I Appreciate the Little Things In Life
I had many "little things" in my life. One of them was a youngest brother.
I was at first deeply disappointed, because I had wanted a little sister. But my one brother was only four years older than he was, and I can still see him bending over the bassinet and telling the newborn, quite seriously, "You're just what I wanted!"
I came to accept him for what he was in time. But, being the baby of the family, he loved the attention he got - and became spoiled pretty quickly.
My older stepsister doted on him. She took him to the store in the stroller and just about everywhere else. He came to feel he was "king" and wanted to go everywhere we three older ones did.
That became a problem when we went to the movies. We had a nearby theater and the pictures in those days were mostly "G" for general. Linda would often take my other brother and me together, and naturally, he wanted to go. We objected strenuously; Linda held her tongue.
Well, we took him maybe a total of twice. Both times he curled up in his seat and went to sleep a few minutes into the movie. He would wake up in darkness and start screaming for our mother. Linda and I couldn't calm him, try though we might. We got dirty looks the first time around. The second time, we were visited fifteen minutes before the end of the movie by an usher with a flashlight, who told us, "If you can't quiet him, you'll have to leave."
Linda reported to my mom once we got home, and that did it. From then on, when we planned to go to a movie, we told him we were going to school. He wasn't old enough to go then, so he accepted the lie.
Today, he is an adult and he no longer sleeps in the movies. I told him what we did when we were both grown, and he just laughed about it.
To a point, he was a "little thing" for just a short while in my childhood.
I was at first deeply disappointed, because I had wanted a little sister. But my one brother was only four years older than he was, and I can still see him bending over the bassinet and telling the newborn, quite seriously, "You're just what I wanted!"
I came to accept him for what he was in time. But, being the baby of the family, he loved the attention he got - and became spoiled pretty quickly.
My older stepsister doted on him. She took him to the store in the stroller and just about everywhere else. He came to feel he was "king" and wanted to go everywhere we three older ones did.
That became a problem when we went to the movies. We had a nearby theater and the pictures in those days were mostly "G" for general. Linda would often take my other brother and me together, and naturally, he wanted to go. We objected strenuously; Linda held her tongue.
Well, we took him maybe a total of twice. Both times he curled up in his seat and went to sleep a few minutes into the movie. He would wake up in darkness and start screaming for our mother. Linda and I couldn't calm him, try though we might. We got dirty looks the first time around. The second time, we were visited fifteen minutes before the end of the movie by an usher with a flashlight, who told us, "If you can't quiet him, you'll have to leave."
Linda reported to my mom once we got home, and that did it. From then on, when we planned to go to a movie, we told him we were going to school. He wasn't old enough to go then, so he accepted the lie.
Today, he is an adult and he no longer sleeps in the movies. I told him what we did when we were both grown, and he just laughed about it.
To a point, he was a "little thing" for just a short while in my childhood.
61-69, F
