Celebrating My Sister on September 6

Are a lot of your childhood memories food-related, or is that just my family?  As far back as I can remember, we've always been pretty foodcentric:  what are we going to eat, who's going to fix what, how are you going to cook that, remember how Grandma used to make it, do you like to eat it this way or that way, what goes good with that, when can we eat, remember when we ate that at (somewhere, anywhere), won't that make great leftovers, do you like the whatever better at this restaurant or that one, blah, blah, blah----it's all about the food.   Because we grew up on a farm, we raised a good amount of our own food, including beef and pork.  Not to mention that on a farm, food is actually the fuel that keeps things going so it's serious business by default.  There was also a bit of wild-game stuff going on, so that may have added to some lifelong food fetishes.

Today is my sister's birthday.  I love saying, "my sister."  Maybe it's because I'm the only person left in this world who can say those words and have it mean Melissa Lynne.

Since we come from the same family, a lot of her memories are also food-related.  Here are two, shared only for illustrative purposes to show how nice she is now, compared to how stinkin' mean she was when we were little.  You think I'm kidding?  Just ask our boy-cousin Dickie, who used to end up crying whenever she was around cause she was so stinkin' mean.  We have a picture somewhere of the two of them at about 2 years of age, with poor Dick crying and Melissa looking triumphant with a "that'll show you to mess with me" look on her face.  Hmmmm....I've definitely seen that face recently, now that I think of it.

Memory #1:  I was a (sweet, precious) toddler asking (Melissa says whining incessently) for a bite of the hot peppers that everyone else at the table was eating.  So what did my mean big sister who was definitely old enough to know better (did I mention that she's my MUCH older sister?!) do?  She stuck a hot pepper in my sweet little baby mouth.  Hey, did you see that woman on the news last week who had to go to court because she used hot pepper sauce to discipline her kid?  I REST MY CASE.  Rather than go to court, Sister had to eat her supper out on the back steps with the dogs...likely a more effective deterrent.

Memory #2:  Sweet Nancy, our middle sister (truth moment:  she really was sweet, whereas I was a spoiled brat) was just little and quite susceptible to suggestions from the big sister.  They each had a candy bar, but was mean Melissa satisfied?  Noooooo, she wanted her candy bar and poor little Nancy's, too.  (Just look at them in the photo above and tell me which one gets your sympathy--do you think maybe she's pinching Nancy while pretending to hold her hand?)  But Melissa knew poor baby Nancy would cry and tattle on her if she stole her candy bar outright, so she instead manipulated the poor girl mercilessly by saying, "Nancy, I don't like this nasty old candy bar.  It's so awful, I'm gonna throw mine away.  Don't you want me to throw yours away, too?"  Like a lamb to the slaughter.

In celebration of my beloved sister's birthday, her always looking out for me,  and some of our shared food memories.

 Melissa.  My sister.  Happy Birthday!