I recall both my sisters fighting, bickering over things like; clothes, music,  boyfriends and the occasional spat over who gets to NOT do the dishes after dinner...that was always a source of sibling rivalry.

Even our family camping trips were often spent apart, as Linda and Nancy  always found time for their new found boyfriends. I didn't so much mind because I knew they still loved me, after all I was their brother...I wasn't old enough to understand what they were growing into... except the music we listened to...that, we always shared as a source of mutual pride and passion. After all it was the sixties and oh what a time it was. The music was everywhere, it was spirited, fun, lively, exciting, political, and captivating, different at every twist and turn of a new screaming guitar lick, every rapturous lyric and punctuating drum beat... it was wild...it was fantastic....it was new... it was wonderful. Linda and Nancy and I shared those moments often, and more and more every time our favorite songs came on the radio, or every time we played our records to our parents disgust.

As I watched Linda grow through her teen years I could see a mature intellectual mind at work, sprouting idealist thoughts about what was going on in her world. The sixties were a contentious time, a time when college students and  teens found their angst in that which was changing all around them. A time of moral and political upheaval was at hand ...even in our sheltered suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Occasionally Linda would say to me "you know Eric"... you know what's going on... right? As if no words were needed to explain, I would say "yes" I know what's going on. A trust developed in those years as I approached my teens, and Linda came to the end of hers.

Music somehow always cemented our relationship. Linda often turned me on to music I was never aware of. Her boyfriends always sucked up to me trying to get in "good" with the younger brother so things were O.K. with the new girlfriend. I remember one of them (who was the spitting image of actor William Hurt) turning me on to something called "FM" radio. He plopped a large black transistor radio down on our kitchen table and said switch this over to "FM", and with the flick of the switch I heard "Purple Haze" .... I was fascinated at the lively sounds, Bill said; "That's Jimi Hendrix man"! Isn't that cool ?, the sound was stereo... if not for Linda having dated him it's possible I might not have heard Jimi Hendrix until later on in my life. Linda's influence was always apparent to me.