I was raising American Show Racers when the 1985 APJ Roller Special came in the mail. As I leafed through it, I was captured by the style of George Petro's rollers then and I still am today. After wearing that special out looking at the Show Rollers I had to have some. I wrote letters to several breeders, some wrote back, some never responded. One Sunday morning early the phone rang, this was to be the first of many, many conversations that George and I would have. He said that he could help me out with a couple of pair and we made arrangements to meet at a show later that year in Baltimore.
The birds were wonderful and I was an excited young man. I had made contact with another breeder in Wisconsin and had already received a box full of Baldheads from Bill Murkley. George chuckled as I told him of my plans to put his birds to work to improve the type on my new Balds. He was probably laughing at the fact that there were three selfs among the four birds I purchased from him. He was very patient with all of my questions over the next couple of years as I struggled with my Baldhead project. Finally after losing one more Bald class to a Pensom Badge, I switched to the other side. George said he knew it was only a matter of time.
Over the next couple of years I spent lots of time at George's loft, even though he was two and a half hours away, I would make the trip three or four times a year. This didn't include the annual late nighter we always pulled the Friday night before his annual show or the numerous times we met at his house to travel to shows. I can remember several times making it back to his place in the wee hours of the morning, only to find ourselves down at his loft looking over birds.
For years I studied his pedigrees to find his winning combinations. My first "educated" purchase from him was in 1991, two cocks, a father and son. I had picked #901 out as a young bird but George wouldn't let him go for two years. His father #883 had been a YB National Reserve and I was very surprised to be able to get him also. I bought the two cocks on my annual trip to George's after the breeding season.
It was on this trip in September of every year that I would put my wish list on the wall. I'd mark down several key breeders that I wanted and several promising young birds also. This was always my test. At the end of the year if George wasn't willing to part with the birds on my list, I knew I was developing my eye and that my study of his birds and his pedigrees was paying off. I could always manage to talk George out of one of those keepers though. I picked out a beautiful Med Tort W/F hen in September of 1995. I knew I would never get her because she was out of his new click pair, the "Sweet Anna Pair." I dubbed them that because George had a bouquet of Sweet Anna, from Nancy's herb garden, hanging over the door of the breeding section that the pair was in. Anyway, that was the year that the mineworkers went out on strike. George was saddened by the fact that it was going to make him miss Louisville. I told him that I would swing by and pick his birds up on my way to the show. He knew that this would run me two hours out of my way, so he politely refused. I insisted it was something that I wanted to do in return for the years of hospitality and friendship he and Nancy had shown me. So I made the trip to Louisville and that Medium Tort hen ends up being 2nd BYH and 2nd Reserve. I figured that settled the fate on the chances of George letting her go. On my last trip of the year to George's, as he and I were leaving his loft, me already with a few birds in hand, he grinned and said "I thought you wanted that Medium Tort hen." She bred two District Champions and is the grandmother of my Sacramento National Champion and Cup Classic winner.
Two short years later I got the call in April. My friend had cancer. It was a Tuesday night and a conversation I will never forget. Being a young man, I had never lost a friend in this way. I was clueless as to what to say but he helped me through it. Chuck Phipps, Ron Simpson and I moved his birds out that weekend. He didn't want Nancy to have to worry with them while he was sick. He put ten pigeons in my loft with the hope that they would get him started as soon as he was well again. We talked at least twice a week that summer and it never seemed like good news, but he would always find a way to divert the conversation to the birds or some other subject. One high note for him that summer was that I kept his "Sweet Anna" pair together for one round and they raised a real nice Tort Self hen. She won the URC. Youngbird National that year at Louisville. I called him from the show and he was more excited than I was. He had raised many super birds out of the pair in three years, but never a champion. I teased him that it was all in the conditioning. For those of you who knew George and the conditioning of his birds, you can certainly enjoy the humor in that one.
He was also presented with the Honorary Judge Award by the URCA, that delighted him. I accepted the plaque for him and made sure that he got it. Nancy said he talked about it for days.
It was this same summer that I was in the hunt for the final points to earn my URCA Master Breeder Award. It seemed like George wanted hourly updates. After every show that season George would have a strategy for me for the next one. We decided to load up on the Baltimore District show to try to get the last points there, so that wouldn't have to suffer through the 1997 Baltimore National hoping that I would do well enough to get them at show. I was going to save my young cocks but he changed my mind. He was right again. I won Champion and clinched my Master Breeder Award. He cried when I phoned him with the news. He was like a proud big brother.
The timing was more significant than I realized. As my mentor and my friend was taken from us a few short weeks later. Too soon for such a gentleman. Hardly a day goes by that some little thing around the loft doesn't make me think of my friend. His memory will be kept alive in the Show Rollers that I breed. | 