My roommate told me this story was cute enough to blog about.

So I had to pull out my immunization records tonight, and I found the paper that Mom filled out when I was 4 about all my vaccinations. I thought it was adorable. Cute little 4-year old me.

The paper I was filling out asked if I had had the chicken pox vaccine or the actual disease, and I was reminded that I kind of think it's tragic that kids don't get chicken pox anymore. Call me old-fashioned, but it seemed like an important part of our childhood. Chicken pox was a rite of passage, this really great time when kids could just stay at home, try not to scratch their itches, and have their friends sent over to play with them so that they could get chicken pox, too. I mean, it's not like it was polio or something...just a fairly innocuous little disease that did no permanent damage. Parents could cross it off their list of things to get done....chicken pox: check.


But now nobody gets it anymore. And it kind of makes me sad. Kids no longer have the opportunity to personally experience, for example, this really tender story:

Burke (my twin brother) got the chicken pox first. We were 5 and in kindergarten. So Burke was out of school for a few days, and every day he would walk down the giant hill that we lived on top of to meet me at the bus stop when I got home from school, and we'd walk back up the hill together. I distinctly remember getting off the bus and he was waiting there for me. We shared a bedroom (I slept on the regular bed, and he slept on the trundle bed underneath...which I also always thought was sort of cute, but now I just think, "Oh....poor Burke. He didn't even get a real bed.") and played together regularly, so it was only natural that I catch the chicken pox, too. So then for the few days that I missed school, I'd walk down the hill to meet him at the bus stop, and we'd walk back up the hill together.

Tell me that's not adorable.

P.S. Here's a picture of Burke and I when we were probably about 5....



Important things to notice about this picture:

1. Burke's enormous hat (and his cute little dimple).

2. My huge bangs that go halfway back my head (also, notice that they've got lift - I was clearly jumping, which brings me to #3)

3. I was not that much taller than him. I think we were on a trampoline or something.

4. My sweatshirt is tucked into my pants...and I'm wearing suspenders? (I actually remember those....they were pink.)

(Tina, this picture was for you.)