My Sister

From my friend Pat...

When I was 12, in San Antonio, the pop radio stations played a game called “Name it and Claim it”. They’d play a song and the first person to get through to the station switchboard and correctly name the song was awarded a copy of the song. This was a big deal. Records, 45s were $.50 a piece, a lot of money in 1966.

My friends and I would hang out by the phone, with the radio on, having dialed the first 6 numbers of the station telephone number, and having the 7th one pulled back on the rotary phone(look it up if your under 40), just waiting for the clue from the station. But we never won because we could never get through to the switchboard.

Until one day, when the vocal version of Cast Your Fate to the Wind came on(another thing to look up if your under 40). I swiftly let the last number go on the phone and Shazamm! I got through to the station.

Now at that moment, my older sister was standing nearby. She announced that I really didn’t want to win the vocal version of that song, the instrumental one was the only good one, and promptly pressed the disconnect buttons on the phone(if you’re under 40 you’ll have to look that up too). After the first ring at the station, I was disconnected. Gosh I hated her at that minute.

Now my older sister has grown to become almost as perfect as my mom was, and my mom was a role model for Mary, the mother of Jesus. In retrospect, my sister wasn’t much more than a kid herself, maybe a Jr or Sr. in high school. And all kids do goofy, mindless things(sometimes they keep doing them right into adulthood) But I still remember that moment when months of trying to win a record went down the drain to her perfunctory announcement about what I wanted. I’m sure she doesn’t remember this incident in the summer of ’66, but I do.

Small things can stay with us for a long time. Be careful with your words and deeds. Over the years, I have grown to love and really respect my sister. We talk and visit regularly. But I don’t call radio stations when she is nearby anymore.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading some trips this year and next. If you are interested in reading about them, or joining in, the links are below.....

Paris-Normandy River Cruise
October 23-31, 2019
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/rc19102319x17768#.W3avNFJK3cs

Holy Land Trip leaving January 20, 2020 $2998 from New York
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/files/uploads/HL20A-2.pdf