Growing up, I was the greatest thing since sliced bread to my younger sisters. My middle sister is 4 years younger than me (though obviously everyone says I look younger), and my youngest sister is 10 years younger than me (oopsy!). Of course they are both thin and bleach blonde, and I am their shorter less fortunate brown haired sibling with rounder features.
Anyway, all I ever asked for from my parents was my own horse (a white one named Lightning), and an older brother. So understandably, I had to make do with a stick horse and two younger girls following me everywhere and later occupying my Saturday nights in my roll as "free babysitter."
Clearly I had to incorporate these little (taller than me) genetically similar things into my social life. Since I was awesome, I let Emma play with me and my friends. I would play Davy Crockett (and Davy Crockett's wife) with either Will or Kenny, and Emma could either be our pet dog or Russel's wife (Davy's sidekick, thank you Disney). When we were alone, I let Emma hang out with me in my room in exchange for carrying the dead roaches to the toilet after the exterminator came (no, we were not trashy hoarders, we grew up in the swamp that is now Houston, and roaches there are the size of small dogs, AND they can fly). Also fun for her was getting to participate in my carefully choreographed dance performances to the entire Beatles White Album (practice makes perfect). She also got to participate in the role of "attacker" in my self-taught self defense exercises. At Cape Cod, due to my fear of crabs and my concern that Emma not develop the same fear, I trained her by having her pull me around the water in a float for days on end. Ohhhh she was a lucky lady.
Mary kindly arrived in the world on Christmas at 3:14 a.m. Another girl, woooooo. In addition to the initial disappointment that I again wasn't getting a big brother (or a horse), we were forced to stare at a mound of presents under the Christmas tree, which we were forbidden to touch, for 4 days, because mom was "tired." We didget pizza for Christmas dinner, though, which was pretty sweet. Mary, of course, functioned as a living doll, pretty much. She is singularly responsible for teaching all of my friends how to one day be mediocre moms (members of my girl scout troop may or may not have dislocated her shoulder during arm swinging....not me mom!). She was also a lot of fun to sneak up on and scare. Being 10 years younger than me, she didn't get to have quite as much fun as Emma did as my younger sister. But, she did suffer as an only child in my parents house for a number of years after Emma and I ran away to impressive colleges. Too bad my parents ran out of steam after I graduated from high school...you kids got it so easy.
Emma of course can now (and occasionally does) beat me up (she is especially dangerous around feeding time). Mary is half my size with twice my wardrobe. All I can say is "you're welcome."
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