In the course of writing this blog, I came across a series of three pictures, all taken on May 25, 1969, the day we apparently went to pick up mom and our brand new baby sister, Peeper, from the hospital. Most of my stories to date have revolved around just me and Sheesh, my oh so stubborn and scarred partner in crime. That’s because my earliest memories, which are the ones I have been sharing so far, were of just the two of us.  Peep did not enter the literal picture until a month before my fifth birthday. But figuratively, she was present long before that.

When Ma left Cali and our bio-father headed to Vietnam, Ma was already pregnant with Peeper. While she was mourning her dead marriage and unpacking boxes in Alexandria as strains of Mario Lanza floated down the basement stairs where Sheesh and I tried to maneuver our pirate ship through that deadly squall (https://only-an-egg.com/2022/04/24/on-being-boss-and-apartment-living-circa-1970/) – she was already pregnant with Peeper. I remember clearly her announcement that we were going to have a new little sister, because she made it from her throne in the bathroom. Later, I learned that all Important Announcements would be made from her throne. It’s where Ma was most at ease and where she spent a lot of time. Anyway, this Important Announcement fired my imagination! A new sister!! I mean, I loved Sheesh with all my might, but she was mighty accident prone. Always good to have a backup just in case Sheesh broke. Plus, a new sister might be more compliant than Sheesh. She WAS stubborn. Even an almost-five-year-old could see that.

While we were living in the Alexandria house, Ma somehow managed to scrape up enough money to send me to KinderCare preschool. I don’t remember the teacher, I don’t remember the other kids. The only clear memory I have is of walking around and around a set of paving stones during every recess talking incessantly about my new sister. “I’m getting a new sister. Maybe today. I can’t wait to meet her!” And on and on, ad nauseum. Everyday I would race home and accost mom demanding to meet my new sister, and every day mom would shake her head and say “She’s not here yet.” I was convinced that Ma was deliberately withholding this new plaything from me.

When the day finally came to meet her, I could hardly stand it. I look at these three pictures and see one little girl impatiently ready to be on the road, and another thinking “yeah… I’m not so sure about this. We shall see…”

I didn’t know that within months of Peep’s birth we’d be living on 16^th floor of an apartment building and that I would be responsible for changing her diapers. I didn’t know how hard it is to pin a cloth diaper onto a wiggling mass of baby flesh without pinning the baby. I didn’t know how much it would hurt me every time I hurt her. And I didn’t know that within a year and a half we’d have a new stepdad. All I knew at this moment was that, for me, my family was complete.  

We would go on to share many adventures, a lot of laughter and more than a bit of sorrow, but we were three now, and three we would stay. From this point forward, the three of us banded together to protect each other from mismatched parents and an often dangerous world. We loved and fought and built an iron-clad fortress of Us. Over the years, a few special people were let in. Most became life-long friends, soul sisters, to this day. But it all started with three little girls and one crazy momma who loved us fiercely. Rock on little ones!