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8:06:00 PM PDT
Feeling Happy
M.O.M. Monday
My mom was the youngest of ten, six girls, four boys. They were roughly pretty much two years apart, give or take a month or two.
One of her brothers, Steven, was a practical joker and a tease. I would imagine he was probably at least 15 years older than her as he was working in the steel mills when she was about 5-6 years old.
Steven liked to tease my mom that her nose was bigger than his when she was around 5 years old. He would take his thumb and index finger and measure her nose and tell her "this is how big your nose is" and then he would move that measurement over to his nose and while he was moving his thumb and finger, he was widening the distance but my mom didn't realize he was doing that. He would place his thumb and finger measurement by his nose and exaggerate it so it looked like my mom's nose was twice the size as his. She would protest that her nose was not bigger than his and get upset.
He would then reverse the process and measure his nose first and instead of making the measurement wider, he would shorten it this time so that his nose measurements would barely fit on her nose. Again she would protest so he would do it again and again until she was almost in tears. Her mother would tell her he was only joking and to not believe him, but my mom believed for the longest time her nose was bigger than his. My grandmother would tell Steven not to tease his sister, but you know how older brothers can be.
Another thing Steven liked to do was to go down in the basement and bang on the furnace pipes. My mom would hear the noise and ask him what it was and he would tell her it was rats down there trying to get upstairs. She would be so frightened she wouldn't want to go down to the basement alone or with anyone with her. Again her mother told her he was only teasing her, but my mom believed what he said.
Steven would later marry and he and his wife never had children. He would die of a heart attack at the age of 46, the first of the siblings to die and at the youngest age; the rest would live into their 80s and 90s.
I remember my mom playing the joke on us about whose nose is bigger and telling us it was all a joke and laughing about it. I don't believe I ever played it on my kids. I'm sure my brother might have thought about doing it with his kids because he has just a touch of tease and practical joker in him.
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Wonderful memories... thanks for sharing. Some people have a lot of charisma like that and so much love in their heart like Steven. He sounds like he was fun to be around and so the Lord must have called him home early to be with him.
Lisa -
my brother did the same to me; tease that is never about my features or anything just played on my fear.
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That Steven is quiet a character and sounds like he lived a whole lifetime in those 46 years. My mother's brother was the same way with her. He fixed her a bowl of ice cream and it turned out to be shortening/lard. They were about 12-15 years apart in age too. Strange how boys like to tease their sisters.
Nelishia
http://journals.aol.com/nelishianatl/PRAYINGANDBELIEVING/ -
My mum was also the youngest in her family, four girls, two boys and a son that died as an infant.
laini
4/16/08 6:14 PM
Martha :-)