This week when I cleaned my dresser I forced myself to place this card in my keepsake drawer. This delightful birthday card was from my sister Linda who is not quite 14 months younger than me. These few, funny words sum up my childhood treatment of all three of my sisters but most especially of Linda. Go ahead and say it - shame, shame on me. I hope someone out there reading this is an oldest sister and can relate, knowing that I’m not a bad person. Really I’m not.
What made this especially funny on the day I opened it was that I had just been to my friend Tammy’s where I had witnessed an interesting exchange between her two granddaughters. On that day not long after Christmas, gifts were still fresh and over-the-top exciting. I can’t even recall the particular gift of the moment but it definitely had the attention of both girls and it belonged to the younger. I don’t know exactly how she did it, but the older sister with great finesse and the utmost gravity convinced her sister that due to the very complicated nature of this prized gift, it would cause a burden on the younger and therefore she, the older, was ready to a make supreme sisterly sacrifice by . . . playing with this gift . . . you know, for a while . . . to "get it right” . . . so it would be “better” . . . all for her sister, of course. With wide-eyed innocence and gratitude the younger girl was steered off to another gift, one less suited to the elder’s attention.
That moment totally blew me away! OMG -- it was ME!!! Times three, because I did it to ALL of my sisters. I know - again with the shame, but they were just so easy to manipulate. In my own defense, I want to add that I did get better with age. I did. I promise.
Anyway . . . those same sweet little granddaughters of my best friend were junior cheerleaders at the boys’ basketball game last night and they were just too precious. Here are a couple of glimpses:
Here is the golden tongued diva.
And this clueless little sweetheart is her sister.
Aren't they adorable? And by the way -- just so you know, my sister Linda came to that game and she chose to sit with Tammy and me. I didn’t make her, she did it on her own. Maybe she wasn’t traumatized too badly -- or is it still wide-eyed innocence?!
5 comments:
Shame shame shame ;) I'm sure you weren't all that bad! I don't have sisters. I have a younger brother & the way I picked on him while we were growing up, I'm surprised he still speaks to me! I grew out of it. Sort of. I still pick on him, but not nearly as badly.
Those little cheerleaders are adorable :)
I was the oldest too - always up to something :) And now I see it with my girls - daily! The little cheerleaders are adorable!
Sister Linda here. I loved the blog and the story about Tammy's girls. I don't know why you think you are not witty! I wish I could relay a story half as eloquently. As I have said before, I think I know where Heath gets his writing, story-telling abilities. ps I just picked up birthday cards for the other two sisters today. Can't give it away though, I know Carol reads your blogs.
oooh, one of those elder siblings...no sisters for me just tormenting older brothers!
That card is a hoot!
I was the younger sister, and vividly remember the horrible things my sister did to me! My favorite sister horror memory was when I was about 4 years old and my mother had bought me a wonderful huge marbleized balloon. My sister convinced me it would be a neat "trick" to stab a kitchen knife into it. I was young, trusting and stupid. I plunged the knife into my prized balloon just as my sister instructed me too, and was devastated to see how the "trick" ended! (Thank God my aim was good and I didn't stab one of us!)
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