Throwback Thursday!

I have a confession to make.  I'm a geek.  And I sometimes do really odd things that I find hilarious but most people just think are, well...odd.  I've always been this way.  Luckily, I have a couple of partners in crime though, because apparently the oddity is hereditary and my sisters share the same trait.  You see, when we were children we used to pretend we were characters of popular television shows and we used to "play" them.  Yep, we would take on the characters and then pretend different situations.  Unfortunately, my oldest sister was already out on her own when most of this occurred, so she didn't get to participate in most episodes.  The three sisters that were left, though, had a blast. 

Sometimes I got a good character...like "Chris" from Charlie's Angels.  Oh how I loved to play Charlie's Angels!  It was particularly interesting to play on my grandfather's farm.  Most of the time, however, I was stuck with the person my elder two sisters did not want to be.  Ah, the joys of being the youngest. 

I proudly injected feelings and emotions into characters such as "Mrs. Howell" from Gilligan's Island, (you can only imagine the fight over who got to be "Maryann" or "Ginger") "The mom" from One Day at a Time, and "Vera" from Alice.

My absolute favorite show to play, however, was the ultimate Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters Show.  We belted out songs and danced our fannies off after choreographing elaborate routines...which we then forced our parents to watch and applaud vigorously afterward.  Naturally, I was "Irlene."  My mother always insisted that she was really smart and she just acting dumb for the show, but when you are 5, that's hard to swallow.  I just wanted to be Barbara...but of course, I never got to be.  Except when I pretended to be her when my sisters were not around. 



Honestly, it really doesn't get any better than this for me.  I am a Barbara Mandrell fanatic!  I remember taking pictures of the display cases at her museum in Nashville.  What a bond I feel to her and her family.  It is pretty natural actually, I mean the whole sisters thing, and I am sure they helped shape my childhood in some aspect.  What good role models the Mandrell sisters were!