Family Stories

I like a few others didn't see the page turn either.

My family definitely had ground rules. Always come home when the street lights came on. My dad always did a specific kind of whistle for my sister and me when he needed us to come home. It created the idea that family was always the most important thing. We always ate dinner together, my dad sitting down last because he wanted his girls to get as much food as they wanted. As much as it annoyed me when I was younger because we couldn't start until he sat down, it really made the impact that he cared and wanted the best for my sister and me.
Like any family with young children in the nineties, by parents were petrified that we would get stolen so we had passwords. If someone said they were from my mom's or dad's office that came to pick us up, they would have to tell us the family password before we would get in the car. That situation never ended up happening, but it resonated with me as I grew up. I was always really protective about my sister, especially at parks. One day she wandered over a hill and my mom didn't know where she went, so I went running after her. I was maybe nine and she was around four, but she was walking toward a stranger and I flipped out, running up to her and grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back to my mom over the hill. So the over protectiveness really rubbed off on me. Which is probably why I'm still very over protective of the ones that I love.