My brother is five and a half years younger than me.  Our cousin Ann (who grew up one street over) is seven years younger than me.  The three of us were the children in the family.  I say family because none of us ever questioned the fact that we belonged to everyone.  It didn't matter which parent was speaking, we obeyed.  Gran and Pops, Mother and Dad, or Aunt Ruby and uncle Cleo.  They ruled.  It was pretty much one big family.

When I was born, Ruby, Cleo and Mother and Dad were living on the Arkansas river in Moffett, next to Ft. Smith.  The river flooded every year--not a good place to live.  So my dad got a job in Pryor, and before the year was up, Cleo called my Dad and said, "I can't live with Ruby--because she can't live without Margie (my mom).  So find us a house as close to yours as you can get it."  Which my dad did.  My mom Margie and Ruby were sisters--and inseparable.  If they were happy, daddy and Cleo were, too.  Within months, Gran and Pops--who lived in Wilburton at the time, moved to Pryor and joined all of us on the same block.  That's the kind of family we were.  We kids had six parents.

We were all three expected to be the very best at whatever we did.  It was a given.  Bill and Ann got it.  I didn't.  They were both Valedictorian of their classes.  I remember when I was a Sophomore in High school, the Chemistry teacher said that if we didn't want to learn Chemistry, to "...go to the back of the class, don't cause any problems and I'll give you a C."  Sounded good to me.

So at nine weeks, when my grades came, my Mother and Ruby just about had a fit.  Nobody in the family had ever made a B.  Much less a C.  Just A's.  I can't begin to tell you how hard it was to learn what I was supposed to learn about Chemistry the first nine weeks-coupled with what was going on during the second nine weeks so that my permanent semester grade average was a B.  I was totally grounded until I turned that grade around.  I didn't do that again.

When I was 28 years old, Ken was in Viet Nam; I started college while he was gone.  When I got my grades--all A's--I took them over to make sure Mom and Ruby saw that I could do it if I wanted to.  It was all a matter of motivation.   It took me 10 years to get motivated.  However, it was satisfying to see them smile.  "We knew you could do it.  What took you so long?"