Memories of ET, II

In preparation for the services on Monday, I've been going through boxes and boxes of photographs. So many memories. When I think of Elizabeth, I always consider our heyday to be those early years in Hampton - romping up, down and around Palmer and Sicard streets: a whole pack of kids in scuffed up, hand-me-down or handmade clothes with popsicles in our mouths. We'd be out the door at 8am and wouldn't come home 'til dark. Hm... now that I think of it, where the hell did we eat? Geez, mom. We had a black lab named Cindy that followed us and protected us wherever we went.

I remember once that ET and I lusted after a neighbor's bicycle. We found it in their backyard one day and simply rode it home, took it into the garage, and painted it. Ours. Done deal.

In spite of my bad influence, my sister ET is, and always was, all that is chaste, proper and honorable. She always did the right thing. But she had that Chandler sense of humor (likely cultivated from an entire childhood of apparently eating nothing but popsicles), and she loved to pull a prank. In my thirties, I was living and working in Washington, DC. After Clinton was elected in 1992, ET came to visit over inaugural weekend with sister Pat and friends. I was to meet them at the airport and drive them back to my place. While I was at the rental car counter, ET and the girls ducked into the Women's bathroom to "freshen up". Words cannot describe my horror as they all came strutting out of the bathroom dressed as prostitutes. They were all over me, making quite a scene, and they noisily escorted me through National Airport, completely oblivious to the crowds staring at us. Gawd they were relentless!

As we drove through town, I recall at one point they rolled down the windows and flashed/mooned Senator Joe Biden as he rode to the Inaugural Ball in his limo. Thankfully, he also has a sense of humor. Anyway, I made the mistake of taking them to see my office downtown. While ET kept me occupied, the rest of them went to the corner office and filled my boss's desk drawers, pencil holders and potted plants with tampons. He had security cameras, but lacked a sense of humor.

ET, I will miss your wonderful, playful sense of humor.