That's my Big Bro in pic above... at 12 yrs old.
Yesterday my big bro was 65! I cannot believe it!! Mostly I do NOT WANT to believe it because then that makes me a lot older too!!!! I wonder where the time went, and how did it go by so quickly? And what was I so busy doing that I didn't notice time flying by?
Life used to look like this:
That would be my twin, me with the crooked left leg, and older bro'; twas 1950 on the stairs in our house in LA when we lived 2 blocks from Gram and Grandpa J.A.
We had a TV set with a huge glass bubble magnifier over the small screen. If you sat directly in front of the set, you could see the black and white picture. If you were off to the side, which 2 of 3 kids would be if they all tried to watch TV together , you couldn't see diddly. I recall Joan and I never could see diddly but Big Bro saw everything.
I paid him back later on when I would always "suit up" for Phys Ed classes and get an A or B in the class although I could not do hardly anything athletic, and he would bring home D's and F's in PE just because he would not put the dang PE clothes on!!!
He later wrote a book, a best seller: "How To Fail Phys Ed and Piss Off Your Dad".
OK. I tease a bit. that was a lie.
Later on Big Bro looked like this:
He got a car that was like a rolling tank. I don't know what it was because I never paid attention to nor was impressed with cars. Can't tell one from another. But Bro seemed to love this car. I think that is the one he tricked out to have speakers on the outside of the car, so he could blast his radio tunes to the outside world. Yes, the whole Valley loved hearing "Mule Skinner Blues", or Elvis asking "Are You Lonesome Tonight" while Bro' lip-synced the lyrics to any broad that would look his way. Those were Happy Days!! This photo also reminds me that Mom made Bro take me n sister to junior high and drop us off every morning before he went to high school. He would yell from his room (the guest shack across the driveway) as soon as he stepped out all groomed and hair slicked down with brylcream... "Twins! Bring me my cocoa and get yer asses in the car!!" We had to have a huge mug of hot cocoa waiting for him before he could drive us to school. Hey, it was better than walking! So what if we spit in the cocoa... oops, that NEVER happened.
Later, in another state and another time... Bro took to the road in another fashion and has been hooked ever since. Oh, he did have one set of 2-wheels that I remember from our days on the one-acre orange grove we grew up on. I remember my mom yelling her head off one time when Bro did wheelies through her rose garden by the back door, then jammed out the gate to the open highway laughing his head off.
Here's a pic I found of him:
He, of course, is now to blame for the motorcycle bug that infects so many young men in our extended families. (I think he is proud of that legacy!) Way to go, Big Bro'!
So ride happy with bugs in your mugs from grinning so wide while flying down the highways of life, Guys. This shirley includes YOU my Big Bro'!
Happy Birthday!!
2 comments:
Awesome! Thanks for sharing...I know the girls are going to crack up when they read it. Somehow, your recollection of his childhood differs from the one I was told all my life...imagine that. Here's to my dad...one cool motorcycle ridin' dude!
Cool post Mom. Keep the childhood pics and memories coming! So UJ, what model car was it in that picture that you used to blast the E to attract the chicks?
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