The Fur Coat Club revisited

As children, my sister and I saw a movie about two girls who like to touch fur coats unnoticed, so we decided to make our own Fur Coat Club. When our parents would take us to the theater or somewhere fancy, we challenged each other to see how many ladies clad in fur we could sneak past and surreptitiously touch their soft coats. As children, we travelled a lot to visit our extended family so we spent a lot of time together. We rarely fought but when we did my mother would tell us that we were friends. Prompting my sister to reply “We can’t be friends, we’re sisters!”. But, as she usually was, my mother was right. Friends we became and friends we remain, not letting more than a couple of days go by without at least a text.

Now, many years later, my sons are experiencing a similar level of togetherness. They are teenagers and just as they were getting used to a higher level of freedom and responsibility, their world was locked down. The early bus rides and demanding school and team schedules were replaced by a later school start time and from-home zoom calls. They have a (very) small group of friends and neighbors they see but otherwise, they have each other. There are rough moments of course; “He NEVER empties the dishwasher” followed by “Well, you never shower!” and a new line of humor about how the other one was secretly adopted. But overall, they have a bond that has grown in a way it wouldn’t have without the pandemic. Every morning before school they get up at 7:30am, crank their tunes, and lift weights together. Now that they have the same school schedule (all middle and high school classes are now synced in our county), they meet up for lunch in the kitchen, where if we’re lucky, my younger son will be whipping up a batch of muffins or banana bread. Sometimes before I go to sleep, I hear him let himself into his big brother’s room and I fall asleep to the sounds of them discussing the events of the day.

There have been many disappointments, losses, and setbacks over the past seven months, but hopefully they’ll look back on this time and remember with fondness their time together. I’m not sure what their club would be called if it had a name (the Sourdough Starter Siblings maybe?) but this time together has solidified their friendship and for that I am grateful.