Karen was always a serious, intellectual girl. Here at the age of 7 or so, you can see that she displays the WALKER LOWER LIP while reading serious, intellectual literature.
In sharp contrast, I was a ditzy frizzy blonde who became known NOT for serious or intellectual accomplishments but for being . . . well, frizzy and ditzy. Very irritating, I’m sure, to her older sisters and brother. The evidence for this descriptive statement can be seen below:
One of my favorite memories of Karen was at the Haskell house in the mid-50’s. Karen was in the laundry room ironing, or that was her story. She did indeed have the iron on and a shirt on the board, but in actuality she was conducting a symphony. Her eyes were closed, her look was intense and full of emotion, and both arms were methodically waving in the air as she brought in the violins at one point and hushed the brass in another. She never heard me come into the room and I didn’t make a sound; but I realized immediately how intensely she was into the music emotionally and how vivid the situation was in her imagination. I always knew I would tease her about it . . . but I also knew how important classical music was to her from early on. I have no idea if a radio was playing the symphony on that day in the laundry room or not, but it really doesn’t make a difference.
Another memory involved a series of ongoing “notes” that we left each other in the bathroom (which had seashell wallpaper in it) – the notes included typical sibling comments like “Sarah Elizabathroom, clean up your mess!” and the response to that was something like “Karen, you’re always SOOO critical. And, by the way, your hair looks terrible today.” Etc Etc If I’d been smarter, I would’ve kept those notes to present as evidence today.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER: I HOPE THE FAMILY SPOILS YOU TODAY, TREATS YOU LIKE QUEEN FOR A DAY – then, it’s time for you to get back to work.
Love, Sarah Elizabathroom
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