A Family Tree With Many Colorful Leaves

Top L to R: Michelle, Tara, Peter, Marie

Bottom: Me and Nancy (I am pouting so I must have gotten yelled at)

A lot of you noted that you wanted a "family tree" so you could understand the relationship between the family members who have posted here and others that are talked about. So here we go with the basic family:

So, Peter's creators as he commonly referred to his parents were Annette Pallon and Peter Ratajczyk

Nettie had four sisters: Victoria, Helen, Patricia, RoseMary & two brothers: Thomas and Louis.

Peter had 1 brother: Joseph

Nettie and Peter had 5 daughters: Annette, Barbara, Patricia, Pamela, Cathy. Of course you know the only son was Peter.

Some of Peter's aunts/uncles had children close to the time Peter was born. So, he had cousins Susan and Katie very close in age to him and older cousins who were closer to his sister's age: Steve, George, Peter, Roger. At the same time, Peter's own sisters were having children, so Pete has neices like Nancy and Michelle who are similar in age, and then younger neices like me, Tara and Marie who straddle 6 + more years younger than him.  Just a few years ago, we totalled about 30 family members (which includes wives/husbands/children of the above).

I don't know who started the tradition - it may have started when everyone lived in Red Hook - but every Fourth of July my patriotic family gets together, everyone, bringing along friends and in-laws to a designated house. For years when we were young, we all went to Peter's aunt RoseMary (who we call Pinky) and her husband "Little" Louie's house in Long Island. Here is a photo of Nettie's brother Louie (the one from the song) along with his wife and our aunt Dee dressed up as George and Martha Washington during Fourth Of July. They walked around the neighborhood dressed like that waving the flag. (taken in the 1970s - ignore date on photo)

Then, when Peter's eldest sister, Annette bought a house in West Islip with her husband Robert, we all flocked there. Parties would have between 30 and 45 guests on a given Fourth of July weekend. We would play "Blind Man's Bluff" in the pool, ride aboard a giant inflatable dragon on the Long Island Sound, drive around the neighborhood on Nancy's motorcycle in patriotic outfits, and the older uncles and aunts would light up fireworks while the kids all got sparklers (remember those?).

Pete with his sisters

As you can tell from Pete's expression this was

probably the 10th photo he was forced to stand for,

 in this position with various family members.

He looks like he wants to kill the photographer.