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 the boys 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 always worked 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 all had our chores to do, and we had to do them 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 Mom was relieved to have us all out of the house, and we could play for hours outside. My brothers taught my sister and me 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 me how to ride them and how to drive an old pickup with the gearshift on the column. I remember sitting on my oldest brother's lap, steering and shifting, while he worked the brake and clutch. My mom always said that whatever one brother didn’t think of, the other ones would. They got into some trouble, but they were always looking out for their little sisters.

As my brothers started dating, my sister and I were ruthless to the girls they dated. But the best girls all stayed, and the boys 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 my brothers like I 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 girls 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 behaved themselves. They ran a lot of boys 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 away. 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 is a diesel mechanic who works for a trash hauling company here in Wichita and services all of their trucks. He is married and has three children and seven grandchildren.

My middle brother Dean is a machinist lead and works for an aircraft company here in Wichita. He supervises machinists that make aircraft parts that are made out of steel, aluminum, brass, and bronze. These are only a few of the materials that he turns on a lathe. He has five children and nine grandchildren with one on the way.

My third brother Terry is a farmer and also works as custodian for the schools in Madison, Kansas. He has four children.

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!