I Remember My Big Sister Sharon

I don’t know how many of you had an older brother or sister, but I did. Sharon was 15 years older than me, so by the time I was six years old, she was 21. It was more like having two Moms with that many years between us. And, having an older sister was pretty cool. She was old enough to tease me and my twin sister, but not too much. And, she liked taking us places in her car. My favorite was when she would take us to Stonies Drive-in (not Stoners) and she would buy me my favorite dish: A Carmel Sunday with Nuts!

I remember she had a 1957 Buick Special, one of those giant and gawd-awful-looking Buicks from the ‘50s. We tooled around in that monster of a car all the time, doing things like visiting my cousin Barb; Aunt Sally and “Uncle” Archie; cousin Pat; and a lot of times going to see her good friend Diane, always stopping at the store for a Coke. Those Buicks are really a collector’s car now, but back then, it was just a butt-ugly car to drive.

Sharon desperately wanted to get a newer car, specifically, a 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente two-door coupe with automatic transmission and AM radio, and a 289-V8 engine (she had already scoped it out at the Dealership.) It was two years old (this was 1966, and I was 8 years old.)

Sharon needed my Dad to co-sign on the loan, and he would not. Sharon and Dad's relationship was very bad on a good day, and basically his rule for her was “if you get away with it, fine, but if I catch you, there will be hell to pay.” That ended up pretty much defining how she lived her life. Anyway, she forged his signature, and got the car -- much to my delight. My Mom was aware of the forgery, and prayed each month that my sister would put enough money aside from her job to make the car payment.

Sharon had a big “crush” on her best friends brother Morris. I think it was Morris that first introduced Sharon to Mr. Johnson, but I’m not exactly sure. We would go over to Diane's (Sharons best friend) house often. Diane Summers also had a younger brother Jimmy who was an entrepreneur at a very early age. Jimmy would sell anything door-to-door: potato chips, magazines, you name it. All of us would watch the newest episode of Bewitched, or Lost in Space, then go for a burger and fries. We lived across the street from the Summers’ at the time, and Sharon would watch for Morris Summers to drive up in his Chevy. Obviously I didn’t realize at the time, but she was probably getting boinked by Morris on a regular basis.

Sharon loved Evis! She had all of his records. She loved Gene Pitney, and Sandy Posey, singers you may or may not remember. Sharon used to play the Sandy Posey hit “Born a Woman” over and over. The words I recall from that song went something like this, “I was Born a Woman, born to be hurt. Born to be laughed at, cheated on and treated like dirt.” I guess that is how her boyfriends treated her, I am not exactly sure. I do know she had a lifetime of bad relationships with men.

But, we had fun together. I remember when we would search underneath the cushions of the couch and chairs, looking for spare change that may have slipped out of my Dads pants when he passed out from drinking too much. We would take all his beer bottles back to the store for the five-cent deposit. Along with that spare change, it got us a dollar’s worth of gas (just about 4 gallons back then), and money for a burger and Coke, and then we would go tooling around.

Eventually, Sharon’s relationship with my Dad grew so bad that she left home and moved to Kansas City, Kansas. The Summers had moved to Kansas a few months earlier, and offered her a place to stay until she could find a roommate and get a job. My big sister was gone, and I was upset to say the least.

Things pretty much changed after that. Sharon got married, and Dad had a heart-attack and passed away the year following Sharon's marriage to that ass hole Bill. Sharon had a hard life for the most part, and passed away a couple of years ago from colon cancer. She was almost the same age that our Grandmother was when she also passed away from colon cancer (note to all family members – get checked on a regular basis).

We all make good and bad choices (god knows I do.) I miss my big sister dearly, and the point of all this is to give you a taste of who she was – a good person, and to remember the good times that I had with her, not the bad. Sharon was a sweet girl and devoted friend; she loved her children (to a fault) and worked hard all of her life. What more is there to say? I love you.