Singing and speaking

These pictures of my sister are from two times in her life -- the bottom picture is her as a pre-teen, or early teen, the other picture is her as a new mom with her daughter, Jennifer.

My sister as a teenager was something else. We talked about this yesterday. I didn't realize it. I figured it was just her, being herself.

I never knew my sister could sing on tune until recently. When she was a teenager she was "Lucy" from the "I Love Lucy" show, and when she sang, she always sang like Lucy, even in church. She was never in any of the musical programs at church or in school, because, as we all thought, she was tone deaf. Not so. She sings today, quite well, actually, and can pick out alto without practicing. I'm a natural alto, also, but I also sing tenor at times. I can't seem to get my voice to go about "G" above middle "C", but I can get down to "F" below middle "C". Sometimes, I even pick up the bass, but only in the car while I'm listening to a CD. So I've established that my sister was singing off-key all her growing up years on purpose. She admits this. She did it to make people laugh. And, laugh, we did.

Another thing she would do is be a Russian. Natasha. You know like in "Rocky and Bullwinkle." She has such a great Russian accent, that anybody talking to her would think she was from Russia. I don't recall anyone asking her to speak real Russian. The accent was enough to get attention. She had little ability to learn a new language, like Spanish, French, or Italian, but she could accent them really well.

That was my sister. She was sure so he was adopted, and that, she says, is why she became a Russian. Today, she's such a sweetheart. We talk and talk and talk (on the phone). It's nice to have a sister with whom one can have conversation.