Happy Birthday Sis

Debbie - 1965 Grand Champion Lamb

One of the great things about growing up in the Osage is 4-H and having a sister like mine and she was a great cook.  Today is Debbie's birthday and she is older than me but she is a great sister.  Here you see her in 1965 with her Grand Champion Lamb.  Every year Debbie and I showed sheep and this year in particular I was sure I had the better lamb for the show in Pawhuska held each year in March.  Well I was wrong and Debbie won the show and I have no idea how I did with my lamb. Growing up with a sister like Deb was great as she always bragged on me and made me feel like I was important.  She would make cookies all the time and I have always had a sweet tooth.  In 4-H and the county fair and if anyone remembers the Grainola fair she would win lots of ribbons and prizes for her cooking and sewing.

Now I will tell you something exciting happened this year at the 4-H livestock show or maybe it was a year or two earlier but it was Kathy Eaton who got me in trouble.  She normally was a good sport but I was chasing her with some sheers (scissors ) and I cut her hair.  It just seemed like the fun thing to do and Kathy was older so she should have known better, just kidding.  I know whose fault it was.  Well, that got me in big trouble and it was not pretty what my Mom said to me.  I learned there were consequences for bad behavior.  Now days they just slap your and and say, "will it was the first time"  and let you go.  I do not understand that or how it benefits anyone.

Another great thing about having a big sister is that she introduced me to her friends, girls.  That was real important when I was becoming a teenager.  I doubt if I mentioned it but when I was in the 6th grade I was already 6 foot 2 inches tall and about 200 lbs. so people thought I was older than I was.  I remember one time I met this girl who was a senior in high school and I was 13.  We were hanging around at the fair together and she was pretty good looking.  Larry, my older brother, and a couple of his friends saw us and they gave me a hard time over it.  I gave them a hard time because they did not have a girl interested in them and I was hanging around a girl their age.  It was fun. Oh ya, when she found out I was 13 she dropped me like a hot rock, it was not pretty.  I was scared for life, just kidding.

Anyway, living in the country allowed us to get involved in 4-H, not to be confused with the 4-H kid from the class of '71.  4-H is a club focused on teaching a balanced life based on the Head, Hands, Health, and Heart, www.4-h.org built in those days primarily for small towns and folks growing up in the country. Every year our entire family was involved and we showed sheep, hogs, and cattle.  Debbie focused on sheep but she also was a great seamstress meaning she could make clothes.  She won all kinds of awards for that.  Larry was particularly good at raising cattle and showing them.  I was really good at something.


Well what did I learn from all this:
    Don't pretend your something you are not, like 18 when you are 13.
    Think about the consequences before you act, don't cut hair without permission.
   

Thanks for spending some time with me and drop me a line.
Gary Olson
glolson21@gmail.com
http://thepioneerman.blogspot.com