Our Yearly Playlist
A daily reminder to do something
Happy Birthday, Aunt Ona!
A few things I learned from my Aunt.
1. Pyromania. It started with me sneaking off to her cabin in Alaska where she would allow me to sit in front of the fireplace for hours on end and stick whatever I wanted to burn into the fire. A couple of years later it involved trips to the local fireworks stand in Cle Elem, Washington where I was encouraged to clean the place out. My brother and I spent the summer shooting fireworks into the air and at each other without the burden of adult supervision. A year later I was back in Alaska setting a dump fire when, judging by my Aunt’s reaction, I apparently got to close to the flames. Short of knocking me upside the head, Aunt Ona made it clear that fire was not my friend. Auntie givith, Auntie takith away.
2. How to drive. She took me to the parking lot of the local high school and told me to get in the driver’s seat. She told me to hit the gas. “Faster!” She demanded. I was speeding now when she ordered me to turn hard right and slam on the brakes. My jaw dropped as the car skid… Finally to a stop. “That’s what you don’t want to do,” she said. And that was my first driving lesson. I was ten.
3. Play Fair. Summers at my Aunt’s house in Rosyln, Washington were spent fishing, riding motorcycles and, as I already mentioned, blowing things up. To mix things up, my brother and I would make up games on the fly. Games like who can mount the semi wild horse in the adjoining field or who can hold onto the electric fence the longest. And when I say who I mean my brother, Sean. As the big brother, my turn never came. But there was one particular game that we played that, not only didn’t I win, but was taught a valuable lesson. It started with me racing my motorcycle through the large yard when I ordered my brother to try to hit me with one of the countless fallen apples beneath the apple tree. He began to fling the apples towards me, one after the other as I pretended to re-enact Steve McQueen’s ride in The Great Escape. However, my fantasy play was soon interrupted when my brother finally connected one of those apples to my head. Enraged, I locked my little brother in my sights, revved my bike’s throttle and burned rubber toward him. At first he was frozen, but as I barreled toward him, he finally bolted left, then right. I tried to follow, but was going too fast to make the turn and crashed into the fence. My adrenaline and bruised pride masked any pain I may have had as I jumped up with the intent to cause serious bodily harm. I wasn’t one step into my pursuit when I was stopped dead in tracks by my Aunt’s apoplectic bellow. Having watched the entire episode from her living room (she had no problem with anything up to that point), my Aunt didn’t mince her words when she explained to me that my brother played my game by my rules and won. End of lesson.
Thank you, Ona. And happy birthday.
Our Yearly Playlist 
My Big Sister will love the photo and predictably deny the stories, which I know to be true. I also know they are some of the comparatively benign stories.