“No… you’re kidding” … “You do not”… “How do you?” … “What in God’s name do you talk about?!”

This is what I hear from friends and even family members when I tell them about my “Mornings with ‘T’” … T is my brother Tuck or as we called him all the years we were growing up … Tucky. Where’d his name come from? Well, evidently, he used to stand up in his crib. Our dad said one day, He looks like King Tut. Thus, his name kinda sprung to Tuck

So why the comments above? Tuck and I talk every morning for at least an hour. That’s right. An hour every morning. Seven days a week. Tuck has a great memory. Mines not bad either. But nothing like his. Our history over seventy plus years is vast. Hilarious childhood experiences. A father whose “Archie Bunker” like personality gives us volumes of material. Oh my God does it! There are always the ball scores. Phillies, Braves. Eagles, Falcons. Sixers, Hawks. T always explodes over Philly sports. A riot to listen to him rant. I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. He doesn’t. So we review the daily highlights. That’s when we’re not recalling funny times. Especially stuff with dad.

Favorite saying of “Archie” Brickley? “That guy couldn’t hit the floor if he feel out of bed!” And that’s one of the nicest thing our father ever said about anyone

Here’s one experience. Dad was very active at Penn where he captained the basketball team in 1939. Bought season tickets to football games for T and me. In the faculty section. Dad told us to be careful. Behave ourselves. The section was filled with very distinguished members of the Penn faculty. Good luck. One game T bought a 32 ounce Coke. We always had this very distinguished professor and his wife sitting in front of us. She wore this beautiful mink stole. You know what’s coming. T hadn’t taken a sip when the cup slipped from his fingers and splashed and splattered all over her. Soaked her stole with 32 ounces of sticky Coke a Cola! “Nice T!!”

I had so many occasions to scream, “Nice T!!” Of course we howl with laughter about the Coke incident to this day. Even though at the time dad was ready to beat hell out of us. The professor had just glared as his wife broke into tears. All the other professors in our section stared in shock. “Who are those brats?!” “Nice T!!”

T had braces on his teeth. He loved jamming a couple of table spoons of Skippy chunky peanut butter on them and smile. Gross! Or the time we watched numerous “Cream of Wheat” commercials. “Mommy, we want cream of wheat?” She bought it, heated it up. We gagged and almost threw up. Mom was so pissed. She actually tried to spank us. She failed. Hilarious.

We lived next to train tracks when we were young. I was eight. T was six. We had beds right next to each other. I’d wait for the 8:15 freight train to rumble by… loudly. In the noise I would leave my bed, sneak over to his and yell out! “Ahhhh!!!” Scaring the crap out of him!

One summer Dad asked T and me to paint the south side of our house at the shore in NJ. T always helped, followed his older brother. We worked our ass off all week painting the house looking forward with pride to dad’s arrival from work in Philadelphia on Friday. T was just finishing painting eaves when dad pulled in. We smiled expecting “Archie” to lavish praise on our work.

Well, what was that long face when he looked at our paint job? He was actually pissed off. I’ve never been good on directions. My mental compass works like a shattered stop watch. Dad had told me, “Paint the south side, Bobby.”.” Nope. Bobby and T had painted the north side! This was a “Nice B!!” Or as dad would always say, “You really screwed that up, didn’t ya!!”

Weeding beds, washing cars, cutting the grass … these were always greeted with dad’s favorite for his boys. “Another half assed job!”

May sound like our times together were rough. They were. But dad and mom are gone now. We have Christine. Our wonderful sister. And maybe this may be the most interesting observations about my mornings with T.

We are totally honest with one another. Even though we are different in so many ways. We have never, never had a fight, grudge or jealousy cause a rift between. Unspoken? We love each other.

Otherwise, how in God’s name could I spend all those hours, all those mornings talking with my brother. My mornings with T. Talk to you tomorrow, T!

Priceless!