Big Brother and the "Heavy Elbow"

Day 132

When I was very young my brother, who is ten years older than me, would relax on the couch and watch one of the three channels we had on the black and white television. If I happened to stray into the room and he saw me he would ask me if I wanted a ham and cheese sandwich?

If I responded in the affirmative he would tell me to make him one too. If I responded in the negative he would tell me to make him one anyway.

Should I be so foolish as to refuse and tell him to get his own...he would apply the "heavy elbow". This threat alone would normally illicit the desired response. When finally I decided to stand up for my emancipation from sandwich tyranny, my brother would walk over to me, place his elbow on the top of my cute little head and press down until I crumpled to the floor.

This he told me was the "heavy elbow".

Usually, I would decide sandwich service was less troublesome. But as I grew a little older, I estimated by the time my brother got up off the couch and crossed the room, I could make it to the back door and outside to freedom.

Having realized my new found courage, my tormentor employed an old tactic. He would simply "play possum" meaning he would act as though he was asleep, then, when I was close enough, he would grab me around my neck and rub my head with his over large knuckles. Grinding them into my skull until I gave in. This was referred to as a "noogie". I much preferred the "heavy elbow".

Big brother left for the army and then Vietnam when I was nine years old. I once wrote and asked him if he would employ the "heavy elbow" or the "noogie" on the enemy until they surrendered? He wrote back to tell me that the "noogie" and "heavy elbow" had been outlawed by the Geneva Convention as too cruel and unusual.

I was in total agreement.

He made it home from that awful war. And he never employed the "heavy elbow" or "noogie" again.

Until tomorrow,

Ken