Happy Birthday Sista J

This is the week of happy. Yesterday Carter came home happy from senior challenge. Today is my baby sister Janet’s birthday, next Friday is my middle sister Margaret’s birthday. So much happy rolled into such a small time.
The thing about being the much older sister is that I remember everything about my sisters’ growing up during the time when they were too young to make memories for themselves. This is especially true for Janet since I am almost nine years older than she is.
I remember Janet when she was three and still would wear dresses, something she quickly outgrew as of about five. Janet should have been a child model she was so beautiful. Her big blue eyes and perfect nose made her a classic American child. If Ralph Lauren had made a Children’s line when she was little she would have been his type of model. But then was one major hinderance to her modeling potential, she hated to have her hair brushed.
Janet had thick beautiful brown hair. She could hardly tolerate it being washed under the faucet of our bathroom tub. As the older sister I think her washing was one of my responsibilities. Since she hated it so much I am sure I did a very bad job of rinsing all the shampoo out. And we had a life time supply of free shampoo since my Dad worked at Avon.
Once out of the tub Janet would run naked away from me and never, ever let me get near her with an Avon hairbrush to get the tangles out while her hair was still wet. This led to the original white girl dreadlocks. Janet would go to sleep with her tangled hair which meant that brushing in the morning was going to practically impossible.
Thank god for Dorothy Hamill, because by the time Janet went to elementary school short hair for girls was in fashion. That was also about the time that I went to boarding school and so there were two fewer hands to try and tame Janet’s wild hair.

In a big sense of irony, today Janet owns a beauty business where she makes gift boxes and collections of beauty products for major department stores. Her hair is still short, but she is quite a pro at doing it.
Janet’s busy season is Christmas, so sadly right now she is in California supervising the pack out of all her Christmas deliveries. I wish I was there to help her print labels for the thousands of cases she is shipping now.
Who would have guessed when she was out riding the mini bike in the woods that she would grow up to be a beauty mogul. Happy birthday to my Sista J. You are the best me I love you and am happy I never have to try and brush your hair while you are running from me again. You were always too fast for me.