Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Sisters and little Brothers

My sister Vivian, was 18 months older than me. This picture was soon after her 2nd birthday and I would have been six months. I remember of Mother saying they tied me in the chair to hold me in place. The Goat's milk that I seemed to  require, made me a "big boy". Though three generations removed, as we spend time with Jack and Sadie, they remind me so much of Vivian and I. We even look something alike but I'm willing to concede that Jack appears to be a bit smarter than what I ever demonstrated. However, I think there may be about the same spread between he and Sadie as what I was continually challenged by with Vivian. I've always rationalized that "spread" by girls maturing a bit younger than boys plus girls generally focus more on good grades in school than boys. Some also rationalize that grades received in school are only a part of the measure of intelligence that is helpful for a successful life. I did catch up  with Vivian in the 7th grade of country school after having "skipped" the 6th.
We went on through HS together with Vivian being the Valedictorian and me being in the middle of class rank. While neither of us went to college right out of HS, we each went on later to get Masters degrees. (She got hers first of course). This next picture shows Vivian teaching me how to hold on to a chair out by our washhouse here in Seward. We had electricity but no City water nor sewage utilities, but a good well just off the picture. Uncle Bert and Aunt Tillie lived on west Seward Street in a "modern" house. It was there that I learned about flushing a toilet. They never had kids so we would spend a few days with them occasionally after we moved out to the farm.

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