Do You Remember?

Last night I talked to my sister Melissa on the phone for a few minutes, giving her some happy birthday wishes.  Later that night as I lay in bed, I kept thinking about childhood memories we share.  Melissa and I are only 16 months apart in age, so (unlike my other siblings) I can't remember a time when she wasn't around.  Even though we were so close in age, or maybe because of that, we were especially good at pushing each other's buttons and being mean to one another as sisters tend to do.  But I have so many fun memories of growing up with Melissa, and I found myself last night wishing she were nearby so I could ask her: Do you remember...

• how we used to share that queen-sized bed?  When we were really little, we would burrow underneath the covers and create 'tunnels' and 'streets' in the bedding until mom or dad came in and threatened to spank us if we didn't go to sleep. 
  
• that when I slept at night I slept on my side and needed something to put my top arm over?  You would sleep on your side next to me and let me put my arm over your body.  I still sleep that way, only now I usually use a pillow.
• how I used to make up stories to tell you?  I still remember some of them, like the one about the lightning bug friends who helped the kids out of the dark woods... did I make that up or just hear it somewhere?  I can't remember.
• when we used to ride our bikes together all over the neighborhood, back when kids could do that kind of thing?  I remember those huge dirt hills behind our house in Cedar City that we would zoom down and up.  I also remember pretending that we were cars, complete with turning signals and loud horns.
• Safety Kids and Wee Sing?  I remember singing those songs as loud as we could and coloring in the books together.
• when the two of us biked down to the grocery store for treats and saw a lady giving away kittens, and we just HAD to have one?  I think that is the kitten we named 'Marbles.'
  
• our paper route that we shared?  I always walked down the right-hand side of the street and you walked down the left, and we would meet at the end corner.  If we had money, we would stop in the corner store to buy treats.
• how you used to be a pro at catching grasshoppers in the long grass behind our Sugar City house, and how I hated them so much?  If you wanted to torture me, you would chase me with them!  That becomes funnier and funnier as I get older!
• all the fun we had playing together?  I remember spending hours and hours playing Little People, Barbies, and other games that we invented.  Do you remember that game where we would set up our three Barbie tables of varying heights to represent a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place podium?  Then we would use our paper and crafts to create a bunch of awards, and we would vote on which awards were for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  I don't remember who won the awards or what they did to win the award, all the fun was in creating the awards themselves!
• that you were my best friend?

(Please tell me, friends, that you remember dressing just like this once!  Rolled pant cuffs, glow-in-the-dark T-shirts, neon T-shirt clips, white tennis shoes, poofy bangs - we were sooo stylin'!)

Happy Birthday, sis!