made. The art becomes the kneeling man…