Travels with Sue

My younger sister is a character.

Like all of us Burkes, of course, Sue is very bright. During her early childhood, this genius was manifested by an amazing imagination.

She always comes to mind when one particular design of electrical transmission tower comes into view.

Yesterday, I saw a whole gallery of power lines connected to generating stations along the Columbia River. And they reminded me of Sue.

What’s a whole gallery? Well, more on that later…

One day, during a family vacation in the western United States, my little sister took note of the power lines and standards that stretched from horizon to horizon and shouted, “Cats!”

The structures unarguably resembled felines; and, thus, a connection between travel, towers and memories of Sue was forever implanted in my mind.

She had an invisible friend, named “Blue-Tee”. The name was assigned, I suspect, because Sue’s favorite color was blue.

Blue-Tee had a way of making her – or his – presence known at opportune moments that often broke the monotony of otherwise dull hours.

The English language is rich and pretty comprehensive; but Sue was constantly engaged in expanding and improving upon it.

She was aware of “standard” pronunciations but felt compelled to restructure words more to her taste – or maybe she did it just to amuse Blue-Tee…

For example, she enjoyed reading Life “MAZ-a-geen” and reported that Robin Hood fought with a “BARE-in-oh.”

But my favorite “Sue-ism” was actually based on real life experience. That’s real life as portrayed on television, of course.

TV was a fairly new phenomenon when we were kids and a favorite program was “The Howdy Doody Show.”

A studio audience of children attended each show and was housed in bleachers that Buffalo Bob called “the Peanut Gallery.”

After watching the program, Sue began to refer to any collection of items that reached a certain critical mass as “a whole gallery.”

Had I the level of interest in word usage that grew in me later, I might have asked her just how many … er … crows on a phone line, for example … it would take to constitute a “WHOLE gallery” or I might have posed the simpler question, “Sue, is there ever a number that would comprise PART of a gallery – as in, “Look! There’s about a HALF GALLERY of unread mazagines.”

I have other fond recollections of travel Chevy Suburban we used for family vacations.

Not only was there a large back seat, but also ample room behind that seat. And one of us could opt to join our parents on the wide bench up front.

I remember riding shotgun one day on a country road. The windows were open and my attention was drawn to what sounded like singing.

It was singing – Sue was leaning out the backseat window behind me, making up lyrics to describe the passing landscape.

I’d love to be able to play a tape of the little concert she performed into the onrushing wind, but you’ll have to settle for the following approximation:

“….and we’re passing by some cows
and a long wooden fence.
“…and a telephone pole
and another and another.
“Now we’re coming to a hill”

You get the idea.

This very literal, but timely tune should have been recorded. As should Sue’s pièce de résistance: another original song –well, the melody may be familiar to some of you.

The lyrics were obviously inspired by climate control levers on the dashboard of the Chevy.

During her performance, Sue was located between our parents, so I had to lean over the seat to make out the words, which went like this:

“Fan, defroster, heat and air…
“Fan, defroster, heat and air…
“Fan, defroster, heat and air…
“Fan, defroster, heat and air…”

It was a classic that resonates for me today just as it did 45 or so years ago.

It occurs to me that anyone who is searching for meaning in life may need only to explore the multiplicity – and simplicity – of solutions offered by the fan, defroster, heat and air.

Such is the genius of my little sister.

Do you want more examples? I have lots more… In fact, I have a whole gallery!