The Central Illinois Parrot Head Club is celebrating a special milestone this May! It was 30 years ago that our founder Pete Trainor, had the idea to start the club. I reached out to a few of the original members from the Bloomington area and they shared their memories of that time:
“I remember meeting our phearless phounder, the late Pete Trainor, in SCUBA class the fall of 1993. We were sitting at the same table in class at WildCountry and chit chatting about who knows what during a break. We soon realized we had a similar interest in Jimmy Buffett’s music, and he mentioned he’d been thinking about starting up a parrot head club and asked our table if we thought anyone would join. I immediately said I’d join, just let me know when you get it up and running! We remained friends after dive class, and sure enough Pete had submitted the paperwork, and in May 1994 the Central Illinois Parrot Head Club was born!!”
– Julie Hozie
“I met Pete after I transferred from Ohio to Corporate (with State Farm). He stopped by to see his cousin, who I sat next to. She introduced us and I said, “I know you.” He stepped back and looked at my name plate. I said…”we’ve talked on the phone. I was in Ohio Data Processing.” His eyes lit up and he said “I have talked to you!” We became fast friends.
It all started with five of us meeting at Diamond Dave’s restaurant one night and creating a mission/purpose and talking about how we get members and start doing fun things for charity.”
– Chris (Hammond) Ringer
Over the past 30 years many friends and characters have entered and left the orbit of the Central Illinois Parrot Head Club. Many of them have become life-long friends and we remain in touch even after they have moved out of state or on to other adventures. While the Parrot Head clubs all recently suffered a major loss with the passing of Jimmy Buffett in 2023, I personally am excited about the next chapter of CIPHC and I hope the next 30 years are just as fun! It’s good to be us!
Oh, yesterdays are over my shoulder
So I can’t look back for too long
There’s just too much to see waiting in front of me
And I know that I just can’t go wrong