Airing the dirty family laundry

I have some sad news about my big hair. Both items come from two of my sisters. My oldest sister Laurie, informed me that the picture was taken in 1993 before she went on her mission, which is when I would have been a sophomore in high school. I wish I could say that I left that hair behind in middle school, but apparently not. No wonder I had such a hard time finding a locker partner my sophomore year. Everyone was probably afraid I’d take up all the space with my hair supplies. Sometimes I forget how far into the 90’s it took us to get over the 80’s. And now the 80’s are back again. Full circle.

The other bit of information comes from my younger sister Tara, who informed me that this is the family picture that I used to try to convince her that she had been adopted. She’s the only one with blonde hair in the picture and apparently I tried to convince her that this meant she had been adopted. I have no memory of that though. It can’t be proved. Plus, Tara was always kind of dramatic as a child. If ever we upset her at the dinner table, she would storm away to her room. Then she would probably realize that her dinner was still at the table and so a few minutes later she would emerge with a blanket over her head. This allowed her to finish her dinner without taking a hit to her pride. I guess in some ways she was very innovative. She thought of the invisibility cloak way before JK Rowling did.

And to not leave my brother out, I actually didn’t have the biggest hair in the family. Matt did. By far. When my brother was in high school, he grew his hair out long and permed it. It. Was. Huge. I think next time I’m at my parents, that’s the next picture of a picture I’ll have to take. This was also around the time when he owned a turtle and let it roam free in his room and would burn incense. Tara was always afraid to go to his room to ask him for help with her math homework. One, because he was scary to us when he was in high school and two, the smell of the incense.

I’m realizing now that I didn’t really share anything embarrassing bout Laurie. The only thing I can think of is once when we were on a family vacation riding our bikes. I was probably around 12 at the time (Laurie will be able to tell you the exact age). I rode up beside her on my bike and said, “Pardon me, ma’am, but do you have any Grey Poupon?” (I know, lame joke. Leave me alone. I was 12.) She just looked at me and told me that she didn’t drink wine and sped off. Apparently, she had never seen that commercial. I guess it never aired during Little House on the Praire. I’ll leave my youngest two sisters alone because they are still in middle school and at that age, embarrassing stories are still pretty devastating.