Peter with his mother and brother Nick, packing for Germany; photo published in the Detroit Free Press on March 22, 1946.
“Wife and 2 Sons Pack for Life in Broken Reich — Mrs. Virginia Thorkelson, 26, of 4711 Second, will be among the 1,000 American wives and children who will sail in April to join their Army of Occupation husbands in Germany.
She and her two sons, Peter, 4, and Nicky, 15, months, were excited at first.
But after they received ‘Circular No. 46, Accommodations for Dependents in Berlin,’ from the War Department, they were just buys. […]
Mrs. Thorkelson, former manager of the CIO book store, is taking most of her books, records and pictures, a small phonograph and radio.” - Detroit Free Press, March 22, 1946
“I remember that when I was four and lived in Berlin, where my dad was stationed with the American Occupation Army, I learned to speak ‘street German’ fluently. We spoke English in the home [...], but outside all day I spoke German — and I spoke it like a real native. One day, this Colonel — who took pride in spotting anyone who was not a native by the way he (or she) spoke German — came up on our front lawn on his way to visit our home. I, rumpled and dirty as usual, was playing in the front yard. The Colonel said, ‘Get away from here, you little guttersnipe!’ — and I said, ‘This is my house — I live here!’ — and I started to go towards the door. The Colonel grabbed me by my hair and was yelling all sorts of obscenities, while I screamed back at him in my very best gutter German, when my mom threw the door open and called me. I needn’t finish the story, except to say that the Colonel’s face got very, very red.” - Peter Tork, 16′s The Monkees: Here We Are (1967)
“‘Being a conductor was my biggest ambition in my younger days,’ Peter confessed to us! And finally, he got his big break. And it was one of the most exciting things that ever happened to him in his whole life, short of becoming a Monkee, that is! The break was that he conducted a restaurant orchestra in Germany, and he was only four years old. So, you see, he really has been in show biz for ages and ages!” - Star Time, November 1967 [with thanks to Sunshine Factory!]
Q: “Can you think of any incident (like the time Peter conducted the orchestra in Germany) that happened while in Germany?”
Virginia Thorkelson: “He spoke excellent German and used to translate for me when he was five. He was often taken for a German child. This occasionally led to difficulties.” - Tiger Beat, May 1967
“[H]is ‘very first best friend’ was a lovely German boy named Ule (pronounced Oo-lay). Ule was seven, two years older than Peter, but that made no difference. They went swimming and sailing together on the Wanssee in Berlin. Ule perfected Peter’s German (which, alas, Peter has forgotten, along with the French that he also used to speak perfectly).” - Catherine McGuire Straus, 16, September 1967
“[B]esides French, I used to speak German. I learned a little Spanish when I was in Venezuela. My father was working in Caracas for a year and I was there with my family for six weeks right in the middle of my beatnik period.” - Peter Tork, Monkee Spectacular, March 1968
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extra special Amok Time Day this year because it’s been 56 years…
happy 9th pon farr spock!
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my absolute favourite thing about the kirk and spock dynamic is that the whole time you’re watching the show spock is gaslighting you into thinking that kirk is this loose canon and spock is paragon of logic keeping his captain on the straight and narrow when its very clearly the other way round. aside from being turned on by everyone and fighting like an old-timey boxer…. kirk is just like.. quite a logical, stable guy. like yeah he rules with his emotions but he’s rarely reckless or erratic, even in situations of immense pressure he’s always calm and measured. sure kirk is unhinged and insane, but we knew that right off the bat. spock on the other hand tries to hide how insanely balls to the walls crazy he is by standing next to jim and hiding all his derangement with logic. i think the reason bones beefs with spock so much because he is the only one who has noticed that spock is an absolutely unhinged individual. (jim is too busy doodling <3 mr jim spock <3 all over his briefings to notice)
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