Sister Time ~ Ain’t It Good to Know You Gotta Friend.

My younger sister Janet and I have rarely spent time alone together.  She is second in line after me (four years younger)  and we have a brother, Mark;  and another sister, Louise ~ so, most of the time we were with our entire family…… which included a live in Grandmother ~ we called her Nanny Topping ~ whom we loved dearly; and of course Mum and Dad.

The four of us hung together pretty tightly in the 70’s.  We really got along well ~ I probably think that because,  I am the oldest and they always did what I said!  Oops, now there’s another blog post!  I mean it though, the three of them were awesome and I have many fond memories of our time together.

One of my favourite memories was when my parents went to England for three weeks and the four of us had a hoot at home.  I mean a hoot.  We were all really well behaved and when my 18 year old friends said “Cool man, now we can party at your place…”   Little did they know that was never gonna happen.  NEVER.  Those three were my focus and I took it very seriously.  My parents left some money that we blew in the first few days on steaks, roasts and ribs ~ we even went  downtown for a meal.  Janet says it was the CN Tower but, I think if was the Spaghetti Place on Front Street.  Anyway,  I would love to remember every detail but,  I do know that we ate like Kings, went to the movies, stayed home and behaved ourselves and I worked my part time job at Loblaws.  I made a great wage and we blew the whole thing including my sister Louise’s piggy bank!  We uncovered the pool and I cooked a huge round roast on a spit on the bbq after blowing the lid off it because I really didn’t know you had to lift it to light…..Probably this memory has been embellished over the years but I have to say I remember it VERY fondly.

March Break 1979, they all came up to Trent and stayed with me and again we partied!  No drinking ~ they were way too young.  But I had Dad’s white chevy and Normie knew a thing or two about Ottawa and we all went there for the day!  We still talk about it.  My only regret is that we needed more money and a hotel room for the night!  It was Hilarious…..you want to test drive your boyfriend to see if he can handle life and your personality,  then take him on a road trip with your 15 year old sister,  13 year old brother and 11 year old sister.  Norm passed the test.  My brother teased him all the way and made us all laugh all the way home and Norm only lost his cool once! Many tourists joined us in our tour of Ottawa because Normie had dressed in a beautiful blue suit  and some folks thought he was our tour guide!  I looked like I was about 12 years old and of course you know the rest.

Fast forward to “Beautiful”  and the Carole King Concert at Ed Mirvish Theatre and the story continues.  There are many  wonderful memories in between but, last night reminded me of all of that.  The difference is that Janet and I were together 1:1 for one of the few moments in our lives!  We never do that!  It was awesome!  If you have a sister  I suggest you party on down and get a couple of tickets. It helps if you love Carole King…… If you are a huge fan of Carole King and her Tapestry album you will love the show!  Be sure to have the CD handy for the ride home because I was belting out every word (through some tears) going down the DVP.  I remembered every word and innuendo and I was amazed by my brain.  How is this possible?  Really I haven’t heard that album in years ~ I just know that I loved it in grade 8 and the four of us played so many great albums together in the 70’s.  thank you Janet for buying it for me!!!  The play is wonderful and so worth the trip, even though the whole thing is so expensive.

Oh well.  I guess times have changed.

You can’t go to a movie for .50 cents and unfortunately you might think twice about the ticket price on Beautiful  but,  it sure is a memory you can buy.  And a show you will remember well if you were ever a fan of Carole King.  the  music reminded me of all these memories.  I am certain her music will remind you of a thing or two!