Since I'm the oldest of five, I got to do everything first. Learn to walk. Lose my baby teeth. Go on sleepovers. Start school. Leave home.But my brother was close on my heels in 13 months, and and I don't think it suited him to be "Julie's brother" everywhere he went. So he changed it.
I had exactly one year of first-child stardom in school before my little brother came along and turned me into "Chris' sister."
"Oh, you're Chris' sister!" the girls would say, immediately eager for friendship so they could come over after school and get a close-up look at my handsome tow-headed sibling.
"Oh, you're Chris' sister!" the teachers would say, wondering if I could sing and dance as well as my brother, who had been selected for the district's traveling talent show with his plucky rendition of Oklahama! songs.
"Oh, you're Chris' sister!" the good-looking guys at the night club would s
ay, hoping a date with me would land them a spot in my brother's band. "Oh, you're Chris' sister!" the folks at church would say, starting into a long list of wonderful things my brother had done, including sing like an angel in church service and later serve an impressive mission.
"Oh, you're Chris' sister!" the neighbors would say, doubting - and rightly so - that I could mow a lawn as well as him.
"Oh, you're Chris' sister!" the kids on the block would say, wondering why I wasn't out building the coolest fort they'd ever seen out of trash scavenged from the dumpster across the street.
"Oh, you're Chris' sister!" everyone still says, envious of his beautiful, smart and independent wife and young daughters.
"Yep," I say. "And proud of it."
Happy Birthday Brother.
3 comments:
Amen! I had plenty of those same encounters. I appreciate them a lot more now then I use to.
I just had to comment on the fact that Chris looks NOTHING like I remember him looking when I moved from Provo, mmm let's see something like 18 years ago. Does he still have that beautiful voice that everyone envied? Although at that time it was still a lovely second soprano. I'm guessing it's probably deeper now. ;-)
Still a beautiful voice - but a bass. And he's lost the super-blonde curly haired looked he cultivated at 12. But you'd probably still know it was him if you saw him in person.
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