“I used to Rule the world”
For two glorious years and two days, anyway. As the eldest child of doting parents, I reveled in my brief reign. For two years and two days, every photograph shows me smiling and confident. All that changed with the unexpected (at least to me) birth of my sister Janet. My naive parents expected me to be thrilled. Clearly, they failed to grasp my true nature. Howling with pain and rage, I ran outside but where could I go? I was two.
I implored them to take her back to the hospital. Some people allege I shoved her baby carriage down a flight of stairs but there is no proof. What is indisputable is that I’m a different child after Janet. Post-apocalypse pix reveal a fearful, pensive, alienated,angry girl. But pictures are worth a thousand words.
Click On Pictures To Enlarge
Having pondered this tragic fall from grace most of my adult life, I believe my two year old brain concluded I so thoroughly bored my parents they replaced me with a more entertaining baby. The sentence for being dull was loss of love. Naturally, I became a performing seal, frantic to entertain at all costs or face abandonment. On the plus side, I’ll work my ass off not to bore readers of this page.
This will not be the typical back-of-a-book-jacket bio. If you want facts – my credits uncluttered by colorful anecdotes – click on the link to my imdb page. Otherwise, buckle up and board my time machine. Since 1963 I’ve kept diaries and I will share highlights (and low points) as well as yellowed notes passed in high school corridors. If you’ve read this far – thanks, and I hope I passed the audition!
Roberta Gundersen July 12, 2015 at 11:34 am
I am amused, impressed and amazed by your self-realization at that tender age of two. Pictures do tell a story, they tell me you had two sisters. Did you experience the same or similar trauma on the birth of “the baby”?
skywhys July 12, 2015 at 12:42 pm
By the time my sister Joyce came along, I was too emotionally numb and dead to feel anything.
Roberta Gundersen July 12, 2015 at 2:14 pm
Wicked sense of humor! Can’ wait to become one of your Beta readers!
Nancy McCaughey February 6, 2019 at 7:05 pm
Kathleen, do you know anything more than you wrote about Paul Raffles and Bill Doherty buying the It’s Boss Club? I’m interested in finding out more about what happened to Paul Raffles after leaving Chicago and going with his wife to L.A.in the 60s. If you have any articles, or know anything more, I’d greatly appreciate it!
skywhys February 9, 2019 at 8:34 pm
Off the top of my head, I don’t know more, but maybe somebody else reading this does? If so, please comment.