MOM - WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT SOMEONE WHO WOULD HAVE 4 KIDS?

THEN

1. She never could remember all of our names...she'd be yelling for Bro #1, Bro #2, Only Sis, or Myself and even throw in a pet's name sometimes :)

2. One time she was pulling out of the driveway with all of us and our neighbor was saying goodbye to us and asked where Bro #2 was...turns out Mom had left him in his high chair. I'm sure she would have realized it sooner or later...

3. When we were growing up Mom worked at our high school (how better to keep an eye on her kids?)...but guess what, Mom? We got REAL good at forging your signature on sick passes :)

4.. I won't reveal WHICH bro this was but ONE of them (as a teenager) had a certain type of PLANT (if you know what I mean) growing in his room and Mom would actually water it for him...obviously not knowing what kind of PLANT this was (we did end up telling her this when she was about 75 years old).

NOW

In addition to raising four children, Mom had a successful career and didn't retire until she was 73. She just had her 83rd birthday on June 19th and resides very close to Bro #2 and his wife in Delray Beach, FL.

BRO #2 - CAN YOU SAY NARCISSIST?

THEN


1. You know anyone else who would name every single one of their stuffed animals after themselves? Bro #2 #1, Bro #2 #2, Bro #2 #3, Bro #2 #4...you get the idea.

2. When Bro #2 was born I was 5 years old and it was like having my own living doll but he wasn’t too demonstrative. So what I had to do was hide behind a corner and yell “boo” at him and then he would let me hug him even though I was the one who had scared him in the first place.

3. I once received a birthday card from him saying "Keep $15 of the money you owe me." (I kid you not...that was my gift.)

4. I got him back on his 40th B.D. by sending him 40 cards (all on the same day) I printed on my computer that said that he would find money in one of the envelopes...in Envelope #35 or so (my luck!) he found the Monopoly money :) -- That was SO worth the postage!

NOW

Bro #2 has a successful career and is happily married to a wonderful woman. They reside in Pompano Beach, FL.

ONLY SIS - TROUBLEMAKER #2

THEN

1. She would take my clothes without asking and I made her pay me $5 one time because she borrowed my favorite sweater.

2. When we got into fights she would scratch me with her really long nails.

3. We had a laundry chute in our house that went from the second floor down to the basement. One time we made a pulley so we could send things up and down the laundry chute. Well, one day she was upstairs and I was down in the basement and she was supposed to somehow attach one of those hard plastic cups with water (I was thirsty) and send it down to me. Somehow she messed up and as I was looking up the chute, this cup came flying down two flights and smacked me on the lip. Yep, the one and only time in my life I had to have stitches...come to think of it, between my dad dropping me on the floor, Bro #1 hitting me with a golf club, and Only Sis smacking me with the cup, it's a wonder I lived :)

NOW

Only Sis has been married for 32 years, has 3 grown children and lives in Palm Bay, FL. She is a successful businesswoman and, together with her husband, own a homebuilding company.

MYSELF - ONE WORD - NERD

THEN

1. I literally would walk to school reading a book.

2. One summer I read every single biography from our public library (they were orange) and then I would pretend I was the person. For example, I remember writing “Thomas Alva Edison” on my tennis shoes...really :)

3. Forbidden to read Valley of the Dolls, I of course went straight out and bought it and read it under the covers with a flashlight.

NOW

1. Still a nerd but moved my books from Grosse Pointe, MI to Laguna Niguel, CA. I have been married for 28 years and my greatest joy in life has been being a mother to my only daughter (I know it sounds sappy but it's all I ever wanted to be).

BRO #1 - TROUBLE FROM DAY #1

THEN

What I remember about Bro #1 as a young child is this…

1. He colored my Ken doll’s head green and threw it in the pool.

2. One night when my friend and I were out on the balcony outside my room, all of a sudden a hand came over the railing and scared us so much that we screamed. Turned out it was Bro #1 sneaking back in the house. He had been grounded and snuck out and was coming back in.

3. Jumped off the roof of a neighbor’s house into their swimming pool.

4. Hit me in the face with a golf club when I was 4 (I concede that it was an accident, Bro #1) and gave me a permanent dimple (not too bad-looking, if I do say so myself).

5. He called a pizza parlor and had 20 pizzas delivered to the mayor and ended up getting caught and had to do community service. (This was when he was an ADULT.)

NOW

Extremely intelligent, well-read and well-versed on a number of subjects. Bro #1 resides in Detroit and is an accomplished carpenter. He was married to his childhood sweetheart until her death in January of this year.

THE REST OF THE CAST...

For the sake of anonymity, we'll just call them Mom, Bro #1, Only Sis, and Bro #2, O.K.? Here goes...

HERE'S A PIC OF MY DAD AND I