My Brother

Fifty-Five years ago today was a monumental day in my life. I was two and a half years old. My brother was born, I had to learn to share my parents attention. He had colic, he made everyone tired. My parents walked the floor with him for many, many months.

I learned many things by having a brother, how to accurately pitch a baseball while he played either catcher or batter. We played "horse" on our improvised basketball court, we practiced game winning free throws for hours. We played badminton in the front yard. We went fishing and swimming together. We learned to hunt and shoot a rifle together. We learned how to ride a motorcycle as young teens. We learned to drive the old farm truck around in the grain fields. We both joined 4 H at the same time. I guess I am a bit of a tomboy..because of my brother.
In the winter we played endless card games like War, and Rummy. Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Sorry, Monopoly and Parcheesi were our favorite board games. We collected Baseball cards together.

When we got older sometimes we were a bit physical with each other, I was bigger and stronger..so I usually won. We would take turns slugging each other in the upper arms..the first one to cry lost. We played a terrible game, where you spit on two of your fingers and then hit the other one on the exposed forearm..welts would line up on his poor arms. We played the horrible pocket knife game (Chicken) with bare feet, both of us escaped any major stab wounds to our feet..either the knife was dull or we were good knife throwers. We had major arm wrestling competitions..sometimes I would let him win those.

My brother loves sports, he lives and breathes football, softball and soccer. In his free time..he coaches, referees and umpires in the rain..because he lives in Oregon..far away from Minnesota. I miss him some days, like today..when I would just like to grab him and give him a big hug. Happy Birthday to my brother! :)

The summer of 1954, our Dad , my brother and me! I was amazed by this photo, I never realized before how much my brother looks like Dad.