Coming of Age

You know. We survived the vacations. Nothing like a reality check. We hit the front door of our home on 23rd street and the power was out. A little icing on the cake. All was not lost though, within a year or two, we did a redo of the Western Adventure. This time all was well we made it to Disney. I managed to get a kiss from Cinderella and it was the adventure of a lifetime.

As we got a little older so did our adventures. We managed to watch Kammy destroy lots of clothes. She would take perfectly good blue jeans put them in the washer and dump a bunch of bleach in to get a tie die effect. It was fun watching her go through adolesence, at least for us kids. I am not sure mom and dad had so much fun. I can still see Kammy in her Maxi-Dress walking like she owned the world. She would sit for hours and split her blue jeans ( the ones that she didn't bleach) and sew floral material into the legs so that they flared out. My sister had style. We were all in awe at how she could mesh her straight laced wardrobe into a modern 60's hippie outfit. I don't remember flowers in her hair but I remember a lot of piece signs. She was in love with Peter Frampton and Barry Gibb. The look in her eyes when she saw Leif Garrett. I thought for a time she would actually marry Shaun Cassidy. Teen love never turns out the way you want it.

Our cousin Tammy lived down the road across Macedonia. She was Ted and Drinda's daughter ( I know DRINDA, who da thunk) I think they were related to Max and Eula. Eula was my dads aunt. Tammy and Kammy were freinds. They used to walk to school together. I don't think they were best friends but they were freinds. Tammy was always a little more high strung than Kammy was. Since Kammy was the oldest she helped highlight the pitfalls of modern city living. We all looked up to her. After all, she had been run over by a dumptruck while they were paving Macedonia. Didn't even break a bone. Tough as nails that one. Tammy and Kammy had words at school or somewhere off of the homesite. I know this because one afternoon while we were at home with the folks, Tammy and a herd of she bitches showed up on the street in front of the house. They came to kick Kammys butt. Kammy was having no part of it. She was taking the high ground and not stooping to their level. I admired her for her stance. Dad, however saw right through the facade. He said she was yellow. He said no child of his was going to be pushed around by a group of she bitches. With a little encouragement and a promise that he would not let them kill her, he sent her out to face the herd. Things did not fair well. I will say that it looked like she held her own for all of about 2 minutes. Then the inevitable happened, they kicked her butt. A lesson was learned, they knew she couldn't be pushed around and that even though she lost, she would fight. I guess its all part of coming of age. Tammy and Kammy were not friends after that. Tammy had some tough times the rest of her young life. She was headed for trouble. Kammy learned and grew from the experience. It must have worked. I never saw Kammy back from a fight from that day forward. Legend has it that she made a teenage girl pee on herself out of fear on a schoolbus one day. But wait, I am getting ahead of myself that was years later. My big sister, shes got my back.