SIBLING PRANKS... A Rite of Passage
Submitted by Sue Jankowski, Triplet Mom
Originally printed in March 2003

Anyone who has siblings, whether older, younger, or same age, can probably relate to 
this story.  As a middle child, with a sister three years older, and a brother seven years 
younger, I was teased by my sister, and my brother was teased by both of us.  The poor 
kid didn't stand a chance!  Being so much younger than both of us, it took him a good 
few years to not fall prey to the pranks of much older and more devious siblings.

I have memories of being told by my sister that my mother wanted another baby and 
bought me at Grants (a 5&10 cent store).  Then, as I was being carried home in the paper 
grocery bag, I wet the bag, it ripped, and I landed on the sidewalk.  Of course, my mother 
didn't notice her bag was suddenly 7 lbs. lighter.  It wasn't until hours later that my 
mother discovered one of her purchases was unaccounted for and went back and found 
me on the sidewalk.  Creative, huh?

Now, enter my younger brother.  My older sister used to pretend to eat things like spicy 
mustard, exclaim how delicious it was, then proceed to feed a spoonful to dear little bro.  
I claim responsibility (and a photo exists in my mother's archives to prove it) of the time 
I dressed the poor little tyke up like a girl.  Yep, took a good hour or so of begging, 
bargaining, and cajoling, but finally he consented to let me put the dress on him, do his 
hair in pigtails, get him to hold a pocketbook and pose for a picture.  Shucks, the picture 
is so adorable it never made the good blackmail material I thought it would.  Oh, well.

Now, I am seeing my older son, Henryk, trying to put his siblings, triplets Peter, Sandra 
and Conrad, through their rites of passage.  The past Christmas holiday was filled with 
many gifts for the children.  Under the tree were many presents... art supplies, books 
(yeah!), electronic "noisy" toys (groan), and a package that proved to be one Henryk's 
favorites.  It was a blue bag with yellow writing that read "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor 
Beans".  For all the Harry Potter fans out there, you can recall what these are.  Well, 
Henryk thought these were just great.  The vast variety of flavors kept him busy sorting, 
counting, pondering.  Then, the beans were put away for a day or two, the noisy toys 
were played with, and all was relatively calm.  Then, out came the beans.  I heard, "Hey, 
Uncle Joe, try this!"  Now, unsuspecting Uncle Joe, in for a holiday visit from California, 
is well-read in most every topic, however he has not yet read Harry Potter.  So, being the 
fun uncle that he is, he pops the jellybean in his mouth, gags, spits, and says, "that is the 
most horrible thing I've ever had... what flavor was that?"  My son could hardly contain 
himself as he proudly announced, "DIRT!!!"  Well, fortunately, for Henryk, his siblings 
missed this whole scene, so he could pull a prank on them.  Later that day, all was quiet 
(relatively) and the kids were speaking in hushed tones in another room.  Then, I heard 
Henryk say, "Yum!  These are delicious."  Next, Petey troops into the kitchen and 
proudly announces, "I love the vomit ones!"  Sandra comes in and says she has tried 
sardine, earwax, and booger.  Conrad, the candy king, will eat all the flavors and beg for 
more.  Oh well, better luck on your next prank, Henryk!

Oh, by the way, sardine is definitely the worst; grass and spinach are not bad and toasted 
marshmallow is pretty good.