Lindsay - Siblings and Growing Up

"Talk about your siblings and growing up. Were you friends, enemies? Did you have any special games or activities you shared together?"

January 4th, 2011

This question could be an entire blog! I have so many memories of games I played with my siblings, your uncles and aunt. We grew up on a farm, and that made a huge difference in our childhood. We had a lot of room to roam and would often create imaginary kingdoms. At my grandparents' farm, Uncle Chad and I created Quicksand Land. It was by a creek, and we literally lost shoes in the sand surrounding the creek. We would jump from rock to rock, pretending a horrible creature was following us. Once we got to the "bridge" we were safe! We spent a ton of time in Quicksand Land!

Uncle Chad

Aunt Maddie

Uncle Ev

Let me introduce you to your aunt and uncles as I know them: Uncle Chad is currently 20 and works for a landscaping business, Uncle Evan, 18 is in HS, and Aunt Maddie, 16 is soon going to get her license. For the most part, we were friends, but there was an occasional sibling rivalry that would occur. One time, Uncle Chad thought it would be funny to trip me when I was roller-blading down our walkway. Well, he ended up falling and breaking his arm! Maybe he was trying to pay me back for the time my mom walked out of the room for two minutes and I accidentally let Uncle Chad roll off the couch as an infant. Oops! Of course when Gigi walked back in the room I asked her, "Can a baby have brain damage if they roll off the couch?" I never was too good at hiding things from my parents. Uncle Chad and Uncle Ev were known to chase me around with large toads in their hands, and spent a lot of time catching and playing with frogs in the feed trough. When Uncle Evan was born, I went into the hospital room to meet my new sibling, found out it was a boy, and stomped right back out into the hallway where I continued to cry. I wanted a sister so bad and a baby brother just would not do! So, when my sister surprisingly appeared in our family, I was given the privilege to name her, Madison Jenae. Aunt Maddie is the polar opposite of me. She's outgoing, fearless, lives life to the fullest, and is a gorgeous little Blondie. I remember taking her to see the band Zoegirl for her birthday one year. We had so much fun getting as close to the stage as possible. She was so tiny, I didn't want to lose her! Her little blond ponytail was how I always kept track of her. She was like Pebbles from the Flinstones. She cracked me up, and still does!

Farm kids tend to have more opportunities to get into trouble than most kids. We would race wagons down the paved driveway (not too smart), jump up and down on the 2x4 as Dad drove the tobacco wagon, play in the hay mound, build forts and houses using hay bails, ride our bikes up and down the barn as Paw-Paw and Great- Grandpa Shertzer milked the cows, and of course have a Hershey's chocolate milk box (do they still make these) to end our day. We loved catching lightning bugs at night and playing freeze tag with our parents. During the winter we'd sleep over at Great - Grandma and Grandpa Martin's house and play Marbles, Uno or Old Maid accompanied by an ice cream party of course! It's hard for me to remember anything negative about my brothers and sister. The only bad times were the many runs to the emergency room for one of us getting hurt, and that was usually guess who, Uncle Chad.

Thankfully, we're all still very close and I think I'm safe to say that any of us would do anything for each other. When one of us is hurting, so are the other three. When one of us accomplishes something, we're all happy for them. I look forward to all the memories we'll make in the years to come. I hope that you, as siblings, can enjoy the same friendship with each other that I did with your Aunt and Uncles. Love you forever!