Three Girls and a Boy

I was lucky enough to grow up with two sisters and a brother. Nancy was the smart one, Carolyn was the shy one, I was Baby Pet and Anthony was the King.

Nancy literally can do anything she sets her mind to and does it well. She plays the piano and organ. She could literally drive me into a frenzy by playing a mere 3 notes. Da DaDa DaDa Da. (Inside joke) She taught herself to play banjo. She wrote and directed many plays starring Carolyn and me. Of course I didn't follow directions well and usually ended up playing the boy. I would argue that I had longer hair. Why did I have to be the boy. She actually made my grandparents pay to see these productions. Nancy is also an excellent seamstress. She makes doll clothes better than the manufacturer. She recreated vintage Barbie dresses and I liked them better than Mattel's recreations. Nancy was in charge of our Halloween outfits each year. One year she made dice outfits out of boxes. Carolyn and I went as a set of dice. It was really cute and we got a lot of compliments that night. People would actually call their mate to the door to see us. Another year she was going to make a Flying Nun outfit for my sister. My mother had a fit because she thought it would be sacrilegious to be a nun on Halloween. Instead she made her a Mortisha costume. Can you imagine a mother wanting her daughter to be Mortisha instead of the Flying Nun. Once she made a really elegant Martha Washington costume for me. Unfortunately I got sick that year and didn't get to wear it. My sisters took our an extra Halloween bag for me. Some people didn't believe they had a sick sister and didn't give me anything but other people gave me extra special things. Nancy was the Queen of the sisters. She crowned me Baby Tattletale and Baby Pet. She introduced me to one of my favorite books, Little Women. I think of Nancy as Jo.

My sister Carolyn and I are only 19 months apart. We were very close growing up and still are. I think I came a little too quick and stole her babyhood away. But she forgave me and guarded me protectively. Carolyn has the best imagination and is the most artistic and creative. She would always come up with the most interesting sequences for us to play. We would pretend we were Jane and Michael from MaryPoppins and always delight in torturing poor Michael. Then we would pretend to be Pollyanna. Once I had the brainstorm of rearranging the furniture because we were now being Pollyanna instead of Jane and Michael. Our bedroom was up in the attic. We picked up the TV set to move it and dropped it on the floor. I am sure the smashing sound reververated in the entire house because my father was up there yelling at us in two seconds flat. Thankfully the TV was not broken or I probably would not be sitting here writing this. (No wonder I did not label myself the smart one). Carolyn used to be painfully shy. If she did not know you she would not utter a word. We are opposites of the same coin. As much as I talk and chatter away that is how quiet and thoughtful she is. I think the saying still waters run deep is true because my sister is quiet yet thinks deep thoughts. She cares about other people and will do nice things to surprise them. She designs and prints her own greeting cards. She is also teaching herself how to play piano. She has a lot of talent. As kids I dogged her every step and followed everything she did. I think my mother only granted her a reprieve from me on one or two rare occasions. Pretty much Carolyn was stuck with me whether she wanted to be or not. And she still is. In Little Women I think of Carolyn as Beth.

I was a sweet girl but probably the most selfish of the three of us. I remember in Little Women it was Christmas and the girls were buying gifts for their mother. Amy was going to buy Marmee a bottle of perfume. She bought the smaller bottle instead so she could also buy some art pencils. I thought that was something I would do. I think of myself as Amy.

When my mother found out she was pregnant at 35 it was a big surprise for her. My father of course wanted a boy. He had always wanted a boy. I wanted the baby to be a girl. I prayed every night, "Dear Jesus Please Please Please Please Please make the baby be a girl." My Dad overheard me and told my Mother"that kid is jinxing me" Well apparantly my pleas did not work because my brother Anthony was born July 15, 1963. With three girls in the family he didn't have a chance. It was like having four mothers. We were in awe. He could blow bubbles without the bubble liquid. He didn't have to learn to talk. He could just grunt and point and what ever he wanted would be brought to him. There were no disposable diapers so I would watch as my mother would hold on to the corner of a diaper and flush it so as to get rid of most of the contents. Then she would put them in a bucket. I forgave God for not granting my wish for the baby being a girl. I was just thankful he provvided disposable diapers by the time I had my children. Nancy was truly a second mother to Anthony. She would do with him all of the things my mother felt she was too old for. She took him on rides. Took him to Astroworld and would take him swimming. Carolyn and I were more his tormentors. He would like to come play in our room when we were budding teenagers. We didn't like it. We invented this boogey man named Room who we told him lived under the bed. We would both start chanting Room RoomRoom Room in deep voices and he would get scared and run out. We would promptly shut and lock the door and do the equivalent of a high five. I would pin him down on the floor and pretend I was going to spit on him. Once I let a little too much dribble out and actually did spit on him. I wasn't banking on his getting bigger than me one day. I am sure he paid me back a few times. Anthony got the coolest toys. Too bad he didn't get to play with them. He had an astronaut capsule you could sit in like a tent. He also had an astronaut launching pad. The launch was attached to a balloon and the pad could be moved around with air. It directed the balloon to land. We have movies of Carolyn playing with it with one hand and shoving Anthony away with the other. It was a whole new world for us. Boys Toys. Anthony learned to play the drums and is in a band. He is a whiz at all things technical. There isn't a character I can assign to him from Little Women but he certainly was Jo's boy.