Numer 9

The youngest of the bunch graduated on Monday. (It's a small town, they can do stuff like that.) In honor of this special occasion, I'm going to list some of the things that Andy had to survive, being the youngest of 9. I'm sure I will neglect to mention some things, so feel free to chime in with any additions.

• A broken leg. Cause: Older brother throwing another sister on top of him, while on the trampoline.


• A dog bite, a really serious one.


• Being forced to dress up with another sister, they were like 1 and 3 at the time, and forced to pose while another sister held up a plant for background and another sister took the picture. I was not an active participant in this fiasco.


• Stacy and Christy. If you knew these two, you would realize what a feat it is he survived as their younger brother.


• Constant queries by his father about his non-existent relationship status with any number of girls. Not that the girls weren't interested....


• Being car-less, 1 hour away from anything.


• An occasional dunking of the head in dirty dishwater by yours truly. It was in an effort to keep him humble.


• Corn topping. I think almost all of us did this mundane crop task.


• Awful haircuts. Nobodies fault really.


• Nephews constantly calling him "Uncle Anny".


• Short pants with white socks. I don't know why this sticks out in my mind. Where were the concerned, older sisters?


• Getting his Eagle, the one and only to do it.


• Mr. Mustang. He and his friends did a really cool skit performing the chimney sweeps's dance on Mary Poppins in front of the whole school. It's pretty neat.

Congratulations, Andy!

Katie