Sibling shenanigans (#80530)

[Rainbow_connection]

My brother convinced me that

1) hot dogs were made of dog meat. As a result I haven't eaten hot dogs since I was three (obviously I don't believe this anymore but I never acquired the taste for them).

2) if you jump or dive into a pool and don't enter perfectly straight it will be as if you had jumped onto concrete and then you'll die or break bones. I was terrified of the high dive for most of my childhood.

3) the list of swear words included fudge, ship, and darn. I was so scandalized whenever anyone said them in any context!

[mic0]

Wow, those are some real shenanigans. thanks for sharing!

[Emiliana]

My sister didn't exactly play tricks on me, but she would manipulate me in other ways ... like if there was a pink cereal bowl and a grey cereal bowl, we would both automatically want the pink, right? Right. But she would say, "Oh, I want the grey bowl because BUNNIES are grey!" Then I would suddenly realize that *I* wanted the grey one and she would very graciously concede.

[mic0]

Emiliana, your sister was a psychological mastermind.

[bobtheenchantedone]

I used to boast to my friends that I had Random "trained." I could snap my fingers or nod my head and have her do stuff.

I also played "clean up the room" games where she would do all the cleaning of the room we shared and then I'd give her rewards for items cleaned - little toys, reading aloud books, etc.

She has thankfully forgiven me for such shenanigans.

[Shrinky Dink]

This didn't happen to a sibling, but a friend. My sister and I look a lot alike, so this served two purposes. We made up a third sister. She had a name, family, went to college, and has two kids, and let's call her May. Mostly we used her when someone would ask, "Are you two twins?" and we'd say, "No, we're triplets." and then give some excuse as to why May wasn't with us. I had a friend that we happened to continue this to. It would also be important to mention that we do have an older sister who is real, let's call her April. Anyway, we told our friend that May was real and every once in a while she would see April and ask if she was May, and every once in a while she would see April and ask if she was April. We thoroughly convinced this friend that we had an additional sister. This worked until one day our friend saw April and asked, "Is that May?" and another friend asked, "Who's May?"

Long story short, our friend was really frustrated that we convinced her that we had an additional sister for over three years My sister-in-crime now wants to name her first daughter May after our imaginary sister.

[mic0]

bob, I was the trained one in our family. I thought it was so fun when my brothers ordered me around. Kids are weird.

Shrinky dink, that is amazing and quite impressive.

[Zedability]

I used to say things like "I'll time you to see how fast you can run and grab me a snack...wow, 3 seconds better than last time, good job!"

[vorpal blade]

One of my sister-in-laws is terrified of falling from a balcony. At BYU she was a piano major, but did everything she could to avoid the central area of the HFAC building with its balconies. She was middle-aged before she found out why she was so scared. During a family gathering where old family stories were retold someone brought up the story of the "lift" in their old house in Boston. When she was a very small child her parents left her in the care of her older brothers and sisters for a few hours. The oldest brother thought up the idea of installing a "lift" from their third floor to the ground floor. This consisted of tying a rope to a basket and lowering it from the third floor balcony to the ground floor living room. The older brothers and sisters thought it would be a great idea to put the youngest child in the basket and lower her. It terrified her. The memory had been suppressed, and until she heard her family tell the story she never guess why she was so scared of balconies.

Not very long ago I was telling my brothers and sisters about something that happened forty years before, shortly after my mission. My mother had asked me to take the car to the car wash and get it clean. She said that my youngest sister, then about 7 years old, liked to go along and watch the car being cleaned. She really enjoyed that. I had been away from home for four year and so I had no idea why she liked the car wash. But I took her along to be a good brother.

When I got to the drive through car wash I found that it was a place where you let the machine hook up your car and it pulls the car through the wash. Signs said that I should get out of the car, leave it unlocked, and watch through some glass windows along the side of the car wash. I did that, leaving my sister in the back seat to enjoy the car wash. I should have been clued in when I saw the shocked look on her face as I closed the door. However, there wasn't any time to ask questions as the machine had already begun pulling the car into the wash.

As I watched from the sidelines I began to doubt that my sister really enjoyed the car wash. Each time a giant roller of spinning brushes slammed into the car I could have sworn she was screaming with terror. Brushes came down from above, they came at her from the sides. She clawed at the windows trying to escape, but couldn't get out as the brushes kept attacking her. Well, I thought, if she enjoys this then my sister must have learned to enjoy being terrified in the last four years. She certainly didn't look like she was enjoying herself to me. I guess some people like the thrill of roller coasters and being scared to death, I thought. I had never thought of this sweet shy little child as a thrill seeker before.

When the car finally emerged from the car wash my sister was sobbing hysterically. I couldn't understand why. My mother had distinctly told me that she enjoyed the car wash. When I got home my mother said that my sister enjoyed watching the car being washed from the outside. My mother had never left her in the car before. Well, that explains it.

When I told that story recently it was the first my sister and her husband had heard me tell it. She had completely pushed the memory out of her mind. But not exactly. For the last forty years my sister had refused to take a car to the car wash. She always made her husband do it. Neither she nor her husband had known why she was deathly afraid of car washes.

So, I guess I was the evil older brother, but I believe I did it innocently enough.

[Zedability]

My uncle has a crescent-shaped piece missing out of his ear that looks like someone bit a piece out. They didn't; he was just born that way. But my grandpa liked to tell people that my mom was jealous of the new baby and bit his ear. Years later, my uncle mark was telling this to my younger sister and she was horrified at my mom. My mom replied, "He's just kidding, that didn't really happen!" Which is how my uncle discovered that the story had been a lie the whole time. At age 35 or so.