I Shoot People Too ~ 6

This set of ten portraits makes a total of sixty. Today’s cover shot is my brother; the one and only. My siblings consist of one brother and three sisters. He is the second oldest. After my mother had her first two offspring, she said she had achieved her quota, that had to do with the responsabilities of children and school. According to him, it was after the firstborn. We have our varied perspectives on life in general, and our histories together.

I have come to believe that the devil IS in the details. When I use to share with my friend, stories about my family, he said, “That sounds like a Pat Conroy novel”.  So, I read Pat Conroy. The father in the Prince of Tides was a mild mannered, southern gentleman compared to our Dad. Our family life took it’s toll on my brother, as it did all of us, in our own ways.

At one time, I adored my brother. In 1968, he had a green Road Runner. He took me to my first concert, The Allman Brothers at Jacksonville Beach. We went 110 miles an hour on I-10. I was use to fast cars. I  can remember my brother driving a white station wagon of my father’s. He would practicing spinning it around to go in the other direction. He would pick up speed, hit the brakes and turn the wheel.  Those were the days, full of danger.

I always drove his motorcycles, including his Harley Low Rider. Women didn’t ride back then. I once heard him tell someone, “If it’s got wheels, she can drive it!” That was a proud moment for me. I always wanted to please him.

Here and there, he let me be his pool shooting partner. He’s always been a gambler. After work one Friday, he took me to shoot dice out behind Ardsley’s Liquor Store on Beaver St. It was by default really. I just happened to be in the car. It was probably dangerous, but back then, without danger I wouldn’t have known how to act.

68′ was quite a year for me. I was twelve. I can remember looking in the mirror and teaching myself to cuss. I got pretty good at it. I was trying to survive; but I was still the Catholic School girl that wouldn’t walk on the grass.

It was a year that my life soared in a direction that had been a long time coming. It would have been really weird, if it had been any other way. There was no one there to save me. I was on my own.

The wild and crazy stories seem endless if I start telling them.

Here are some more people

I see people~beautiful!