School Busses and Snowball Fights. And the Dukes.

I grew up with brothers on both sides of me. One two years older, one two years younger. My sister came along when I was seven. So, much of my early childhood was spent playing with legos, guns, and cars. I didn't have barbies until I was about 10. I never owned strawberry Shortcake or Ponies or anything like that. I was at the mercy of my BFF for those things when I stayed at her house.
I was remembering today what we used to do. How my older brothre and I used to play the Dukes of Hazard outside. we'd roll down the windows in the Buick station wagon and hop in. We had a CB radio... I think my folks actually had a real one, but it might have just been fake. Anyway, it was real good fun. We also played the A-Team and probably MacGyver.
My younger brother was different. When i was home with him while my older brother was at school, we played with toys mostly. We loved our Little People, and that was probably what we played with most. We also had this Tupperware bus that came apart into a school, and it had a playground you assembled as well. We played with that a lot too.
I don't suppose that's super relevant. But I've been thinking of my brother, because he's been deployed and will be in Afghanistan for the next 9 months. I think that I was fortunate to grow up with brothers who actually liked me and hung out with me.
We played board games a lot, and still do. And there were the snowball fights. After Dave hit his growth spurt, he was six foot four. And every year, it got harder and harder to dupe him in the snowball world. He's a formidable foe.
Sometimes he calls me up when the snow just starts to melt and invites us all out for a snowball fight. I don't know why I bother, because we get clobbered.
This post doesn't have much of a point. Except that I'm going to miss him. He's always around. He drives an hour down from college to be there whenever family's in town, for birthdays or holidays or whenever he feels like it. And this year, there will be a lot of empty nights at the folk's house this year. Even though we all argue with each other, I think we're about as tightly-knit as it comes.
I just hope that those years of A-Team, Batman, and Cowboys pays off for him some way in the battle field.