MORE BROTHER AND SISTER

         Yesterday’s post was about John and his sister Georgia and her family. In writing that, it also brought back so many great memories of the early years of our marriage. Georgia and Gordy were married in December 1965 (if memory serves) and John and I the following August.

          I cannot remember for how many years we would go to Georgia’s house on Friday or Saturday and play games…Hearts, Pinochle, Chinese Checkers. None of us drank, and this was before marijuana entered our lives, so it was coffee, tea, water and inexpensive snacks that we brought or Georgia made. We had such fun. I was always so impressed that their boys went to bed without much of a fuss.

          Georgia and I were always partners and John and Gordy. It was years and years later that John confessed about how he and Gordy cheated. When you play pinochle, you have to pass cards to your partner. John said he almost fell off his chair when Gordy passed him like eight cards instead of the four the game required. Then, John had to find a way to pass back eight cards. Georgia and I never caught on to the cheating, but it certainly explains why the guys won so many times.

          Then, there were our son’s birthdays to which Georgia and her family were always invited. They didn’t seem to have birthday celebrations like we did, so return invitations were not often received. Christmas Eve was a different story. G&G always held an open house. Since both were heavily involved in community groups, i.e., Lake City Lions, Lake City Vigilantes, etc., they had a lot of friends dropping by that night. John and I always went and took our boys with us until almost everyone was grown and traditions changed.

My family still laughs almost every Christmas when someone brings up the Christmas Eve of Grandma Pearl’s gift to Georgia’s youngest son. Georgia always let her four boys pick one gift to open on Christmas Eve just before bed and when most of the visitors had gone. The youngest son, AJ’s age, picked the gift from Grandma Pearl. The look on his face was priceless when the wrapping paper came off to reveal a framed professionally done photograph of Grandma Pearl. The poor kid’s brothers and AJ laughed and laughed. No one else got a photograph like that so the recipient must have been Grandma’s favorite. 

          Gordy also managed to get John to join the Lake City Lions even though John wasn’t much of a joiner. He was faithful about going to the regular and board meetings, chaired the scholarship committee for years and years and served as Tail Twister for what seemed like ever. The LC Lions also put up Christmas decorations on Lake City Way the weekend after Thanksgiving. Not only did John rope his sons, but also his granddaughter, into assisting with this chore for a number of years. When I went through John’s stuff, there were a multitude of Lion pins from other cities, states and countries as well as perfect attendance pins, hats, vests and other memorabilia. I packaged it all up and took it to Gordy who is passing it on to current members of the Lake City Lions.

          I’m not exactly sure when our close relationship with John’s sister and her family became more distant. It was probably just the business of trying to live our lives, work and raise kids that left little time for games or visits. Still, it’s nice to look back and remember how young, how hopeful, how eager we all were to get on with our lives. The ages we are now seemed, at that time, to be centuries away and yet, here we are. Three of the we four remain, and I’m hoping the other two have as many good memories of our times together as I do.