Brothers

 O Brother, Wherefore Art Thou?

Last month I wrote about sisters. Now I’m giving the brothers equal time, but I must add a little

disclaimer! This blog is my version and may be slanted to make me look good!

Brothers are special too, and I was blessed with five, three older and two younger. There were almost ten years between my older sister and me. My mom was

determined to make me a girly girl and wouldn’t let me learn certain things, like wringing a chicken's head off and milking a cow. Those skills, I didn’t learn.

With so many females in the kitchen; there was no room for me, and I never learned the true art of cooking. I loved to play outside with my younger brothers.

When I started first grade, I had a rude awakening:

The world did not revolve around me. However, when I lost my pretty brown barrette on the school ground, the principal discovered how determined I was when I would not get on the bus without my barrette. He bribed me by giving me a box of lost and found ones. 

My brothers loved having a little sister they could dote on and aggravate but gave in to anything I wanted. After being away in the Army, my dad did the same. Between the three of them and Santa, I got a tricycle, a blue pedal car, and a doll buggy with a doll on my fourth birthday and Christmas.

My brother Orace came home from his Western Union Telegram job and saw my best friend Gayle playing on my pedal car! Behaving like a teenage brother and loving to get me riled up, he said, “Sue, Gayle is on your pedal car, make her get off.”

According to the story related to me, I flew into her like a cyclone and made her get off, and she went home crying. 

They nicknamed me the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid! I’m sure the narrative was exaggerated!

In researching my autobiography, I found two letters written to Mom by my brothers who had joined the military. One said, “I’m sending you an allotment check. Buy Sue a bicycle for her birthday.” The other brother wrote, “I’m sending you an allotment check. Buy Sue what she wants for Christmas.” 

When Odis and I reconnected, I wrote him that my friend JoAnn and I didn’t smoke, drink or curse, but we were a little mean sometimes! He probably should have taken note, but he loved me.

Now you know why I’m so spoiled and have so many pairs of shoes. My dad started it, the brothers added to it, and Odis brought it full circle!

Some clips are from Growing Up In The Fifties, available on Amazon.