This is one of my favorite pictures. Not because it shows a sweet vacation moment, but because it belies the hijinks that was about to happen.
My brother, Thaddeus — please don’t call him “Thad” — is 6 years older than me. A gap that precludes sibling rivalry, and fosters kingmaking. I adore my brother and followed him everywhere I could when I was little – to his chagrin. I know he loved me, but he just couldn’t look at my innocent, gullible face without cooking up something to torment his little sister.
On this day, we were vacationing in Wildwood Crest, NJ. Dad had taken the car up to North Wildwood to fish off the pier. We usually had no trouble finding something to do close to home, but Thaddeus got restless and asked Ma if he could rent a bicycle.
“Only if you let Maureen go with you.” Thaddeus rolled his eyes and harrumphed onto the porch step.
“But I have to go for a ride!” Ma gave him that ‘you know you can’t leave Maureen behind’ look. Thaddeus paced in front of the cottage and finally his eyes lit up.
“Only if we can get a tandem bike!”
“That doesn’t sound like such a good idea.”
“She’s too little to keep up!”, he countered. “And she pedals too slow. It won’t be any fun if I have to stop every couple of blocks and wait for her to catch up.” Ma bought it. She rented the tandem.
What neither my mother nor I realized, was that my brother’s scheme involved his gift for finding. I had no idea how far we were going, but if I was with Thaddeus, I was game.
So off we went through the maze of streets until we got to Ocean Avenue. This busy, 4-lane thoroughfare was no place for 2 kids on a tandem bike. I couldn’t keep up with my brother’s pedaling and finally just rested my feet on the center column lest I start the bike wobbling. I just held on as we skimmed along the row of parked cars and dodged pedestrians and red lights for miles.
Somehow, we found the marina and my father. I didn’t understand why he was so glad to see us. Thaddeus ran to the edge of the dock and peered down into the water. Before I knew it, he jumped right in and came up with a set of keys. Here, Dad had lost his keys and was stranded at the pier. No cell phones back then, so he would have walked the whole way back if Thaddeus hadn’t sensed that he needed something found.
We didn’t stay long. My butt was sore and my face was sunburned, and Thaddeus was soaking wet. He hoisted me back on the seat and we made our way home to Baker Street.
I don’t remember much about the ride back. I was likely numb by then. Ma wasn’t thrilled when she saw Thaddeus in his wet clothes and heard of our adventure, but there were no repercussions from that day. It was just what Thaddeus did — he found things.