My memory and my heart keep a special story about each of my three brothers. 

My oldest brother, Jack, five years older than me, took me on an exciting snow sled ride when I was barely old enough to trudge through the deep, deep snow we relished for “Submarine Hill” sled riding.

Climbing over a fence between the neighbors’ and our house, then what seemed a forever hill down and back up through backyards, Jackie and I finally arrived at the fire keeping the neighborhood kids warm at the top of Submarine Hill. One of them burned holes in new boots for Christmas while toasting his toes!

Soon, I was in a sled train, riding snuggly in front of my big brother on his sled. Older neighborhood boys had built ramps into the wonderful long ride down Submarine Hill. It was where all the neighborhood kids came to sled ride. 

On this first exciting outing with my brother, the tied together sleds didn’t make it far before everyone was entangled in turned-over, off-course sled cars! My brother was frantically checking to see if I was OK, and, I remember letting him know I was ready to go again!

My brother Bob, three years older than me, was such a tease when we were growing up. Years later, he told me what an easy touch I was … I spent many years in my crying place on a far side of our home, licking my wounds from a constant Bobby teasing! Our Dad teased Bob back by calling him Teaser the Mouse, a character on a local puppeteer’s TV show. The fondest memory of Bobby when we were kids was him pretending to eat my mud pies prepared at our backyard swing set.

And finally, my baby brother, Jerry Dean. He is actually two years older than me. He taught me how to climb trees! We had a giant willow tree with big stair step branches in our backyard, over the swingset. A walk from top of the slide across and above the swings plus a double-hand reach to one of those ladder like branches with a swing over to the big branch we could stand on and from there a great climb up and up into the branches that rose above us. We lost Jerry in 2022. I miss him.

I am remembering my brothers and, in particular Jerry or “Feaner” as he became known when one of my younger sisters mispronounced his middle name, Dean, for James Dean, of course!