In the late ’70’s, New Hanover High School, AKA NHHS, was dazed and confused as most, but it held it’s attractions, a choice one being around the block on 15th St., where the hip kids parked. Much was tasted and shared. Peter D, a Michigan transplant, was into Weather Report and theater. Stanley liked The Cars and skateboarding. Paul: Bob Marley and surfing.

Peter attended Nancy McAllister’s orchestra class on a regular basis, and acted out, officially with the Thespians of Hanover, but he drifted through the rest of the day scrawling in notebooks, or skipping classes. After school he walked downtown to the Arts Center, where his mom worked. He plugged into the theater scene, mainly as a techie, and befriended Scott Davis and Steve Coley. He accompanied his mentor, brother Ed on guitar for a few pub gigs .

He was accepted to the North Carolina School of the Arts, to study cello, but found he preferred frisbee. His sole musical performance was on bass guitar with the camp/punk band Hellicopter, featuring Scott Davis, at the Beaux Arts Ball. He ejected immediately thereafter, and came home, attempting UNC/W, and Cape Fear Tech, only to quit. Dis-spirited, he settled into a dull but character-building string of restaurant jobs, alongside his friends. Free time found them in a bit of a post-adolescent nihilist swirl, playing frisbee golf through the deserted downtown, investigating vacant properties, and roaming cow pastures in search of rare delights. And that’s just the de-classified stuff.

During this period, Atlantis Sound Light and Recording Company, AKA Atlantis, established a downtown beachhead, around the corner from Finkelstein’s Music. The proprietor, Lynn Watts, was a pioneer of original bands in Wilmington. A prog-rock keyboardist, vocalist, and composer, he rehearsed his original band Progressive Pyramid in the makeshift recording studio. Peter, with his pal, Steve “Bonz” Perry, through their association with Scott’s brother, drummer Kevin Davis, cleaved to this place, as something was most definetely going on. Seeking thrills while trying to appear useful, he hung out with the likes of Sarah and Eliza Burton and teenage yachtsman Weston Clemmons.

Peter breifly played keys in the well-named Alias. After Pyramid’s demise, Lynn tapped Peter to play in a cover project called Vyper, but they tanked without playing a show. Stanley was along for the ride, his interest in trick flash & pan photography developing, assisted by Peter, and they jammed on the equipment after hours. The pair also frequented the beach, and hooked up with Paul (who actually now worked and lived downtown), dancer Ben Harris, and surfette/flautist Lisa Raymond.

Atlantis folded, and they found themselves together roaming the streets and the beach, bored, and boiling. Next? New rock magazines NY Rocker and Trouser Press were sold at record shops, and inspired album purchases ensued. Peter’s punk rock deflowering came with Talking Heads’ “Fear of Music”. The New Wave was in ascendency, and they lapped it up like manna, “punking out”, Rocky Horror-style, and having “punk (house) parties”. Flirtations with punk ethos differentiated their milieu from the preppies, the beach music shag culture, and the chronic rednecks. Cathartic, not boring. Wit’s End gigs by the Pedestrians, AKA the Peds, a punkabilly band from east Tennesee, became a staple energy release.

Shy, talented, now pumped from dancing, Peter slowly unearthed his desire to front a band, and started jamming on guitar with Paul, writing a handful of simple tunes. Steve Coley’s artist friend Danny, entered the picture, a raw but ambitious dynamo, manning a bass keyboard and drum machine. It sounded like hell. A real drummer would help, and the Neons’ Matt, still at NHHS, was summoned through the vine. The fledgling Squirrels set up shop briefly at the Cape Fear Foundation, a downtown arts collective organized by Michael Caliva, Morgan Kenney, and Gene Coley, on the second floor of 9 S. Front St. Soon they had to take it elsewhere.

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