Brothers

I couldn’t go another day without telling you about my brothers.  My family was a very close family growing up. Notice the shirts that they were wearing? My Mom made them of course. We only had each other to play with as my Mom was a stay at home mom and my Dad was always working to provide for all of us. I remember fighting a lot, but also I remember love. As I remember my Mom taught all of us to do the cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, laundry and sewing. My brothers were no exception. We had our chores to do and we had to do those every day as part of a family that was just something that you did. After we did our chores we could play and have fun. I’m sure she was relieved to have us all out of the house and we could play for hours outside. My brothers taught my sister and I to play in the mud, make mud pies, and make roads for our toy cars. As we all got older my Dad started working on motorcycles and he built us a couple of motorcycles so that we could all have them to ride. My brothers showed my sister and I how to ride them and how to drive an old pickup with the gear shift on the column. I remember sitting on my oldest brothers’ lap steering and shifting, while he was working the brake and clutch. My Mom always said that whatever one wouldn’t think of the other ones would. They got into some trouble but they were always looking out for their little sisters.

As they started dating. My sister and I were ruthless to the girls they dated. But the best girls all stayed and they each married one by one and left the house. My sister and I were sad when they left but life does go on. All of my sister-in-laws are the best because they take care of our brothers like we would take care of them.

Of course our Mom made our dresses and I do believe I was wearing crocheted gloves. Ha! Ha!

As we got older and started dating my Dad didn’t have to worry too much, because he always had my brothers to make sure that our dates would behave themselves. They ran a lot of them off by just hanging around as they would arrive. I’m not sure what they said to them as they waited for us to get ready, but I’m sure it was something to scare them off. They were always quick to tease us but always there to protect us too. My middle brother told me way after I got married that if my date and I would have turned our car around we would have run right into him.

My oldest brother Tom was a diesel mechanic who worked for a trash hauling company here in Wichita and serviced all of their trucks. (He is now retired) He is married and has 3 children and 8 grandchildren.

My middle brother Dean was a Machinist Lead and worked for an aircraft company here in Wichita. He supervised machinist that made aircraft parts that were made out of steel, aluminum, brass and bronze. These are only a few of the materials that he turned on a lathe.  He and his wife have 5 children 13 grandchildren, 1 on the way and a 3 great grandchildren. (Dean passed away in December 2010) I miss him so!

My third brother Terry is a farmer and also works part time as a bus driver and maintenance for the schools in Madison, Kansas. (he is semi-retired) Terry is married and has 4 children. 7 grandchildren and 1 on the way.

I am very proud of all of them and I know they have learned to work on all kinds of equipment and I believe they could probably fix anything and they learned all of these things by hanging out with my Mom and Dad.

 

 

I love you Tommy, Deanie, and Terry.

*This was from a post that I wrote on February 2010 when I was the blogger for Leisure Arts website called Crochet Soiree (which is no longer). I hope everyone enjoys looking at these photos from the past with me. Happy Wednesday!