My Little Sister, Ann, Makes Me Proud For My 79th Birthday!

September 9, 2016 by admin

Revenge

by Ann Dickinson Sargent

My mean big sister told me,

“If you stood sideways and stuck out your tongue,

people would think you were a zipper!’

Well, this morning in my mirror, that too-tall,

crook-toothed kid with washboard chest,

looked in my eyes and vowed to be a spy;

my sister’s got a date tonight. I’m supposed to stay upstairs.

Later, hidden in the triangle of sofaback and wall….

dust, cobwebs, things that look like chocolate sprinkles

ornament my hair. I can only see

her saddle shoes, his loafers, in my narrow slot of view.

Light from the lamp glows on the scuffed wood floor;

scents of Shalimar and Old Spice

sift through stale old-couch miasma

as I wait for something interesting to happen.

They’re watching I Love Lucy on the tube.

Just as the laugh track soars,

The couch springs groan; maybe he’s going to kiss her….

Eeeeeeeeew! But instead, more dust rains down.

I sneeze! And Oh! Her screech and jumping-up and yelling-at

are worth the penalties. He sees the way she really is

and even though her chest is so unwashboardlike,

I think I’ve saved him.

Dear Linda, I wrote you a poem! Well, not exactly, but I was taking a month-long online poetry workshop in August, and one of the assignments was a family memory. This is fictionalized, but I do have a memory of having fantasized about doing such a thing. Last week, I taught a workshop to the Creative Writing Club at Polk State College. When I read this aloud (performed it), I got lots of laughs and big applause. So I hope you’re not too offended!

Ann

And, here is my reply…..

Dear little sister, Ann,

OH MY GOSH! What a GREAT birthday present!! Thank you, you great poet, you! I’m in touch with some of my high school friends and I’m going to ask them to circulate this! it is so FUNNY and brings us all right back to 1955…… which I’m reveling in now because I’m trying to teach our rock and roll dance, the Jitterbug. over here in Estonia and Russia, so they can complete (and win) in the international Boogie-Woogie contests, nowadays. So, I’m right back in high school, mentally, anyhow. Now, that my 79th birthday is tomorrow!

I do believe that “Revenge” is mostly fictionalized but, it was surely a neato fantasy that you must have indulged in, over and over. through those years that you had to live with a mean big sister. You did get a reprieve during my sophomore year (your 8th grade) when they sent me to Massachusetts to live with Grandmother Elsie. But then, I was back for my Jr & Sr year again to share a bed & bedroom with you and tease you about being a zipper. I really did say that….. probably more than once! That memory is accurate.

But, I have a string of reasons that occur to me, that probably prove this was only a poetic dream and not a reality.

I don’t remember dating, at all, in high school. I was “popular” but I wasn’t in the Cheerleader/football player group – who were so pretty and handsome, and dated each other, and won Homecoming King & Queen titles . Our whole, large group of friends were the club & student leaders and we were really close buddies and saw a lot of each other, but we were “a crowd” that hung out before the bell rang; and the ones with cars picked the rest of us up for the Thursday night Teen Center, where we jitterbugged our little hearts out to the new Rock & Roll music. Then, driving home, three or four to the car; we would “park” somewhere and have “Unburdening Sessions” about the problems in our lives. We provided excellent counselling services, apparently; where we could be heard and understood by our peers.

I can picture that old sofa and catercorner across from it, the overstuffed (older-stuffed) chair. and an old-fashioned, wooden radio on a stand. We loved to listen to programs which said, “The Shadow Knows!” I sure did love radio drama! But, ours was not so modern a household as to have a TV set, though your allusion to I Love Lucy is perfect and maybe a television set showed up sometime after I left for university???.

How could I have dated like that, even if I had wanted to? You make it sound so easy to dispatch all my younger sisters to the upstairs by command…..BUT, what would I have done with Grandmother, Matilda, and Mother? Assign them to stay in the kitchen? Ha! It was Matilda’s house! One didn’t tell her what to do, in our family!! And then, how about noisy Kippy and little-kid, Lee? Me, count on all three of you kids to stay upstairs, while I necked on the sofa? Double Ha! I didn’t even know HOW to neck, till I got to college! The front porch swing would have been the only possibility if I’d had such a date as that……but then, you’d have had nowhere to hide and there was no TV or radio out there. And that thing squeaked, didn’t it?

Anyway, the poem is universal and will hit home with everyone and get that great rewarding laugh! Let’s circulate it far and wide and let it win you prizes! I adore it! I think I’ll make a blog post out of it for both my websites!

Lots of love,

Your Big Sis, Linda

Filed under: Around The World In 80 Years, Backpacking alone around the world, Elder Over-Achievers, Heroes of a certain age, My Life In General, RTW in 80 Years, Solo, solo backpacking, solo hosteling, Solo World Travel in My Seventies
Tagged: Sisters will be sisters

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My Little Sister, Ann, Makes Me Proud For My 79th Birthday!

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