AGE DIFFERENCE
Did you have to share a room with a younger sibling? I was 8 years older than my sister. She was the youngest in the family and I was the oldest. There were two brothers between us. They were closer in age and shared a room also but it didn’t seem to matter as much to them.
We lived in a country subdivision on the North end of Davenport, Iowa. Dad and mom built a beautiful home that was mom’s dream home; they planned on it being their forever home. It had all the features mom wanted and she did all the decorating.
The boy’s room looked like a fishing pier with ocean scenes on one wall and nautical fixtures for lights. They had captain’s beds with dressers on the bottoms. The girl’s room was yellow and the wallpaper was covered with kittens playing with balls of yarn.
I liked to read and dad built me a high shelf to put my books on and the collection of storybook dolls I was starting. This was before Barbies or action figures. They were characters from stories; they were 6 inches tall and came in their own box showing scenes from the story. Whenever I was asked what I would like for Christmas I would ask for the newest storybook doll. I never opened the boxes to play with them as they were collector items and grandma said they would be worth a lot of money someday. My sister always wanted to play with them and cried when I wouldn’t let her. This is why dad built me the high shelf above my bed.
She did find a crayon one day and drew circles around her favorite kittens on the wallpaper. She was only two so the circles were only as high as she could reach. Mom tried to cover the circled kittens with furniture but my sister would cry so we left them uncovered. She would talk to them and pet them. Maybe that is why she has always been an animal lover.
But life happens and when the city incorporated the country subdivision we lived in, our parents decided to move. Dad had said he never wanted to live in a city so they bought a farm in southern Missouri, 15 miles from the nearest town.
On the farm, dad said any pet we had must earn its keep so the dog was a stock dog and the cats had to be mousers. My sister even made a pet out of a baby turkey that the mother had abandoned. It would follow her around and even sleep with her at nap time. She called it Mr. Peepers. It got to be huge because she fed it all the time. I don’t remember how it happened but its leg broke and it had to be butchered. Dad said it weighed 40 pounds, and my sister was heartbroken.
Dad gave each of us kids a calf to raise so we could learn responsibility, but Anna didn’t like hers because it kept trying to suck on her fingers or clothes, she wanted a pony. Dad got her a little white Arabian horse that wouldn’t let anyone else around but her. It would try to bite you if you got close to it. But she could go out in the pasture and climb up its front leg and ride it bareback, without a bridle or anything.
Things began to change after our dad died. We were only 14 and 6. We couldn’t keep up with farming so mom sold the animals and went to work in town. A few years later she met and married a man in the Army and we moved to Fort Lenard Wood. After High School, I went to work on the base where I met and married a sergeant. We went to Germany; I worked for the civil service while we were there and we were gone for 6 years.
My sister and I went our separate ways for years but reconnected after we both came back to Missouri. Now that we are both single and at retirement age, we get together as often as we can. She still lives in the country and still has animals. I live in the city and don’t want to be bothered taking care of a pet. I do enjoy going to her house and setting under the trees in her front yard and reminiscing about our days on the farm.
We are all part of God’s family and it gives Him pleasure when families are together and enjoying each other. In today’s world technology makes it easy to stay in touch with family, but is even better when you can be together face to face.
EPHESIANS 3:14-15
Leave a Reply