Larry R Andrews
My Brother John
John, my only sibling, was six years older. We shared a bedroom in matching twin beds in Toledo and North Baltimore, but he was off to college as I entered junior high and in the army by my senior year. My earliest memories were listening to his made-up stories about a detective named Umbriago, who was a hand puppet he had--usually in bed in the dark. On Leybourne Avenue he was good friends with Phil Hiser, who lived behind us on the next street, accessible by a path between garages. The kids in our neighborhood of all ages played beanbag tag and, in the dark, flashlight tag. John had a yellow toy “jet” racer car that he ran in the street on a string, fired by little cylinders of propulsion. Periodically he and I would beat rugs on the clothesline for Mom with thick-wire beaters made for that purpose. He collected Donald Duck comic books when they first came out in the early 1940s, and they were a bonanza for me.
When he was in 8th grade in Toledo, Dad & I took him to "teen town" dances and played that connect-the-dot game in the cloakroom while he danced. He played trumpet in the DeVilbiss High School band just before moving in 1948, disappointingly for him, to our small town. He wanted to try out for the Ohio State marching band, but a burst ear drum or abcess in 12th grade ended his trumpet playing. We had some wonderful family trips—to the Smoky Mountains, New England, Mackinac Island around to Chicago. But sometimes I teased him mercilessly about girls, and we grew impatient at Bunker Hill when he stayed behind to choose just the right post-card folders from the souvenir shop. His music-appreciation class LP of Beethoven's 5th and Mozart's 40th symphonies became my early experience of classical music besides Mom's piano and some Neapolitan Trio 78's at Grandpa Andrews's farm. John put together the hi-fi set from a kit, and he had a motorbike he liked to tinker with--more mechanical interests than I ever had, despite both of us starting in engineering at OSU. I bought my first car, a light blue 1949 Chevy stick shift, from him for $100. And then I also got my green 1954 Chevy from him in 1960.
Larry Andrews