Author: Lynne Harman
If moments are fleeting, memories are permanent. We share our most powerful memories so that they grow with time rather than fade - giving us the ability to celebrate friends and family members long after they have passed.
Imagine a little red-headed girl standing with her hands on her hips looking up at her parents and firmly stating, “I will do one thing, and one thing only,” in response to their request for her to wash her hands AND flush the toilet. That stubborn girl was my sister, Melissa. When she made up her mind to do something, she did it—even if it meant bodily harm. One time, while we were driving in downtown St. Joseph, Missouri, Melissa decided she wanted to get out of the car. When my dad refused to stop, she opened the door, stuck her foot out, and my dad stopped the car! I have never seen a toe stubbed as badly as hers was, but she did get her way!
Being two years younger than she was, I always looked up to her and I copied her. My mom told me that when I was 2 or 3, we sat on the couch in the lower level of our modest house watching TV on a black and white set with a dial and no remote! I watched Melissa suck her thumb that day as if I had discovered a new hobby. I looked at her, then at my thumb, then back at her, and then the thumb went in my mouth! That was the beginning of our “twinning” and solidified the sister bond that grew with the many things we did together:
We always wore “twin” dresses for special occasions, and we always had the same hair style. First, we wore a half up-half down style when our hair was long. Then we both got shag haircuts (think Florence Henderson from “The Brady Bunch”). When we tired of the shag, we cut it off and wore adorable pixie cuts—not our favorite school photos for sure.
We learned the same lessons of life at the dinner table and heeded the same warnings to “Eat your peas or I’ll rub them on you” from our mother—and she did rub those peas on us!
We shared a love for May Day, making paper vase baskets and cutting iris, lilacs and forsythia to make bouquets to give away to teachers and people in our neighborhood.
We were both swimmers for the St. Joe Swim Club, and we spent weekends at swim meets where our fingers turned pink from powdered strawberry Jell-O, and our hair turned green from chlorine.
We loved our summer nights playing kick the can (until our bare feet turned black) and going on summer vacations to Fisherman’s Luck Resort on Table Rock Lake where we learned to water ski and cheered on our dad and uncles who engaged in bottle-rocket fights off the dock!
We also shared lots of other fun memories:
One summer, we went to the Y-Camp at Estes Park Colorado where we made leather belts and moccasin coin purses. Melissa had an exciting adventure on the horse trails when her horse decided to take off in the wrong direction!
We also created and directed the Vaughn Family Variety show in our living room. Using the red bowl from our Easy Bake Oven, we drew an eyeball on the bottom and strapped it to our faces to dance to “One Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eater.”
We antagonized each other on family driving trips so much that Dad had to pull the car over to discipline us; Melissa and I scrambled away from Dad as he went from door to door to try to spank us until he gave in to our promises to behave.
We also were partners in crime when we hid under Dad’s office desk at Hillyard Chemical Company, shredded his cigarettes, and dumped them in the trash.
But one of my all-time favorite memories involves sharing an uncanny sister bond most evident playing Pictionary—No one liked to play with us because Melissa could see a giraffe in the single, pathetic vertical line I drew.
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