When I was 8 I acquired my other sibling. My brother Andy was born. I’ll never forget how Dad announced that pregnancy.

He got Steve and me seated in the living room in Glen Cove. This would have been the winter of 1958. We were on the floor, facing Dad and Mom who perched in the matching chairs, their backs to the big front window. Dad was on the left side, closer to the front door, and Steve was opposite him. I was near Mom.

“You know how you guys have always wanted a puppy?” Dad began. Of course we got all kinds of excited at those words. At least I did, and Steve immediately joined in. “A puppy! A puppy! We’re gonna get a puppy!”

Dad had to speak fast and loud to break through our enthusiasm and disappointment. I think all Steve and I took away from that talk was the wish for an opposite-gender baby so we wouldn’t have to share a bedroom.

We perked up in a bit though. We participated in so many chats about the coming kid that we named it. We started calling the embryo “It’ll” because we were saying things like “It’ll have green eyes,” or “I bet it’ll like ice cream.”

I’m sorry to report I brought chicken pox into the house. I caught it in school, gave it to Steve, and he shared it with Mom. His case was light but she suffered. They said Andy was born with antibodies – that he’d had the pox right along with her – but if so his immunity eventually wore off; he had a dreadful case of the virus in his early 20s.

While Mom was ill Dad was our primary care provider. He wasn’t much of a cook but he thought he could make a salami omelet. And maybe he could, but I liked neither salami nor eggs so I didn’t enjoy those meals. What I did enjoy was the extra time with Dad. He was playful. Imaginative. I’m sure he created and encouraged the It’ll tales.

Little It’ll was born on July 12. I was spending the night at my next door neighbor’s, a very rare event, and I felt a bit ripped off when I woke up to discover my brother Steve was spending the night there too. But the birth of It’ll was a nice consolation. Mom named him Andrew and vainly thought we’d call him Drew. She brought him home a few days later and he promptly began to be cute.