The Southern Twins

It was Christmas time and Anne and I were coming home for the holidays and enjoying our time off from College. We were both broke college kids that had no money but we scrimped and saved to buy our Dad the George Strait Box Set. It had just came out and Anne and I grew up listening to George Strait with our Dad. As itty bitty kiddies we would sing the old classics at the top of our lungs. I remember one day Anne and I just singing and singing  in the truck when the cassette tape ended and it needed to be ejected and flipped to listen to Side A. Remember those days?  Before the first song on SIDE A came back on, Anne and I started belting out the song. Dad looked at us and said “Ok, I think you two have had enough of George Strait.” Clearly, since we had memorized the entire tape.  So this year we were showing up with the George Strait Box Set to put under the tree. Dad opened it and just loved it. We immediately went out to put it in his new truck. His new truck had a CD Player so this was all “new” and high tech! Fancy! Fancy! My father had not one ounce of electrical/mechanical handiness and I did inherit that from him. The VCR was quite the puzzler for him at times. So we threw in one of the CD’s, fired up that diesel truck and went out to check cattle all the while enjoying “Cowboy Rides Away and The Fireman” It was a great day! Fast forward to the following Spring. Anne and I come home for the for a visit and Dad meets us coming down the driveway. I thought that was so nice, looky… he is so happy to have us home. We park and there is Dad standing at my door, which then I thought that he was really excited or we were getting ready to go do something and he needed us to “hurry up!” I get out of the car and said “Hey Dad, we made it!”  he said “Good deal, listen, crawl up in this truck and get the CD out of the CD Player”  I just kind of looked at him and said “ok, what is it stuck or what?” he said “Hell, I don’t know how to get the damn thing out, but once you do, you throw that George Strait CD out the $%&@ window, I don’t care if I ever hear another song of his for the rest of my life” I just stared at him and said “what do you mean? You have been listening to the same  CD since CHRISTMAS?” he said “YOU NEVER SHOWED ME HOW TO TAKE IT OUT!!!” I laughed my ass off..heehee! If you knew my Dad, he could be aggravated easily so I can imagine that riding around every day listening to the same CD was enough to make him lose his every loving mind. Ole George Strait hit the skids that day and I gotta feeling he never made a reappearance in that Dodge truck….ever!

Good times!

Leigh W

Growing up on a farm, always outside tinkering with stuff some would think that I am kind of mechanical and handy. I am not. I have no “handiness” to me at all. If something breaks or doesn’t work right, I am the first to speak up with my famous words “Let’s just call somebody and have them fix this” That is my “go to” when I can’t figure something out. I learned this from my Father. I remember him having the project of putting up mini blinds once. That lasted all of 5 minutes when he threw everything on the floor and said “call somebody and get them in here to do this! I don’t have time for this kind of stuff!” I have countless examples of this. My twin is the exact opposite. She will work on something till she makes it happen or she reaches a point of completely and utter madness. Anne will be working on something long after I have already went to the house, grabbed a beer and moved on to something else. For example: Anne and I were getting ready to haul the horses to go ride one morning and for some reason the tail gate on the truck was stuck. At this point in our lives, this truck was old and the fact that it still had its tailgate was astonishing…winning! ha! We had to get the tailgate down in order to hook up the trailer and it just wouldn’t budge. It went a little something like this:

The Old Ford Truck

Me pulling on the tailgate “Hmm, ANNNE!!!!!!!!!! (screaming for her) I can’t get the tailgate down.”

Anne coming around the corner “what do you mean you can’t get it down?”

Me: “What part of it has you lost? The fact that I can’t do something or the fact that the tailgate is in fact stuck?”

Anne: “You are such a smartass at times, get out of the way.”

Anne promptly walks over to the back of the truck and tugs on the latch to pull the tailgate down. Astonishing.. and it was a big shocker for both of us that uh……..nothing happened. IMAGINE THAT! So I try again and yet….NOTHING. Still stuck. Now at this point, I have already come to the conclusion that we aren’t hauling these horses anywhere and that in fact, we will have to get someone to take the tailgate OFF and fix it. This is the point where I say “Ok, well we just need to call somebody or take it in and have them take the damn thing off.” It takes Anne a bit longer. Actually, she never gets to that point. In my mind, I am already planning the rest of my day….ride the horses here at our farm and then maybe drink a couple of beers. While I am planning, planning, planning Anne has left and comes back with a hammer. “GET OUT OF THE WAY” she says as she goes to wailing on this tailgate. She is screaming obscenities, I am laughing, she is damn near crying and finally after she has completely wore herself out she gets the damn tailgate off. Of course, at this point, I felt that we both deserved a beer and she needed to relax. I guess this is why we balance each other out so well. Don’t get me wrong, we are both very hard workers and love to work but there are just somethings I don’t mind to let someone else do…even if that person is my sister. 😉

Happy Monday!

Leigh W