Soul Sister

We all have our sibling rivalries, it's simply part of the territory, that goes along with sharing/borrowing clothes without permission, fighting over whose turn it is to do the dishes, feed the dog, etc. It is also a great forum for passing along habits good and bad. Eventually, someone ends up getting thrown under the proverbial bus....

Come back with me, if you will, dear reader, to the mid 1970's....Elton John was wearing duck outfits and moon boots, most girls were duplicating David Cassidy's shag hair cut, and some of us were hanging out in cars that didn't even run.

The car in question belonged to a member of the Cleveland Ave crew---As ominous as that sounds, we were really just a bunch of kids from the block without a basement to hang in the winter months. Our most threatening member was G.J, who had all the earmarks of a biker dude, except for the bike and biker friends and hot chicks.....You get the picture...He DID have the mirrored sun glasses AND the required oversized black faux wallet complete with chain...And he insisted on wearing only worn and tried old levis. If his mom dared to buy him new ones, he'd insist they not be washed for the first few weeks, so they could then also be worn and tried old levis.

Anyway, the car that didn't run was currently parked in Pete's driveway. I remember it being a Barracuda of some sort, and when (if) it was ever finished being restored, it would be the hottest car since Greased Lightning....

To digress a moment, before my sister and I and four of our nearest and dearest piled in to that car:
My dear kister, at the ripe old age of about 15 had committed a most cardinal sin that year...She had been sentenced to SUMMER SCHOOL.....Now, apparently, summer school was not just a reflection of my sister's lack of interest in homework or studying, but, as my mother was quick to point out, A REFLECTION ON HER UPBRINGING!!!! We did not DO summer school...That showed a lack of homework and study control on the part of your parents, who not only did NOT have to be the one to suffer through lazy days of summer in a classroom, but who apparently would suffer severe social repercussions due to your (no, not stupidity) but lack of APPLYING yourself.

Now, my kister is VERY applicable, and that year, she was also applying herself to her first tastes of alcoholic beverages. Well, in order to procure a single night out from her summer school house arrest, she swore to my mother, God, Allah, and any one else required that she would a) be home early b) she would take her tag a long sister (always a clincher) and c) she would d0 NO drinking.

Okay, so with trustee sister (that's me!) in tow, we headed down the block. After joining our fellow deliquents in the aforementioned soon to be classic car, it was discovered that someone had acquired beer......(Boy, was IT a different world back then).
Despite peer pressure, my sister stayed true to her word....She would not renege against her word and face the wrath of mother, god, and Allah....."Thanks folks, but none for me." she repeated throughout the evening. I did NOT see the harm in MY having one or two. After all, I had not shamed our family with the forever stimatized summer school...In fact, I was a pretty good student...Shouldn't that be worth something?

Two beers and a buzz later....Kister urged us that we must return to the dungeon of her summer school - home. We walked the block to our house, where upon the warden mother was waiting at the front door, lights ablazing----Now, we weren't late, she just wanted to make sure my do good sister had not been up to no good.

My sister practically skipped in to the house, knowing she had DONE the Right thing..... I remember sheepishly bringing up the rear with a bit of a stagger.... Close on her heels I followed, as kister bounded in to the house.....
No sooner did we enter, than my mother smells the sickly sweet smell of stale beer emainating from her charges (okay, so it was THIS charge emanating)...As my mother yelled at my sister for drinking...(granted she wasn't-but admitting that you LET you baby sister WAS was not going to save anybody)--any how, as long as mom was preoccupied, I scooted through the dining room, down the hall and right in to bed.......The last words I heard before deep slumber took me that night was "You should try to be more like your sister".....

Sorry, sis.....
Oh, and about that brand new pair of maroon high heel boots you told me never to touch.....Sorry about that loose heel....Thirteen year old feet were not made to walk at that angle!!!!!

And the sweater you caught me wearing in the hall way at school which you demanded I "take it off right now!!!!"

And the billion other offenses committed by a kid sisiter.....

Sorry---and most of all Thanks for letting me live by not following though on all thoses threats...Nobody loves ya like me!!!!!!!