My Brother David
He wasn’t my brother by blood, but he was my brother, nonetheless. We don’t get to choose our blood families, but we do get to choose whom we consider our true families. Maybe for you they are mom, dad, brothers, sisters, etc. That’s fantastic. My parents had a nasty divorce when I was a very naive young adult, just married. They had been introduced to each other by David’s mother, and our two families remained close friends for years. David was born five months after me, and he was described as small and scrawny, compared to me. What a thing to say about a baby. I am just only five feet tall, and Dave, well, he was a whole lot taller! Funny how that works!
I have two younger sisters, the third one born 13 years after me. My younger sister, Deanna, and I loved to go to David’s house, usually in the evenings, and hang out. The grownups did their thing, and in the winter, we blasted 45s and sang our lungs out: “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am,” “Mrs. Jones, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” “The Last Train to Clarksville,” “California Dreaming,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” and on and on. Usually, we got so loud the one of our parents told us to knock it off. It never stopped us unless one of them came upstairs. Then we’d turn it down a little. 🎤🎸
We got up to other high jinks as well, and yes, I was in on it. His grandmother lived across the street, but one night when she was at David’s house, the three of us sneaked over. We told our parents we were going to play in the backyard. Instead, we went in the house and headed for his grandmother’s bedroom, not to snoop around. We had a plan. She had a bedside phone, something not everyone had at that time. In fact, it was a private line. We thought it would be fun to just randomly dial numbers and see who we’d get. We got through to someone in Hawaii. No big deal, right?
Back in the sixties, seven to ten miles was long distance! My house was on a two party line for years. One ring was for us and two was for Esther next door. It was a lot less expensive that way. But Hawaii! We hung up right away, but the connection had been made. We tore out of that bedroom and were outside, thinking we had been lucky. We didn’t even think about phone bills ☎️. I don’t honestly remember the repercussions of that. We were lectured, but I think our parents realized we didn’t know how much it would cost.
Since David lived on a street that was blocked at the end by fencing for a school beyond, it was a great place for “kick the can” and the all time summer favorite, “hide and seek.” We ran all over the place. More kids joined us, and nothing was off limits.We tore through all the yards and porches. I think if we could have gotten up on the roof, we would have done that, too. 🏡. The only rule was that we could not go into any houses, and we played for hours until darkness was complete, and Mom and Dad were ready to go home. This edict was always followed by a collective “Awwww!.”
What about my house? Did David and his family come over? Of course! Almost every other weekend, and since he was an only child, he was fascinated by the “girl” stuff. Not dolls, but tea sets and a mini-kitchen. This was the era of pink for girls and blue for boys, but we had a great swing set out back, lived half a block from the town park, and had a pet cat 🐈. Plus…different records to blast. We lived closer to the center of town, so we did have to watch the volume, but The Supremes! However, this wasn’t the crème de la crème of the two families’ getting together. That was our famous New Year’s Eve party. 🎉 At the house that had the best color television! Ours!
Sometimes several families joined us, and there was so much food! Yes, mayonnaise and jello were involved, but also roast beef, deviled eggs and everyone’s leftover Christmas desserts. The adults had spiked punch, and we got all the cokes we wanted. Kids upstairs, playing cards, board games, and loud music. The longer the night went on, the less anyone noticed how much junk we were eating, until finally, it was nearing midnight, and three sugared-up kids trooped downstairs to watch the Johnny Carson Show. We had to watch the ball drop on Times Square. By then all the adults were smooching and dancing (Eww!), and by one am, the party broke up.
Sadly, I was horrified to learn the party was really over for my brother, when he told us he had stage four pancreatic cancer in 2019. We chatted on Facebook for a while, and the last thing we talked about was those New Year’s Eve parties. He was gone in July, and my grief was more profound than I ever expected. I will always miss him and love him like a brother. Dave, I never had another New Year’s Eve party like the ones we had back then.
