Thirty-seven years ago, this little person entered my life and I became an "Aunt" at age twelve. I had not been around many babies prior to this, save my bratty little brother, the "Bullard Boy King", "Favored SON" "Family Heir"!!!
Sorry David, I had to throw that in as I am "the middle-child-mal-content" and a "second-daughter" at that!
I was pretty quickly enamored with this little girl, which is saying a lot as I was deep in the throes of Female Pre-Puberty Hormonal Bipolar Disorder. (otherwise known as generally "witchy" and a royal pain in the hiney). I was pretty much concerned with only myself 99.99% of the time, devoting the other .01% to tormenting my little brother. I had always been a big tomboy growing up and spent quite a bit of time lamenting the fact that I was missing out on all the privileges that only being male brought-you know, they can go to the bathroom out in the woods SO much easier, can go without shirts in the summer, etc. Plus, I had to wear stupid DRESSES and hide my pocket-knife in my purse for church on Sunday. Oh yeah....and I was VERY skinny, (not slim) wore glasses that looked like the bottom of coke bottles, and was generally kind of "homely", to put it nicely.
But something changed in my heart, mind and ovaries when I laid eyes on this beautiful baby girl......I had found something that was more fun than climbing trees, building tree houses, and threatening my brother with my pocket knife. I never knew a little girl could talk SO much and impart such wisdom and sometimes painfully truthful honest observations of the world around her. My favorite nick-name for her was "Mouth of the South", which she lovingly thought was a compliment. You could get her to do ANYTHING for the promise of a Slush-Puppy...well, at least until she actually GOT the darned Slush-Puppy.
We kind of spent a few years growing up together. Most of my paychecks from my first job...big-time cashier at TG&Y were spent on clothes and toys for her. She insisted on sitting in the living room with my first boyfriend and I while we were "courting". For every kiss I received, she had to receive an equal (well, maybe not quite equal in intensity and slobber) kiss. She accompanied me on many dates and was a pretty good chaperone....she told on me for everything and probably kept me out of a bit of trouble.
I did get to experience a brief period of "pay-back" when my oldest son was small. Traci would pick him up and drop him off at the Elementary School on her way to the High School. Since I had trained him well regarding the virtue of TRUTH, he reported faithfully to me when Traci had a minor car accident (which she might have otherwise been able to "let slide") or received traffic tickets from the Htown police!
A bit of funny trivia for any of you who know Traci now.....she was a BIG Alabama Football Fan for a number of years!!! And it is a bit funny that her undergrad degree is NOT from Auburn, but she and David both received their Graduate degrees from "Boo-Bama" (as Connor and Ellla refer to Alabama) I don't think she is any the worse for it though!
Thank you Traci, for being the one that helped me see that being a female is a blessing from God above. (well, except for when we had "company" once a month) I am sorry that you inherited the "Drama-Gene" from me. And I am sorry that poor, sweet, gentle, kind David has had to introduce this into his bloodline! But thank you SO much for having growing up as my "baby" and my friend. Also thanks for birthing Ella B so that between me, you, my girls and Paige, just when I think I've seen it all............Ella B pulls another one!
Oh Yeah....the wagon-wheel picture was taken just before she loaded up in the covered wagon for the move west to Montana! And she came back with a pretty good husband to boot...even if they gave up homesteading and came back to Alabama in a Isuzu Trooper with a baby (not banjo) on her knee!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACI!
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