Piccolo Pete: Nose Extraordinarie by Kieto

Piccolo Pete was his name. How did he get that name? Well, I'll tell you my friends. When Pete was 5 years old, his Mom and Dad took him to his first day of school. He sat in the back of the classroom and the teacher had each child stand up to introduce themself. When it was his turn, he stood up and said, " My name is..." and he sneezed making a sound that resembled the sound a piccolo which was followed by, "P E T E !"

Everyone in the classroom broke out in laughter. He was happy to make everyone laugh. It sort of eased the tension of the newness of his first day. It was then he decided he wanted to be an entertainer.

From that moment on, he was dubbed 'Piccolo Pete'. As he got older, he fined tuned his gift by sticking his fingers in his nose changing each pitch so he could toot little songs.

And as he became an adult, he perfected this art of tooting through his nose without the use of his hands whatsoever. The most amazing thing about his unique talent was he could create what sounded like 2 piccolos playing in harmony!

He was heard one day in a subway in lower Manhatton performing for contributions by the conductor of the New York Philharmonic and was asked to play with the symphony which he accepted without hesitation.

He became an overnight sensation after his first performance and found himself touring the world performing in front of kings and queens with some of the worlds finest symphonies and orchestras for many years.

His favorite song to perform was Stars and Stripes forever.

At a performance on October 31, 1932, on Halloween, he insisted coming out on stage with a pumpkin over his head to perform the entire orchestral piece of music, 'Danse Macabre' by Saint-Saëns.

When he walked out, people were upset by the pumpkin on his head and didn't think it was funny at all. As he started tooting the beginning of the classic, people started to get up and leave. The conductor saw what was happening and tapped him on the pumpkin head with his baton. When he did, Piccolo Pete turned his head sharply to the left and jammed his head so he couldn't move left or right. The pumpkin was too small.

He vigourously pulled and yanked at the pumkin head trying to get it off. He tripped over the first chair violinist and then stumbled all around the stage. He tugged and tugged and tugged to no avail dancing and stumbling all around in circles while the orchestra continued to play.

People who were leaving started returning to their seats. Everyone was in tears from laughing so hard. They thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

All of a sudden, near the end of Danse Macabre, he slipped and fell on his head breaking the pumpkin head in a million pieces. And right on cue, with the last note, he stood up and tooted through his nose the last note holding it out for several minutes before running out of breath.

You could hear a pin drop. He stood stunned and embarrassed. One person in front began to clap, followed by two, then 5, then 10 before the whole audience, as well as, the orchestra cheered and laughed at him. He bowed and then walked off the stage with pumpkin bits in his hair and on his jacket vowing never to return to the stage again.

From that moment on, he couldn't stand the site of pumpkins because it reminded him of that embarressing night at the concert hall. He spent the rest of his life writing music for the nose.

Moral: If life deals you a pumpkin, make pumpkin pie.

The End