You do have to admire the bow-tie.
From an early age, Brian surrounded himself with friends.
But don't let the innocent looks fool you. If anyone (other than Mom) got between the TV Screen and the eyes of his "friends", he could get off that chair and have his fingernails dug deep into the flesh of your arm before you even realized you'd done anything to upset him!
Of course, when you're forced to wear pants like these, random and mindless violence is understandable.
He also had a tendency toward fashionable head wear. (that's me in the Green Bay helmet, and our sister Kathy with our nephew Jared)
Of course, if he caught you laughing at his choice of hats, he'd straight up go Robin Hood on you.
Throughout his early years, Brian loved to show off his warm, sociable personality.
But eventually, I was able to rope and hog-tie him, all the while convincing him that he liked it and it was his idea.
Who could have guessed that all of that would lead to a very rough early teenage phase, fraught with angst...
During this time, he was also prone to the random eating of un-suspecting animals.
Eventually he calmed down and decided that instead of fighting his brother, or randomly un-suspecting animals, he would simply fight against gravity.
It took the wisdom of a caring older brother to convince him that that kinda nonsense is just simply not acceptable.
Since those days, he's grown up, mellowed out, gotten married and had a mess of kids, and lost some hair.
However, he can still jump! Yay Brian!
Also, as you can tell from this photographic evidence, he can now be trusted around animals. Note how he's not even thinking about digging in to the great taste of Horse, the OTHER other white meat.
All kidding aside, Happy Birthday, Brian!!
Lots of (non scary, non-threatening, purely familial) love from the Brinkerhoffs of Fircrest!
p.s. Brian invited everyone to his big ol' birthday party this weekend, by way of the most awesome birthday invitation I've seen since ... well, probably ever. You can see it over at the "greater Birnkerhoffs blog"... At least he gave me credit for introducing him to Dinsosaur Comics...
Thanks for the great pics of Brian!! Too bad you couldn't post clips from the infamous rubber chicken movie.
ReplyDeleteI had that thought too!! Unfortunately, I didn't think of it in time to do anything about it. I'm pretty sure the tape is down in the cave, but I don't have a vcr to transfer it, so it would have taken more coordination than I had time to coordinate. Maybe for next year!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike for the slideshow of Brian. It was most enjoyable. Of course no history of The Life Of Brian is complete without mentioning one of my favorite Brian moments.
ReplyDeleteThe evening when Mom and Dad's Realtor brought over "The People" that would eventually buy the Des Moines house. Brian was so upset about moving that when the doorbell rang and they were let in Brian came from nowhere with a high powered squirt gun screaming really naughty, mostly incoherent, warnings and doused those horrible people with his mighty weapon. Oh yeah, right before they came Donald had just thrown up on the hall carpet. Too bad Mom and Dad did'nt believe in "Bad Omens" they could have saved themselves a lot of grief.
But then that is another story.
I put my easter basket out on that fireplace with Brian. I also went trick-or-treating with him. I remember that he liked the Young Ones and he had two dolls. I also remember your George Micheal phase. I remember once when he was dating Ann, we came into town and I really wanted to go to Toys r Us. We didn't have one in the Tri-Cities and to me it was one of the coolest places on Earth. I had asked Brian if he would take me. He said yes, but the I guess Ann threw a fit and said "they weren't going to waste time on that." I didn't know much about and still really don't about how that relationship was, but he put his foot down and told her,"If my niece wants me to take her to Toys R Us, I am taking her. You can come or not!" I was soo happy.
ReplyDeleteI think I got a pack of gum or something there. I really just wanted to look around. I don't remember him rushing me or anything. If Ann was mad she didn't dare act it. Well, that is just one of the many memories I have of him.
What a fabulous tribute to your brother.
ReplyDelete