Ode to my bro Yo!

Today is my brother Marty's 48th birthday! He was born on Feb. 28, 1964, the year of the flood as we've all heard. It was a leap year as this is, but he was actually born on the 28th, not the 29th. My brother is the 2nd of us 4 kids. We always say "us kids" when we talk about us, it's weird. We were like a herd of Halls. The thing is, though, is that poor Mart was the only boy child. Yikes! He was fortunate that none of us "Hall girls" were super girlie, but let's face it... poor Mart!

There were some rules to being a Hall kid. To name a few: 1) Do your chores, do your homework, in that order. 2)No screaming unless your head was on fire. My Dad was pretty mellow, but he did NOT enjoy a screaming girl. First thing we schooled our friends on. 3) No hitting girls. This one was for Marty. Again, poor Mart! If I were his mom, I would have let him beat the crap out of us. We were rotten sisters. Let me digress on this one... Marty was/is the kindest hearted kind of soul. He was also a bit naive. The wily girls could fool him every time. We convinced him to get into the squeeze shoot designed for cattle. We just wanted to see if it worked on humans... we would let him out.. at least that's what we told him. Oh yeah, he got in there and it worked, btw, on humans. We then proceeded to pommel him with water and dirt clods and who knows what else. Horrible girls! I believe this occurred more than once as did other torture sessions. And by the way, he never got that mad at us, he would just laugh and be a good sport. Gentle giant.

Another thing I remember about my brother is this one time a bigger kid was picking on me and my friends at recess. I lamented at dinner that night. The next day, my brother and his friends had a little chat with that kid and my friends thought that was the coolest thing ever. I just kinda strutted around the playground like I was pretty cool. In all fairness, he should have let the kid put me in a squeeze shoot and torture me, but "Us Hall kids" had to stick together.

So, on this day of my brother Marty's birth, I am commemorating his "brotherness"! Marty, I appreciate what an awesome brother you've been. I also admire the kind of son, husband, dad, Uncle, friend and grandpa you are. You are a wonderful man of God and I am blessed beyond measure for having you in my life. I'm also really glad that for 2 months you are 3 years older than me.... Sucka!!!

Love you Mart!