A few days after Shirley's funeral, I had a memory come and I had a visit back in time. I was only about five at the time of this little happening. I had been recovering from a sickness that left me unable to walk. I pulled myself around with my arms, dragging my legs. As time went by I improved up to a crawl. Needless to say, I got preferential treatment from everyone. Probably spoiled a little. I remember Martha swatting me then running. I did my best to catch her, but couldn't. I worked and worked and got to where I could get up on my feet and run a few steps before falling and finally actually staying on my feet, still trying to catch Martha . . unintentional therapy. When Martha was in school at Paul, Idaho, she was the fastest girl in the whole school. I always thought I should get a little credit for her training. I put the pressure on her.
Back at Scandia, I'm still the spoiled little kid in the family. And then Whammo, Shirley is born! Everyone thinks she is pretty neat. All eyes are on her. I am five years old and my prestige has taken a fall. A few days later the neighbors acrosst the street, Bertha & Ed Wiers who owned the drug store up on Main street, came over to our house and possibly thinking that we had enough kids and as they had none and wanted a sweet little baby like we had, that we would consider letting them adopt Shirley. This is in all seriousness. As a five year old spoiled kid, I thought, WOW, things could get back to normal. What a good deal, Shirley would have money and everything and I could still have my place back. I don't know if this decision came to a vote or not. I was just five. Anyway we kept her.
She probably is still saying, Ha, Ha, Ha!
~Karl Jansen, April 2008
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