I started Junior High in the late Seventies, during the last century. Yeah, that’s pretty old. My oldest sister, Pam, had just graduated. Between her fart lighting antics and high GPA, we other three siblings had a lot to live up to. So I didn’t really get to experience High School with her. My brother Joe and sister Mary Ann, however, were there to help usher me into that hormonal and confusing time that is High School. I don’t know what I would’ve done without them. It’s quite possible that I would’ve never left my room, played a sport, or asked a girl out on a date had I not had them riding herd on my nerdy butt.
They’re both older than me, but not by much. At fifty-eight, and still The Baby of the family, I ain’t no spring chicken. The few years between us seemed like a lot back then, but nowadays we know it’s just a tiny piece of time. We saw the world turn around the same events and people. The Energy Crisis, Star Wars, Smokey and the Bandit, The Bee Gees, Shaun Cassidy, Farrah Fawcett, Saturday Night Live, the Iranian Hostage Crises, and the Cold War, just to name the important ones. We saw a lot of “stuff”, man. Things you wouldn’t believe.
Joe made me want to go out for football. He was a very cool dude. A quarterback. Smooth with the girls. He’s always been the “Joe Cool” type of guy. We were roommates for our entire lives, up until he graduated and moved out, but that “cool” never rubbed off on me. Nerd, I was. Nerd I would stay. Thanks to him, though, I had a real impression of what a Cool Guy should be like. He’s stayed that guy throughout my life. In football, he kept me from getting killed on many occasions. He took up for the Little Brother who was ignorant of all things athletic. He tried to guide me on, and off, the field. He’s saved lives, and served his community, as both a firefighter and a police officer. I looked up to him. Still do.
Mary Ann was athletic too. Basketball was her forte, but she broke into the boys baseball team when I played third string right field. I’d say she made me look bad, but that’d be giving her too much credit. I did all that myself. Truth be told, she was an awesome ball player, and we didn’t field a girls team. So she went out for the boys team, in an era that didn’t exactly encourage that kinda thing. She played short stop and catcher in summer softball, and stood out, if not tall. Sorry, short joke alert. She was aggressive and competitive in anything she went out for. She gave me confidence. Not just from her athleticism, but because she treated me like a friend. She talked to me, even around her friends. That means a lot to a shy little brother.
As we grew into adults, they did all that, and much more. They were there for me when times were good, and bad. Even while they fought their own problems, they were there, with me, through my own. I honestly wouldn’t have survived without them. No matter what our differences or disagreements may be over the years, we know that we’ll be there for each other. That’s what family does. What it should do. And they do.
Happy Birthday, Joe and Mary Ann! Thank you for being the awesome people that I’m proud to call brother and sister. Thanks for keeping me from doing more stupid stuff than I actually did. I appreciate that. I aggravated you and embarassed you at times, in youth and adulthood, but – hey, what’s a little brother good for, if not that? I love you guys!
Rolling Stones 