STANDING A CHANCE

In my family growing up, I had four sisters (all adopted) and myself.  There is a big age difference between the oldest and the youngest, My oldest sister (Much older) Tessie then my sister Fran, then Mary Ann and Joanne, then of course me.

GOT HER GOOD!

Being the only boy in the house, I took a lot of abuse, there was the constant reporting to my mother about every little small indiscretion I committed, from scaring the hell out of them to teasing, pulling hair and playing hide and seek, and never looking for them.

“Ma!” was a familiar cry coming from one of those opened mouths or another, and sometimes all I had to do was look in their direction to get them to scream. Life was good!

As we got older the covenant of four teamed up against me and I had a four front war on my hands, which although challenging was fun, because it gave me something to do when I didn’t feel like doing my homework.

One evening as the sun set and Tessie my older sister (much older) came home from her date, I decided that for some reason she would snoop in my room. I closed all the lights in the room, closed the door and slipped under the bed and waited. I don’t recall why I knew, but I did, and she didn’t disappoint me. Slowly a crack of light started to appear in my room and from the darkness of  under the bed I could clearly see her feet, furtively moving forward small steps at a time. I waited for her to pass my bed and with her back turned to me while looking out the window, I gave a blood curling howl that had her clutching her chest and sitting almost on the floor. I was good, very good.

Over the years we have teased each other without malice or mercy, just old-fashioned ribbing and give and take. It was something I knew all my life and even with friends that is what I did. Then one day I got married! TLW (The Little Woman) never did that growing up. You had to be nice to each other, which my sisters and I did when we were all asleep. It was hard to work it into the schedule with all the teasing we still had to do. She has made my kids like her, so it isn’t any fun anymore like the old days. However #1 Son and I did do some ribbing, he would call me a turkey or I would call him one, and we had our fun with his tricks on me as a little tyke.

Dad was notorious for teasing and it is where I learned it, from the master.  He used to drive a group of older women to their jobs, and teased them into believing things that just weren’t possible, like his stuffed lentil dish. The ladies would go on about something they made the night before, and Dad one day decided to join in.

“Oh, you should try my stuffed lentil dish.”

“Tony, you made stuffed lentils?!”

“Oh yes, the recipe has been in the family for years!”

Another lady would then ask ‘how’.

“Well, you get a pound of ricotta cheese, make sure you drain it good.”

“Yeah, wait let me get a pencil and paper from my pocket book.”

“Then you mix it with two eggs…’

“Yeah, go on.”

“Chopped from parsley very fine>”

“Yeah???”

“Then you get an eye-dropper and…”

And so he went on.

IMPORTANT COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS
My new best team THE STEVENSON UNIVERSITY MUSTANGS, had a slight trip up, losing their first game to Shenandoah: 26-16.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT MARCOCCIO

A young high school pal of mine, today she is working on her 39th birthday, she believes in taking it one day every few days!