"He's Free as the Breeze, He's Always at Ease....

...Yeah, he's gonna go far
And carry moonbeams home in a jar"

The lyrics from the classic song "Guitarzan" describe my brother Nelson to a tee. Out of the three of us kids he's the relaxed one, the go-with-the-flow one, the one who can fit in anywhere and with anyone. He doesn't need to schedule his day, write down his to-do list, or organize his closet by clothing type and color. He's happy to stay behind the scenes or to jump up on stage and perform.

Nelson was the one in our house who could get away with anything. As the middle child he didn't have to break our parents in the way I did. When I was in second grade and he was in kindergarten he and his friends decided it would be fun to take all of my toys and hide them in his room. I thought the house had been robbed when I got home that day. Months later we were still finding Barbie shoes mixed in with his Legos.

The first time my husband met Nelson was at our brother Spencer's college graduation. He didn't know about Nelson's ability to get away with stuff but he quickly found out! The night before graduation Paul, Nelson, my grandmother, my aunt and I all went out to dinner. When the bill came Nelson grabbed it before my grandmother could, saying "I'll get it GrandmaRee." GrandmaRee's eyes lit up- her Nelson was treating her to dinner- how wonderful! I, however, knew better. I knew that the credit card he handed over to the waitress was what we call "the family credit card." As in, the bill goes directly to Mom and Dad.... Sorry to break it to you GrandmaRee- if you didn't know then you know now- Nelson did NOT pay for that dinner! But he got away with making everyone think he did! Sneaky.

Aside from his sneakiness though Nel is a great brother. Whether we were roller skating in the basement in our cool velcro roller skates, riding in the "way-back" of the Volvo, torturing each other at school dances (ok it was more like him torturing me), or singing along (quite loudly) to Guitarzan we always had fun- and we still do.

How I got to be old enough to have a brother who is TWENTY-NINE years old though I'll never know... But I am old enough apparently, and he is, suddenly, twenty-nine....

I thought perhaps a little retrospective of the many sides of Nelson would be appropriate on this auspicious day.

First we have "Baby Nelson". Or Baby Melnas as I called him before I could say his name correctly. Gotta love the early 80's when we looked at the world through orange-colored glasses.