Oh Those Phelps Girls!
2 + 1 + 1 = The Sisters
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These first two sisters came along three years apart and as different as night and day.One was thin as a rail and the other, shall we say, quite a sturdy young lass. One was fair and light, the other had a dark side. One was Miss Goody-Two-Shoes and the the other seemed to always be around in the midst of the fray. One was a cheerleader, Miss Popularity, a beauty queen, the other was a tomboy with dirt on her face. I can tell you, from experience, that the dark, sturdy, tomboy was a complete embarassment to the willowy, cheering, beauty queen. And never did a day go by when there wasn't some kind of fuss - I think the psychologists call it Sibling Rivalry! That is until............
THEN THERE WERE THREE
At that point things changed drastically for the beauty queen and the tomboy. No longer were either of them in the limelight for any reason, except of course when the tomboy found her daily dose of trouble. Now the BQ was REALLY the oldest sister and the TB was the precarious "middle child" (a reason, that she would declare in later life had caused all her shortcomings).
And then we have the New One...cute, bright, bouncy...what's not to love?? She even earned a pet name from my Dad - something that has stuck with her ever since. I can remember sneaking into the bedroom, right after she arrived home from the hospital, and pinching her. Now, that was a long time ago and I can't, at this point, remember my motive - I'm going to say it was because this strange creature was just such an oddity to a five year old. (There, now doesn't that sound acceptable?) At any rate, she immediately became everyone's darling, and the BQ and the TB were pressured into joining forces if they even wanted to gain acknowledgement. This New One was a different person altogether from the first two and seemed to not be interested in being involved in any of the things we did.......AND
THEN THERE WERE FOUR
Now, we only thought competition was tough before! Just look at her! She was precious...all blonde with the traditional peaches and cream complexion...and there we were in the throes of puberty - emotional wrecks with unmanageable arms and legs....what parent in their right mind would not choose to deal with wet diapers as opposed to temporarily insane adolescent girls??
But, I must admit we all loved her...do remember though, that we could make her cry just by singing "BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY"(a song popular back in the 60's - for those youngsters out there) - Unfortuately, it did not tickle our mother as much as it did the SISTERS. She was a welcome, if late, addition to the clan.
There you have it. You can see the grown-up editions of the 2+1+1 on the Whole Gang page....there may be further chapters...one can never tell..
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