NOW THAT MY BROTHER IS GONE…

SOMETIMES MEMORIES are a mixed metaphor of relationships but maybe that is all there is. While some may talk about the rubber meeting the road or there comes a time when we have to bite the bullet there is the inevitable time when we just have to punt. My brother, Jim, and I were never really close but through the years there were times when we were close (in snapshots) and those are the times I want to share with those who read this blog.

Our parents obviously had one of the famous Brownie box cameras and the following snap shot shows Jim and me as we (mainly Jim I’m sure) reading a road sign on the Skyline Drive. Since this picture was shot around August 1937, I was only five and reading was not one of my abilities but I am showing a feigned interest and ability to read the road or path directions just the same:

THREE YEARS LATER shows us brothers standing at as near attention as most eight-year-olds could muster but my (now) Cub Scout brother looks pretty spiffy in his official Cub Scout uniform as he is a little past his 11th birthday and he looks like he is enjoying getting his picture taken with me. Here is a studio photo when I was six and Jim (on left) was ten.

WE WENT TO CAMP together. Much in those years is rather fuzzy (what memories aren’t fuzzy after years fade them? The picture below shows Jim on the steps of one of the cabins we used to stay in at Camp Ki-Y-Ro. The acronym contained the sponsors of the camp: Ki (Kiwanis), Y – the YMCA, and Ro – the Rotarians. It was a fun time when we went to camp. This was a lot better sleeping than we had in the Boy Scouts later when we slept in a tent. Jim is in the middle row, on the left end; now three in photo are deceased (boy on top row [Pete Arent], my brother Jim, and the boy in front row [name not known], right end).

As I have mentioned, we were never really close as the four years difference in our ages continually caused the “older brother” and “little brother” syndrome to surface and life continued to drive a wedge between us. The first big separation was when Jim graduated from high school and “he took off” to work at Yellowstone National Park. That was quite a distance from central Ohio.
WHEN THAT SUMMER JOB ENDED Jim joined the Army and stayed in the military for about eight years. My brother always kept me “in clothes” while he was in the Army. I proudly wore some of the shirts he sent me; in fact I embroidered some fancy designs around the flaps of the pockets of one of the wool Army shirts he gave me, and I believe I even had an Eisenhower jacket that I also wore with pride even though it was probably a little large for me but who cares?

WE GOT TOGETHER again with Dad on one of Jim’s furloughs from the Army in 1951 and 42 years later in 1993 we got together again–in the same setting. As three Venrick males we had been with without a woman in the house since 1947 when mother passed away. Our photo in 1993 (below) had to be duplicated and I am glad we took the time to have my wife photograph us at our Summer “Steel Away” in 1993, about two years after my wife’s parents passed away. Age really changed dad who was 5.11 in 1947– in the 1993 shot dad is even shorter than Jim who was 5.06.

ITS BEEN QUITE A PHOTO Journey but all journeys have an ending and the picture below is the last picture Jim (on the right) and I were photographed together; Jim has that “look” so common to victims of Alzheimer. This was taken five years ago (2005) and now we are no longer brothers in the flesh but only in spirit and memories. Time has a way of changing things – even the togetherness of brothers. September 16th we had a small family memorial service for Jim after his passing just two months after his 82nd birthday.

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