Happy Birthday Uncle Ernie!

This is Uncle Ernie with Ali Grace about 4 years ago.

Today is my little brother's 32nd birthday. Happy Birthday Uncle Ernie! I can't believe I have a LITTLE brother who is in his 30's. I am aging.  There's not much going on around the house today so I thought I'd share a little family lore regarding my brother!

*To my mother's dismay, my brother and I were both slobs growing up. That's why I know it's a hormonal thing that makes me OCD about my house being clean now. I was not born this way! We used to really trash our bedrooms and my mom would get the shakes when she came upstairs and saw them. Strangely though, she never got on to both of us at the same time. So, when she'd come down on my brother for his terrible room, we'd chunk all his junk into my room. Conversely, when she'd go crazy about my room being a wreck, we'd chunk all my junk into his room. We literally drove my mom crazy growing up. If you think my mom is a nut, she has ample reason to be.

* Once my brother backed into a huge 6x6 post holding up the shelter part of the barn. We called all over town trying to find a post to replace it before my parents got home. The effort was unsuccessful.
*Similarly, one of us, I can't remember which, backed into a cherry tree and pulled it down. We set up blocks around the tree to make it stand up. I don't know if Mama or Daddy  ever figured that one out.

*I had just gotten my driver's license. My brother and I were driving home in my '65 Mustang. It was a GREAT car, but unfortunately on the way home the brakes went out. It wasn't a huge deal since it was a straight shot home and after all I learned my driving skills from watching episodes of the Dukes of Hazzard. The problem was my brother had driven his 4 wheeler to my Aunt Ruby's house and wanted to pick it up and drive it back home. I told him I didn't think I could slow down enough for him to get out but he insisted that going up the big hill before we got to Aunt Ruby's would slow us down enough. Ha. You don't think 20mph is fast until you try to jump from a vehicle moving at that speed. I saw him jump out and roll all the way to Aunt Ruby's garden. I couldn't stop to check on him but I saw him raise his hand behind a row of collard greens in an "i'm okay" kinda way so I kept on heading home. When he got home on the 4 wheeler I was still doing laps in the yard trying to stop.

*Once we were washing mom's car and my brother hooked the water hose onto her bumper. She left to go to Otis Skelton's store to get onions for a fish fry and pulled the entire pump out of the pump house. We came home to a small scale model of ol Faithful.

*When I was in the 5th grade and my brother was in the 1st grade, I was called to the office of our little country elementary school. Apparently my brother had shot a bird out the bus window. The principal handed me a letter to my parents in regards to my brother's behavior and asked me to deliver the letter.  We had a LONG driveway and all the way down the driveway my brother begged me not to tell Daddy. I would not have told my parents except for one little fact. The TURD told our principal that I TAUGHT HIM HOW TO SHOOT A BIRD!!  For the record, I did not.

*Once when I was about 20 I talked my brother into going to pick up some antique furniture I'd suckered some boyfriend into buying for me. He hooked up my dad's cattle trailer and we took off in the rain to pick it up from the antique shop. It was pouring rain and a little datsun truck was stopped in the road. Ernie went off the side of the road and to avoid turning the trailer over, went straight down in the ravine. We saw squirrels, trees, shrubs, chipmunks, and all sorts of things fly by on our way down to the bottom of that ravine! When we finally crawled out and back up the ravine, an ambulance was waiting for us. The deputy asked Ernie(since he looked older) to call our parents. Ernie said - "uh no. I will call Daddy after you put me in the witness protection and relocation program." Luckily Daddy was glad we were alive after seeing all that wreckage and there was no need for witness relocation.

In similar fashion, earlier in high school, I was driving home from band practice. My brother was with me and I can't remember if we were fighting or if we were laughing. We were NOT paying attention to the road. That's for sure! In front of Turner Concrete, a small truck was turning left. I could not hit the ditch on the right since it was a steep hill. I could only go to the left and squeeze between the oncoming car and the one we were about to rear end. I heard a loud screech and knew I'd "made contact" with the truck. I was scared and didn't know what to do. So, I took the advice of my 11 year old brother who screamed "JUST DRIVE HOME!".  I flew home and told Mama I thought I'd hit someone. She was about to end my life right there when my brother stepped in on my behalf and said "Mama! You should not be yelling at her. You should be PROUD of her! She THREADED A NEEDLE! I've NEVER seen anyone drive like that!"  Mama was so upset and yelled that the people probably got our tag number! Ernie informed her that there was no way anyone got our tag number because A) we were going at Mach 3 and B) The man was looking for tissue in his glove box!!   :)  I did call and report my hit and run and luckily nobody reported a hit so there was no run.

I probably need to stop there so that I'll still have a sufficient number of tales to tell on his 40th birthday.

Pete went to a Cattleman's Meeting with my dad tonight so it's a girls night here. The kids had a good day at school and are both very excited about planning a long February weekend with Gran and Papa in Jesup.

Here's a few pics to remind everyone of what Uncle Ernie looked like back when he had hair!!

Ali Grace riding "Pinto" with Aunt Beth and Uncle Ernie 4 or 5 years ago

Us at my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary party.  I think Ernie was 5 or 6 here.