S is for Sisters: What a surprise! Nineteenth of twenty-six posts in the April 2020 Blogging From A to Z Challenge on the theme “Endwell: My Elementary Years”— where my genealogy journey germinated. Wish me luck! 

For most of my elementary years our family had a three-tiered structure — my parents, me and my two brothers, often grouped together as “the boys.” And I assumed it would stay that way forever.

Then just as I was entering adolescence, my mom was suddenly pregnant and I secretly hoped for a sister. Not that my brothers weren’t great — but I thought it would be nice to have another girl in the family.

Having a pregnant mom at age 11 was a learning experience — since I was still little when she had my brothers. For one thing, the doctor put her on a special day-by-day diet that was given out at the time to stabilize the mother’s weight — and which I studied from where it hung on the kitchen wall.

I still associate cantaloupe with Mom’s pregnancy because it seemed to be listed on just about every day — and we were well stocked with the melons for the whole nine months. Then there was the birth process itself — with Mom timing her contractions at the family dinner table by repeatedly asking my father, “What time is it now?”

Amy joins our family

After my parents left for the hospital, I remember waiting up in nervous anticipation for Dad’s return home — where we received the happy news that Mom had a girl, my sister Amy, just in time for Christmas! And just like that, our family now had four tiers.

Parenting lessons

Yet my learning trajectory was not over — because now I got to see first-hand what parenting was like. The diapers, the late-night crying, the zooming of “airplane” spoons of baby food to get my sister to eat her dinner — this and more were imparted as I entered my teen years.

And pretty soon I had acquired the childcare skills I would need for my first job as a babysitter — both for my siblings and for younger neighborhood kids when their parents went out.

Carol joins the family

Meanwhile, my diary had given way to endless pre-teen entries about long-forgotten boys — who I liked, who my girlfriends liked, who was going with who, and who had broken up with who and was now available.

Jan. 1962 – Today on the way home from Amy’s baptism I saw Donny. I waved to him and he nodded his head at me.

Yet major family events still made it into print — like my parents’ announcement a couple years later that my mom was pregnant again! This time, with my teen hormones running wild, I was overwhelmed — and by the summer my sister Carol joined the family.

Dec. 1963 – Mom’s gonna have another baby!! I cried when she told me. I’m so glad Mom is gonna have a baby, I could die!

July 1964 – Mom had a girl — Carol. Can’t wait to see her!!

So by the 1964 holiday season, our four-tiered family was complete. And from then on it was Mom and Dad, Molly, the boys and the girls — as my younger siblings entered their own elementary years and I headed to Junior High School.

Up next: T is for Trick or Treat. Please stop back! 

© 2020 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.

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