Brother. And Sister.

I was in my room and my mom was watching TV in the family room. It was a typical Boca Raton house of the 70s, the family room immediately adjacent to three bedrooms on one side with the master on the other side. She yelled excitedly for me to come and watch. I put down the model plane I was building and went out. It was the Carpenters singing “Close to You.”

“Look, aren’t they a cute lil’ couple. They’re brother and sister!” she said.

Her favorite adjective was “lil” and was usually associated with something really lame. Her lil’ hairdresser. These (dumb) lil’ pants in a catalog. Time for me to do a lil’ homework.

I watched, nonplused. Brother. My musical tastes were largely influenced by what my older brother Doug listened to… Beatles, Stones, Grand Funk, Cream. Later, folk rock and some classical I picked up from my Dad.

Man, could you GET any more square than these two goody goodies playing some dumb song? Brother Richard with his ripoff Beatles haircut on keyboards and his equally goofy sister Karen on drums. I went back to my model.

It was on the radio a lot and the more I heard it, the more it sorta grew on me. My mom liked to sew in the adjacent spare bedroom and as I was trying on the way-cool suede buffalo jacket with tassels she was making me, “Close to You” came on the radio. “Oh, listen, it’s that lil’ Carpenters song.” This time I found myself tapping my foot and silently singing along.

Next time I was in the record store in the Boca Mall, I drifted over to the C section. I looked around, no friends, flipped through the albums until I found their LP. I brought it up to the counter and and the lady thankfully put it in a bag.

At home, I put it on and found the other songs weren’t bad. Actually, some were really good. Doug came by, listened for a moment, then gave me a sad look as he went into his room and shut his door with the big peace sign. Didn’t I teach you better than that?

I didn’t care. The cute lil’ Carpenters were added to my record collection and they got as much play time as The Doors or the Moody Blues. Just not in front of my friends