The recent holiday trip home stirred my memory, so I am sharing this story. Long intro, scroll down, if you must, for the better stuff.
For many years, the family next door had 2 daughters close in age to my sister and I. Sofia, the oldest daughter, was a year older than me, and the second daughter was 2 years younger than me. She was the same age as my sister. In our younger years, Sofia was a bossy girl. In our teen years, she was the first girl I remember noticing because she was developed before most other girls I was around. Other than talking many times and our families doing barbecues or other things, we didn’t really hang out.
Alexandra was the second daughter. She was often called Xandra (pronounced “Zandra”) or just “Z”. In fact, my sister used to have great fun with my name “Jay” and the name “Z” because of the famous guy. She use to think that his name was some sign from the universe that Z and I were to be married or something someday. Whatever. For a long time Z had been just about as annoying to me as my sister.