The song Sister speaks to the broken fences within families.
I don’t normally use someone else’s writing, except in short, credited phrases of my stories, but I’m swamped with a book project and will resort to borrowing the lyrics from a haunting song written by Cindy Morgan and performed by Cass Morgan and Debra Monk in the original stage musical of Pump Boys and Dinettes.
The song is called Sister. It explores why sisters are not always friends, but it could just as easily bespeak brothers, or maybe even old friends who discovered they never really knew each other. it goes like this, and you can hear it on the link in the first paragraph.
We grew up together
In the same little town
On the same street
In the same house
In the same hand-me-downs.
We shared the same room
And we played the same games
But I never knew you.
Our daddy was gone
And our momma worked hard
So we acted out dreams
In our little backyard.
We were cowgirls and pirates
And gypsies and queens
But I never knew you.
Could we go back to when we were children?
The best of sisters
But never friends
You were a stranger then
You are a stranger now
Could we ever be children again?
When Mama would spank us ′cause she thought we did wrong
I’d keep my tears to myself
I thought I had to be strong.
But sometimes I′d hurt you
Just to make you cry
So someone would need me.
Your eyes would betray what your heart held inside
I wanted to love you
But instead
I would hide.
And now the years have flown by
And all our lies have been told
My children grown stronger
While we’ve just grown old.
I miss you and I love you
And I pray it’s not true
That you′ve never known me.
Could we go back to when we were children?
The best of sisters
But never friends.
You were a stranger then
You are a stranger now
Could we ever be children ever again?
Could we ever be children again?
Could we ever be children again?
Sometimes the fences that need mending exist right within the family.
Jim WillisI am a writer, college professor, and author of several nonfiction books, including three on the decade of the 1960s. Several wonderful essays of gifted Retrospect authors appear in my book, "Daily Life in the 1960s."
Characterizations:
funny, right on!, well written
Thanx Jim for your story and the moving lyrics.
My sister Laurie and I loved each other but we were never friends and now she’ll gone., too late to mend that fence!
Thanks, Dana. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, my sister and I are close, but we are so different in so many ways. She’s the talker in the twosome, so I just listen. Seems to be what she needs, and I’m glad to offer it. Sibling relationships can be complicated, no?
Thanks for sharing that song–it is very poignant and has some real truths. It made me think about my sisters, and how we have such separate lives, even while maintaining some degree of contact. Funny how the family bonds are so strong and meaningful, even when they hold together strangers we might not have chosen as friends.
Thanks, Khati. I remember seeing that musical in Chicago years ago, and that song really spoke to me because I knew several women whose relationships with their sisters had not worked out well at times.