GAY PEOPLE HAVE SIBLINGS WHO LOVE THEM!

I had four living siblings. This little piece is just a small portion of one of them : My sister Zora, the first born sibling, my Big sister. She was born in 1945. I was born in 1951. This photo was taken approximately in late summer 1953.


My Big Sister


The first thing that comes to mind as she turned 70, and I, at 64
is that I'll miss her when she is gone
if I live beyond the collection of her days -
this caring, and sweet one who kept my earlier memories for me
as I toddled in six years after her birth.


She tells me I 'whacked' her on the elbow when I was four
with a toy paddle - the kind that had a long rubber-band stapled to it,
and a rubber ball stapled to the end of that elastic.
She'd catch me chewing on the ball, eventually teaching me how to play with it properly.


I see her at age thirteen as we walked together
in our swim suits - heading out several blocks to Oakdale Beach 
as our towels slipped and slid from around our waists
as we bent over for crab apples in the road that had not yet been 
run over by a passing car.  We'd eat one or two on the spot
remembering Mom's warning about what happened
the last time we ate too many green apples.


On the way to the small community beach of dark green pond water 
we'd stop and look up at the large brick building that hummed 
with machinery - we yelled at one large window where we knew 
our Dad worked, even on a Saturday when we wished he could swim
with us... "Daddy! Daddy!" Several men always peered down on us
from the many windows. One of the men would yell, "Steve, they're yours!"
One day, Dad looked down at his then daughters, and asked, "Frances
where are your shoes? Zora, make her put them back on!"  


And then he would disappear back in to the hum of that factory.
And after his walk home at day's end, he might find me tied
to the only tree in the 4th Street asphalt playground. Me, happy 
to be knotted there by my big sister who told me I was a captured
prisoner, as she fed me water and saltines during her break from
playing softball with friends her age - but soon to be
grounded by Dad as he stared at me through the tall iron fence
that look like the spears of Roman warriors. Then....


...indoors she played her record player and showed me how 
to place those little 'thingies' in her 45's... and slip the record on...
and we'd sing the afternoon away to Elvis, Everly Brothers, Patsy Cline, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis,
Ella, Pat Boone .... building memories and sisterly love.



 

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The 'pocketbook' factory aka Kadin Brothers, aka Mohawk Novelty where we'd wave to our father at work on the second floor, corner as we made our way to Oakdale Beach, Hudson, NY.

Hudson's swimming hole: Oakdale Beach.