Peggy

There have been a lot of memories for me with my sister Peggy. Some good, some bad, but none the less, what a lot of memories. Today, January 30th is her birthday!

I remember when she was born. I was little, but I can remember not understanding why she got to sleep in the same room as our parents, but Marcia and I had to sleep in the other room. From the time she was very little you knew Peggy was the "little mother-type". She never went anywhere without her baby doll. It was like an appendage to her. She was always trying to wrap it in a baby blanket. When Steve was born, she had a rough time not being able to hold him and re wrap him all the time. She loved to follow Marcia and I around. I can still hear her feet scuffing across the floor in her pajamas with the feet in them. She was so proud to have her own chair at the dinner table. Grandpa Schultz made her and Steve youth chairs. Hers was the yellow one. He also made all of us a wooden stove and a wooden china cabinet for our dishes. We all know girls have lots of dishes for tea parties. She got a doll buggy one year for Christmas and it went everywhere with her. She couldn't understand why we couldn't take it up and down the stairs each night at bedtime. Once, when I was babysitting her and the rest of the kids, she thought it would be so funny to throw her bologna from lunch up on the kitchen ceiling. Boy did I get it for that one! The one time I remember her being most "motherly" was the day our sister Tammy was killed. She was just feet away from Tammy when the truck hit and killed Tammy. Being the "mother" she was, she immediately grabbed Steve and turned him away so he wouldn't see what had happened. That, from a 7 year old child. Amazing...

When I moved to California the first time, I think Peggy had the hardest time of the little kids. She and I hung out as kids and always came around when the guy friends came to the house. I remember the first time Dan and I came home after being married. Peggy and Dan were inseparable. He tended to favor her because she was so quiet and didn't fight for a lot of attention. She called him Arnold (as in Palmer, the golfer) and he called her Margaret or Maggie (as in Maggie Thatcher the British Prime Minister). She would write us letters, which none of the other kids ever really did. It made us miss her a lot and was a sure way to get us crying and homesick. She came to England once to visit us. I remember the makeup party she had putting all the eyeshadow on Dan and teasing his hair! She was a big hit at the NCO Club with all of Dan's GI friends. No more shy Peggy by then!

Peggy was the quieter one on our family... as a child. Boy has that changed over the years. Now she is married, has three children and her own business. What a change from the little mother! She's gotten her degrees and really made huge strides to be the best she can be at her business. She'll be successful. That's Peggy. We don't keep in touch much anymore, but that doesn't make any of the childhood memories fade away.

So Maggie, here's to a happy birthday today. I hope it's a great one. At our age we can't let any of them go by without a notice! Maybe you should try a road flare rather than candles! It's easier on the smoke alarm!