My name is Trish. I grew up in a rough section of Rhode Island in the 1980s. Which, in the 1980s, meant pretty much the entire state, except for the tourist section of Newport. Which is where we took our family vacations, since we couldn't afford to go anywhere else. All of my classmates would spend school vacations at Disney World (then, Epcot too) in Orlando--it had just opened in 1971, and was adding more and more rides every year. Only later did I find out that their parents and grandparents had taken on debt to finance the excursions, so it's not that those families were any better off than mine--they were just more reckless financially. I spent my childhood resentful at my parents, but I've long since forgiven them.
Ah, my parents .... or should I put quotation marks around that word, and call them my 'parents'? I was biologically connected to my Dad .... I think, as a paternal uncle. And my older sister, Corinna, may have been the actual biological daughter of my stepmother. You might me wondering how I don't know these things. In the 1970s and 1980s, conversations like that were taboo. Parents wanted as many children as they could afford in order to get the tax deduction, and kids just wanted a roof over their head till they could get their high school degree and get a job. It was a very Hansel & Gretel world, filled with evil witches and the specter of hunger. Which is why everywhere craved hearing the Disney version of all the classic fairy tales. Not the unpredicted version (you realize by now how dark the start of Bambi is, right?).
So, Corinna was my older sister. But we're not related.
And we couldn't have been more different.
She did well at school; I flunked test after test. She had raven color hair; I had red. We were both introverted; but she was also shy, and I was outgoing. She scared away boys, I attracted them. I was athletic, she was a klutz.
Our differences worked in our favor for most of our childhood--we complemented each other socially, rather than competing on the same territory.
And she somehow figured out a way to get into a scholarship program at URI, and went away to school. A college girl .... in our family. None of us could believe it.
We almost pulled have a Happily Ever After ending that would have made Disney proud.
Until a boy came between us.
That was another difference between the 1980s and now.
Now, they teach young girls, "No boy is worth fighting over."
In the 1980s, girls were taught, "Ladies don't fight. Unless it's over a man."
So, Corinna and I had a fight over a boy.
And that's an understatement.
To be continued....