I am blessed! I have two GREAT brothers (biological that is)! I have many other brothers but only two brothers who share with me the same parents. I have my older brother (by only 5 years), Steve and then my identical twin brother, Tim (who I can't remember the date of his birth but my mother tells me we are the same age)! Imagine that!
Several years ago the three of us and our wives started an annual tradition of getting together with our wonderful spouses. We usually gather at someones home for a couple of days. Eat lots of GREAT food, drink tons of ice tea and laugh and laugh and laugh together. We are making up for a lot of lost years or at least it seems that way to me. We all seemed to have huge commitments in our earlier lives and all of us were busy raising children and getting established in our careers.
My older brother is more quiet than my twin and I are (surprisingly!) but once you know Steve, he is an absolute hoot! He can keep a person rolling on the floor most of the time. The three of us all have a great sense of humor and we got it from our parents who were funny people in their own way. Even now my 87 year old mother makes funny faces and cute comments to the nurses and nurse aides at her nursing home!
Steve is a middle school counselor , my twin brother, Tim is an elementary and alternative school principal and I am a college administrator. So all three of us are all in the field of education. And usually the LAST thing we spend our time doing when the six of us get together is to talk about our jobs. We are usually just glad to be together and get away from work responsibilities. Another interesting fact is our three wives are also all involved in education (public schools).
One of the things we do as brothers is just hang out. One usually starts by telling a joke and then the others add their stupid Lena and Ole jokes or some political joke and we laugh and laugh. Another thing we enjoy doing is to watch old shows of Andy Griffith or Leave it to Beaver and other shows we used to watch together as boys.
I remember one time as a young child the three of us were watching the episode of Andy where Aunt Bea makes this huge batch of pickles. The guys don't really like them so they decide to hurry up and eat them so they will be gone. Well, little did they know that Aunt Bea would make a double batch because she figured the guys REALLY enjoyed the pickles. So I remember throughout the episode, Andy, Barney and Opie were constantly eating dill pickles so you would hear crunch, crunch, crunch throughout the show. My older brother Steve at one point said, "Man, I don't know about you but I could use a good dill right now!" Both Tim and I agreed so we proceed to check out the pantry and found a huge jar of dill pickles. We took that sucker back into the TV room and ate and ate. It seemed like we nailed the entire jar. I remember how sick I was afterwards. In fact, I don't think I had a dill pickle for several years after that show!
I also remember the upstairs bedroom that the three of us shared. Tim and I had an old bunk bed that was held together with rope and prayers. Steve had a bed across the room that was given to us by a neighbor across the street. It had wood slates that held up the springs and mattress. I remember one night Tim and I played trampoline on Steve's bed. We nailed one slat after another until there was only one slat left holding up the mattress and springs. So we left it for Steve to come home after a long day at school and sports to lay on his bed and to end up on the floor!!!!!! I do remember getting caught!
We had a great walk-in closet that even had a small window that one could open. So we often would haul stuff up or down out of that window using a rope and a cardboard box. My parents never cared if we were hungry and we ate food. So I don't know it was cool to be secretive by hauling food up the box. One time Mom found us doing it and she also noticed an entire dresser drawer full of banana peels and other food trash we didn't bother to throw away!
There is nothing like a brother. When I feel lonely, I give one of my brothers a call. They seem to get me and are very supportive yet very objective and can be hard on me. But just try messing with one of us and you will find the other two brothers in our court a fast as you can count to ten!
Markus
No comments:
Post a Comment