While I’m in a Tulsa/melancholy state of mind, I am once again be grateful for memories of my sister today, and for the time I get to see her in her beautiful daughter’s face on this Thanksgiving trip.

Most of you are by now used to what MacGyver calls “my stream of consciousness style of conversation” which automatically flows into my blog style, so I figure why stop now?

When I opened the window shutters on Thanksgiving morning, I immediately noticed the tree  outside the window. It still had leaves, unlike all of our trees back home – that was notable. But more notable was the memory it transported me to as I stared and took it in.

I’ve never been good at identifying tree types, but this tree reminded me of one not seen often in Colorado. I’m going to  call it an oak even though I’m not 100 percent sure.  But at any rate, immediately the song “Tie a yellow ribbon ’round that old oak tree” from the 70s popped into my mind.

Then my sister’s version of it popped into my mind – also in from the  70s – when she gave me grief on a daily basis for one thing or another. (If you’re six years younger than your sibling, it’s pretty much automatic that you will bear the brunt of your older sibling’s harassment daily and hopefully look back on it later and smile.)

And because my sister was particularly sarcastic and she found herself to be hilarious at the time , I  remember her harassment as all the more funny as I reflect on it.

I was around five or six years old, and like many kids that age, I wasn’t particularly into washing my hair a lot (especially compared to my sister was in full-on wash your hair at least twice a day teenage  mode).

So, “Tie a yellow ribbon ’round your dirty hair” became the theme song in our house f0r quite  a while. I can hear my Mom humming it.  Hopefully you can hear the tune in your head, so this makes more sense.  It was pretty awesome. There were even some yellow ribbon props involved. My sister didn’t do anything at less than 100 percent, harassment included.

And that’s my stream of consciousness for today… I’m grateful for this particular memory that makes me smile, for the ability to remember it, and for all the sweet memories that this sweet town brings back as they rush into my mind at every turn.

Do you have a sibling memory that makes you smile?