Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Happy Birthday Little Sister Jackie; Princess Update

On the morning of this day, over half a century ago, my two oldest siblings and I sat on the curb of the south side of Fairhaven Avenue in Burlington, Washington.

The street we lived on was one block to the south, on Washington Avenue.

On the side opposite of Fairhaven Avenue, from the curb on which we sat, was what was at that point in time, before later being turned into an apartment building, our town's hospital.

And in that hospital, somewhere on an upper floor we looked for our dad to appear at a window. We did not know which window, on which floor, just that the window would be on an upper floor.

It is not easy to try and put into words, all these years later, how excited we were sitting there, waiting.

I do not remember if it was me or my brother who spotted dad first. But, I do remember how happy we were to see dad holding our new baby sister at that window so we could see her for the first time.

All these years later I have not til now wondered why us kids were not just allowed in the hospital to see our new sister.

Our new baby sister was named after a politician's wife who was an extremely popular First Lady of the United States at the time. I never thought if it til now, but Jackie's baby sister also has the same first name as an extremely popular First Lady of the United States, however, Michele was born years before that particular First Lady became one. If Michele had been named after who was First Lady when she was born she would be Thelma, with a nickname of Pat.

I almost forgot to mention, in that photo at the top Jackie is holding her kitty baby she named Pebbles. Pebbles was our first cat.

What follows is several photos of my little Jackie sister with her older siblings, years before Thelma Michele joined the family...


Above Jackie looks to be just a few months old. Maybe older than a few months, due to the fact it appears to be summer. We are standing in our front yard, and that would be me holding Jackie.


That would be Spencer Jack's grandpa Jake to the left of Jackie, which makes me the guy on the right. This may have been a first day of school photo.


I do not remember wearing a jacket and tie at this young age. Were we heading to Sunday School? I do not know. Doesn't Jackie look cute in her little dress?


Again we look to be dressed up to go somewhere special. I have no idea where that might be. I do now it was a rare occasion for my sisters to be in a dress, particularly the older sister.


Again, in the front yard, the camera aimed west, and us kids dressed up nicely. Maybe we were heading north to Lynden to visit the grandma's.


This is the earliest known photo documentation of Jackie in sports attire. I don't believe she was in her own little league uniform. I suspect we had dressed Jackie in brother Jake's little league attire.


The last photo is from several years after all those previous photos. In this one that is dad on the left, with me in the middle, and Jackie sitting next to me. We are at the San Juan Capistrano Mission looking for swallows. We toured this mission between visits to Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm and Hollywood, whilst camping at San Clemente State Park, next to the Nixon's California home.

Happy Birthday, Jackie. See you in a few weeks!

____________


An hour or so after publishing the above an UPDATE came to my phone from Arizona. with the text in the message saying, "Princess Jackie's Happy Birthday Breakfast at Denny's."

At first I thought this message came from the birthday girl. thinking the attached photo was one of those selfie deals. However, upon closer perusal I realized the photo and text message were from Jackie's little brother, Spencer Jack's grandpa, Jake. I did not understand the "Princess" part of the message until I got the photo off my phone and saw that which you see below...

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