Thoughts on Family

I come from a big family. A good family. A funny family.

After reading my sister's blogs, I started to think about every member of my family....

Here's a quick snapshot:

Dad
Easter Corsages and Defiance

Dad always bought mom an Easter corsage for church every year. Well, we're driving home on 3500 S. in Best Valley in our Pontiac Lamans aka The General Lee (at least we thought it looked like it). Ours was red and definitely not this shiny.

Natalie and I start fighting over who got to hold the coursage on the ride home. Of course, we're both in the front seat, this was way before air bags, seat belts, or safety. I can't remember who was sitting closest to the door, but one of us yanked hard and out goes the corsage throught he window. Let's just say Dad wasn't too happy. Nat and I both had to get out the car and I swear, walk quite a long ways down the road to scrounge the poor coursage that had met it's untimely death.
I always obeyed Dad - at least most of the time. Well, with the exception of curfew in high school. I always knew I was dead meat if when I opened the door I didn't hear my dad snoring. Bad thing is, his bedroom was in the basement at the OTHER END OF THE HOUSE. If it was quiet, he was either on his way up, or already sitting at the table in his bath robe ready for "a talk". Dad's and my talks never ended with me in tears. He always made me feel better, and made me want to be better.
I also won't forget the ONE time I ever heard Dad swear. I was the lucky one who drove him to the madness we call cussing (okay, it was only hell). It was my sister's birthday and I got "kicked out" of the house. I thought, "Toni's parent's will totally let me live with her", "he's going to be sorry because I am SO gone". Next thing I know he is yelling at me from the front door to come back home - NOW! I got up the courage and TRIED to defiantly say no (the only time I realy told my Dad no). It sounded more like "NO?". He told me again- "get in this house". Again, I was not going down. "NOOOO?". Dad then just yelled "NOW", and of course, I turned around and went home. So much for defiance.


Mom
Canned Cherries and Barlow

Oh, every time we had a break from school we'd hear "time to move the food storage!". Argh! What was the best part of our food storage? Home canned cherries - NOT! Mom would make us eat this slimy/wrinkly things - don't forget to spit out the pit. We new we didn't have a lot of money when we were eating cherries for breakfast. Sick.

I also thought about how hard she makes us laugh when she uses a straw to fart. She sticks it under her armpit and walks around the house "farting". She'll pretend she needs to bend over to pick something up and Ooops! Did I do that? My boys look at her with sheer admiration, as do I.
Mom let us watch a show called "Salem's Lot" when we were little. The main vampire's name was Barlow and he scared the crap out of us.

Mom even hosted a neighborhood "get together" with poor Becky Bezzant and I can't remember what other neighbors were there - I'm sure Sam Sweet was there also. When we were in the middle of the show she jumps out from our stairs and screams at us. We all had to go check our pants after that. Mom was infamous for saying "goodnight - I love you.....watch out for Barlow!". Hmmmm, that must be where I get my sick sense of humor. Thanks mom, love ya!
She really liked to scare me, because I got scared the easiest. She took me to go see Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Grandma when I swear I was 5. I routinely heard "watch out for the pods"! She really liked to say it when she had turned out my light for the night and was getting ready to leave my room. I think I learned to jump about 5 feet from my door to my bed so the pods didn't get me.

Ryan
Powder Jackets and the Amazing Fall Guy

Ryan got in BIG trouble once and mom took him away to the "orphanage" aka store to buy him a powder jacket. We were so jealous - we didn't get in trouble and then get a present. No fair.

He also LOVED the show The Fall Guy. I did like the Fall Guy, it was a pretty good show but Ryan really liked the show. We would have to always turn from what we were watching so he could watch "his show". Not that I didn't mind it,but hey, if Bo Duke was on, I sure as hell didn't want to be watching Lee Majors. BOOOOOO.



Natalie
Man Beards, Kenny Rogers, and John

Oh Natalie, my lovely sister Natalie. The boy born in a girls body. I always admired her, still do. But when we were little she LOVED Kenny Rogers. She also loved to draw. Well, what do you get when you love Kenny and drawing? Lots of hand drawn pictures of Kenny Rogers - side profile.

Nat had a thing about men's beards and only drew men, and only men with beards. Thick manly beards (except when she drew a picture of Adrian Dantley).
In EVERY coloring book we had (especially our Barbie coloring books), Ken donned a beard. It made us laugh to draw in Ginger's Barbie books because it made her cry. We always put a beard on Ken, poop coming out his bum, and I always made Barbie's heels into folded down "Robin Hood" boots with heels. I then gave her a mini skirt, tried to create paint spatters on her tights, and gave her fingerless gloves and a cross earring. Some of you may say my Barbie's looked more like Madonna, and you would be correct. Oh, I can't forget I also made her have braces and put "makeup" on her.

Ahh John. John would be our old GI Joe Barbie we got as a hand me down from our neighbors the Dunns. He was missing one arm from the elbow down. He really looked like a Vietnam Vet. He was bigger than Ken, and only came with a camoflage rain poncho and a polka dotted disco shirt. Seeing as we didn't really want to see his package all of the time, we squoze some silver "Ken" pants from the Barbie and the Rockers collection on the poor guy. He really looked like he was wearing skin tight capri's. Natalie always played with John and I, of course, was always Barbie. Don't ask me why we named him John. Good memories of John and Barbie and the 4-foot high Barbie house.
A few years ago I got a Christmas present mailed to me from Nat - and what would it be? None other than a GI Joe that had been part of the first resurrection as he had both arms and had been returned to his perfect state. Best Christmas present ever.

Okay, I've got to run, so I'll try to finish Ginger, Laurel, Lindsey and Reese tomorrow. THis all evokes so many memories - Saturday night rituals, sponge rollers, Solid Gold, The Love Boat and then Fantasy Island. We always hoped it would be the mermaid episode, our favorite Fantasy Island, but we only saw it once. Maybe I'll have to see if it's on Hula or something...

My family is the best, as you can clearly see. We're one class act.