Last weekend, my three brothers and I got together for a nearly annual overnight gathering. We have been doing this since 1999. My brothers and I are close, and our age spread is about 7 ½ years from oldest to youngest. The first year, we got together at a restaurant, but we realized after three hours of nonstop talking that we were monopolizing a table. The next year, and for most of the rest of the years, we rented a large motel room, took the leftovers from my Mom’s annual Christmas open house, and purchased a quantity of Guinness.

We even had special beer glasses made, which we haul out once a year. The inscription is “B IV” with each of our names.

Some years, we held the gathering at my condo, and paid for a motel for Janie to have a night away. Although she was gracious about it, it is quite of an imposition, so it only continued a few years. My brothers also smoked cigars (outside) although by then, I was a recovering nicotine addict and I didn’t join in. A few years ago, we invited our cousin Bill to participate and it became the Brothers Four + One. Bill lives in the Phoenix area, so he is not always able to participate, but he falls in the middle of our ages, and we have a close relationship with him, too. We even bestowed a custom beer glass on him. We have managed to develop a pattern with Brother Jerry bringing homemade bread and other snacks, Brother Ed providing the Guinness, Brother Bob making an amazing mushroom soup, and me bringing the fixings for Farmers Breakfast.

There are years in which at least some of the brothers stayed up all night arguing politics or philosophy, sometimes heatedly. (But we still love each other afterwards.) Some of the years we’ve had serious discussions about our Mom’s health and how best to ensure her well-being.

This year, Brother Ed was house sitting with a very friendly Burmese Mountain dog named Siegfried. He (the dog) was quite the attention seeker! This is not Siegfried, but you get the idea.

We ruled out discussing politics. We don’t all see eye to eye, and we were all tired of the constant exposure on Facebook. We had plenty to talk about and had a great time. Some years, we have played poker or watched a movie, but this year, we never even got around to those activities.

+4

0