Another Sister?!

1. Silhouettes by Herman's Hermits

2. Yummy, Yummy, Yummy by Ohio Express

3. A Beautiful Morning by The Rascals

4. Hey Jude by The Beatles

5. Sealed With A Kiss by Gary Lewis & The Playboys

6. Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daugher by Herman's Hermits

7. Bend Me Shape Me by American Breed

8. 1,2,3 Red Light by 1920 Fruitgum Company

9. Green Tambourine by The Lemon Pipers

10. Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel

11. I'm Into Something Good by Herman's Hermits

12. Scarborough Fair/Canticle by Simon & Garfunkel

13. Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra

14. Mony Mony by Tommy James & The Shondells

15. I'm Henry the VII, I Am by Herman's Hermits

16. Turn Around and Look At Me by The Vogues

17. Classical Gas by Mason Williams

18. The Fool On the Hill by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66

19. Downtown by Petula Clark

20. Don't Sleep in the Subway by Petula Clark

Remember how I told you I had always hoped for a big sister someday? As impossible as that wish may sound, I was to have that wish come true shortly after the arrival of Tina and Brenda. As I said before, my parents were in the foster program as foster parents. That's how Tina came to us. That is also how Cheryl came to us. Cheryl was not a baby, however. She was a teenager!! Somewhere around 13 0r 14. Oh, happy day! A big sister of my own! And we could be good friends and I could follow her around and we would have such a great time!

I'm sure that all of you big sisters are thinking ~ "Yeah, right! I'm sure that went over well!" Let me remind you that I was about 7 - 8 years old. But, surprisingly it did go well! If Cheryl ever tired of my dogging her heels she never showed it. I always felt welcome. We shared a bedroom. My double bed was replaced with bunk beds. I, naturally, got the bottom bunk. We would lay in there at night and Cheryl would tell me stories of where she came from - somewhere in West Virginia - if I remember correctly. She'd had a hard time of it - problems in the family - I don't really recall any details. I just know it was necessary for her to leave. She'd dangle her leg over the side of the bed and I'd tell her to get her big foot out of my face. She wouldn't and we'd start arguing, not for real, though. I'd warn her that I was going to bite her foot if she didn't. She didn't believe me and I didn't believe myself, for that matter! This came to be our ritual nighttime argument. One night it just popped into my little head - wouldn't she be shocked if I actually did bite her? I lay there and thought about it for a bit as we conversed about other things of the day. I remember rationalizing how she HAD just taken a bath. How dirty could her foot be? And I wouldn't bite so hard as to really hurt her - just enough to get her attention. I finally found courage from somewhere and as we started the nightly "get your foot out of my face fight" and I warned her about the impending bite, being sure to sound like I really meant it this time - I simply sat up in my bed, grabbed her foot and sunk my teeth onto her big toe! Oh the squeals from both her and me! The parents are yelling about what all that racket is about up there! She pulls her foot free and flips her head upside down over the side of her bunk and looks at me with this look of total shock - but with a big smile covering her face! It was giggles the rest of the night! She only dangled her leg after that if she momentarily forgot about my toe noshing. When she'd remember, the leg would swiftly disappear up and out of sight.

Cheryl fit into our family quite well. She was a soprano, after all, and sang very well! It was at this time that my family was going around and singing for other churches at their Sunday services. Having Cheryl around to sing the lead allowed me to learn alto parts. Even as a little girl my voice had a lower range. I'm not sure if Cheryl was ever baptized but she did attend church with us and lived her life as we did. Well, . . . she tried. She had already had exposure to values and morals that were quite different from ours. My parents had their work cut out for them trying to teach her about the family rules - ones we were still learning ourselves.

I loved Cheryl deeply. It would probably be more correct to say that I worshipped and adored Cheryl - with all my heart. She was pretty. She let me help her with her hair, rolling it on large tin can rollers or ironing the natural curl out with my mother's iron. She'd lay her head on the ironing board and we'd splay her long hair down the board and I'd start ironing, taking care to not get the iron too close to her scalp. She shared secrets with me. On Saturdays we'd do our morning chores and then, when the mystery movie theater would come on the TV, she'd have me watch the scary movies with her in our front room in Clarendon. One particularly scary one we watched was "The Blob." We huddled together on the couch and pull our feet up just in case the Blob was hiding underneath! There was this other one that involved some sort of alien space craft that scared us pretty bad. I hated scary movies (still do!) but I wanted to be with Cheryl more than I hated watching them.

Cheryl taught me how to dance the latest dances. We had so much fun in that front room with her teaching me how to do the "Skate." I was taking tap dance lessons at the time but she was teaching me how to be "cool" and "groovy." She'd put on her Herman's Hermits album and we'd listen to Silhouettes over and over until she was satisfied with my performance! It's so hard for me to hear that song now and NOT want to do the Skate! She also taught me how to do The Jerk - I think to the dismay of my parents. They were probably torn between wanting to tell me that it wasn't appropriate for me to dance like that and wanting to laugh themselves silly watching their little chubby-legged girl jerking her body around like that! Too funny!! Also, learned through Cheryl's tutelage was the Twist and the Pony.

One of two pictures I have of Cheryl.

It is actually an oil painting my father did of her in 1970 - a copy of a school picture.

Cheryl just seemed to be everything I wanted to someday be. She had a megawatt smile with deep dimples. She wore makeup and fishnet stockings for crying out loud! She would let me try on her clothes and I just dreamed of the day when I'd be allowed to wear such sophisticated things like stockings and a garter belt! (I'm laughing myself silly just writing this but it's true!!) You see, before pantyhose, you had to wear this belt with little attachments that hung down to catch the top of the nylons so as to hold them up. The belt was over your panties but under your clothes. Fishnet stockings were the rage in the 60's! The fashion icon was Twiggy with her big eyes, short skirts, and plastic belts and accessories in bright colors. There was always a tug of war between Mom and Cheryl over her hemlines. I know that she left the house with them down to her knees but, after arriving at school, she rolled the waist band up so they would then be short. I used to beg my mother to let me wear the garter belt and stockings to school. She must have tired of the fight and decided she'd let me see just how unglamorous they really were. I wore them one day and I was miserable. Mostly because the belt didn't fit in the first place - nor did the stockings! I remember coming home during the day (we lived across the street from the school) and taking it all off and happily returning to school with my ankle socks!

I watched her put on her makeup and caught the makeup bug early! I was dying for the day when I'd get to wear makeup, too! My mother did not relent on this one - well, until the pixie haircut incident. I told you it was the perfect enticement to get me to do what she wanted!!

Truth be known, I wanted to do anything to keep Cheryl happy and allowing me to be around her. Anything! This makes for a fairly unhealthy companionship. Well, as long as the leader is minding their P's and Q's, it's OK. But, when the leader gets ideas that aren't too good, then you have trouble. I wanted to be cool like her. If she suggested something, I was game. This brought about some of the darker moments of my life as well as the joyous ones just mentioned. I tried cigarettes at this very tender age. I tried alcohol as well. We were still fairly new to the gospel, so it wasn't too far of a stretch to our minds to go ahead and try these things. I was put into dangerous situations escaping with much less harm than could have been. I won't go into all of these things as this is meant to be an uplifting account of my life. Perhaps I will share some of these more troublesome episodes another time - in another format. I will, however, relate the Idaho Falls incident in my next blog - a harrowing experience which cemented many truths in my mind and taught me, once and for all, that perhaps Cheryl wasn't always the best role model.

This playlist is filled with Herman's Hermits as we listened to them constantly! I mean, you can hear the British accent when they sing! We must have had a Petula Clark album or two because I also remember singing Downtown at the top of our lungs and it had been a hit in 1964 - a few years before Cheryl came along. But, we also sang Don't Sleep In the Subway which was a hit in 1968. Bubblegum Pop was our forte and we were proud! Yummy, Yummy, Yummy? Seriously? Yes!! I make no excuses. Perhaps we will be spared too much grief by the addition of such dignified numbers as Hey Jude and some Simon & Garfunkel songs. Instrumentals were still as strong as ever with Classical Gas and Love Is Blue. The Vogues had rich harmonies that rivaled The Lettermen. This is a great mix - one that I'm sure will be among my favorites!