"Father John", better known as "Zork", and who's real name is Piero, is a friend whom I first met during the early summer of 1977. It was right around the time of "Father John's Workshop" when I had ventured onto Channel 20 looking for another group to hang with, and discovered this group of seemingly crazy CBers. Piero was almost 2 years younger than me, but nearly 5 inches taller and a few pounds heavier (He's 6'5"). Piero loved to play his Kazoo over the radio, and played along with (or in some cases instigated) the fun, games, and crazy antics, which often occurred back then. The Channel 20 group used to hold weekly Thursday night coffee breaks at a local Friendly's ice cream parlor, and one night Piero actually wore a homemade priest's collar, as a tribute to "Father John's Workshop". His home station at the time, consisted of a Realistic TRC-48 23 channel SSB rig, with a D-104 microphone. His station antenna was an A/S Starduster. When I decided to modify my Midland with additional crystals for the newly expanded 40 channels, Piero and Chris decided to do the same thing to their rigs, and I installed the crystals for them. We ran on Channel 20 for the rest of the summer, and with the high skip conditions that year, we spent a good deal of time on the "extras" to get away from the noise. I would later move on to Channel 13 later in the fall. Piero dropped off of the radio radar scope for a while, although he used to hitch a ride with me every day from tech school until he became of driving age himself. Piero was also very fond of guns, and has amassed quite a collection, so it was no surprise that he ended up becoming a police officer. I used to kid him about being a real-life version of the movie "Police Academy's", Tackleberry. He slowly dropped out of the CB scene by the early 80's, but would pop in out of the woodwork occasionally afterward and would hang out with us for a short while. He enjoyed a brief resurgence in steady CB activity in the mid-late 80's, until passing the ham radio exam, when we all moved to the ham bands. In 1988, Piero, Art, and myself, set up a 220 Mhz ham repeater so that we could have a place to meet on.
Today: Piero and I still talk occasionally through the internet. He left the police force, due to a job related disability, and is now in charge of safety and security at a prestigious private school. He had been married, but is now divorced, and yet still seems to have little time for radio activities lately, and gives new meaning to the term "part timer". He has sold off most of his ham gear (including his share of the repeater), and has become active in local politics and other activities, which probably explains why he has little time for radio any more.