As you know, there were four children in my family. Three boys and one girl. Brother Jack passed away this year and sister Addie succumbed to breast cancer several years ago. So brother Jerry and I are the last “siblings standing”.
I met Jerry for lunch earlier this week. There are certain traits that thread through each family. In talking to Jerry, I was reminded of similarities. My dad was really good with numbers and math. All the boys in my family could calculate Ted Williams batting average to the 5th decimal point in our heads. For some reason, remembering numbers was always easy. Ted Williams batted .386 in 1958, the year my dad died. Who cares? It doesn’t matter. We remember numbers. It’s easy.
Jerry is more anal retentive than I am. He knows baseball, football and basketball statistics really well.
For years I have insisted on getting end aisle seats at sporting events, the PAC and the Fireside. I don’t like being sandwiched between 20-30 people on each side. It goes back to being slightly claustrophobic. I won’t ride an elevator up three floors in a hotel. I will take the stairs. Guess what? Jerry and Jane always order “end” seats for any performance they go to. I don’t know if it is claustrophobia or just wanting more control of getting in and out of the aisles. It is freaky, but we practice the same thing.
I have been trying to get your Mom to upgrade our TV downstairs to a flat screen HDTV. She insists the big screen Sony that we bought in 1994 is just fine. With the improved quality of signals, I have to admit the picture is pretty good (remember I grew up with 3 channels available and they all were slight fuzzy). So we live with 16 year old technology. Guess what (again)? Jerry has a 42 inch HDTV that he watches and Jane watchs an old Curtiss-Mathis TV that is mounted in a wooded cabinet. The Curtiss-Mathis is 26 years old. Jerry and Jane watch rented DVD’s on the old TV set. Isn’t that creepy.
The lesson Grasshopppers is that you all possess common family traits and probably do more things in a similar way than you know. You can’t deny it. You are more alike than you think (or want to admit). My brother Jerry reminded me of that.
White stuff yesterday. White stuff tomorrow. White stuff until spring. Here we go!
Love,
Dad