When your sister's a dog...

I suppose every boy thinks his sisters are dogs; in the physical appearance department, anyway. I know I would have gladly traded my sisters for real dogs at various points in my youth.  I'm pretty sure a boy would lose his boy-card if he was ever caught referring to his sister as anything but a dog; even if they were stunning young ladies. My appreciation for my sisters changed as I got older. They weren't dogs, but they weren't supermodels, either. Too bad on the supermodels part - I would have been a hero in high school!

There was a time, though, that Beth seemingly was a dog; in a very odd sort of way.

Our family vacations almost always involved camping. We camped at Meramec State Park almost every year. One year, we even camped in a beautiful setting on a mountain in Colorado. That's where Beth became a dog.

There are inherent dangers when families camp; not the least of which is the risk of small children falling into the river or campfire. My folks had the perfect solution to keep Beth from those dangers - a harness. A rope connected the harness to one of those stakes you screw into the ground for a dog run. Merely by ensuring the rope length was limited; they were able to keep Beth from getting too close to the fire or beyond her toddler-knee depth in the water. What a great solution!

We found that he harness had other valuable uses, too.

The campsite had playground with swings and a slide. Mom wouldn't let us go to the playground without Beth. She was "The Baby." We had to take her along.

Debbie was the oldest; probably a whopping nine or ten when we went camping in Colorado; probably a whopping nine or ten, so she was "in charge." She was also deviously brilliant!

Mom was concerned about our diligence watching Beth in our excitement of playing on the swings and slide! Mom feared that Beth would wander into the path of a swing and be hit.

No fear of that happening, though!!

Not with Debbie in charge!!!

She came up with an ingenious plan that would allow us to safely take Beth along without limiting the rest of us from having a good time. Yes, Debbie figured out that we could tie the rope from Beth's harness to a tree just far enough away from the swings that she wouldn't be hit by anyone.

What a brilliant idea! There was no fear at all of Beth being injured or lost!

Beth was remarkably compliant. She sat calmly by the tree; watching us play in the playground.

I guess this says a lot about all of us.