book/cover lesson...

my grandmother's next door neighbors are the parents of 10 children. during the summers my sister and i lived with my grandparents. the family of 10 had two boys who were the exact same ages as my sister and i. the youngest, timmy, and my sister, becky, were like two peas in a pod--goofy, lanky and natural comediens. when we put on our mcdonald's muscular dystrophy backyard carnivals, timmy and becky stole the show with their antics.

my sister, now living in germany with her family, has turned her gifts into a job...she is a professional clown.

timmy had a natural way about him and always won in our games of stick ball in the alley, but let me see...how do i put this nicely--he never seemed peculiarly bright.

so when, not long ago, my grandmother told me that tim (minus the -my) had received his ph.d. and written a book on molecular biology, i was more than a bit surprised.

i think this outcome flies in the face of the adage, "show me the boy at 7 and i'll show you the man."

here's a blurry pic (taken with my 110 camera) of the summer gang circa 1976.

back row: me, fred, christopher; front row: becky, sheri, timmy (who knows why the girls are all saluting and the boys look like they're dancing?) my gram shot this picture. she took all six of us to the zoo...on the city bus...by herself. what a brave sweetie she is!