i got all my brothers with me. no sisters, though. can i still qualify?

there’s nothing like the sound of philadelphia (except for the eponymous song, i suppose.) so many musical greats came out of that grey, grey city. while not in that league of greats, sister sledge certainly has had a decent career in the top 40, no thanks to me, of course. (i could care less, for example, for their song he’s the greatest dancer, which is utter drek.)

but i always love when families can put aside their sibling rivalries and form a band.  let’s see, there’s the osmonds, the jacksons, the cowsills, the partridges… such happy, loving people who always got along! and of course the sisters sledge, who really have been singing together since childhood. once the magical production team of nile rodgers and bernard edwards from chic took them under their proverbial wings, they came up with two hits. the latter i’ve already mentioned not liking.

but we are family? how can you NOT like this song? it’s joyful, it’s fun, and hell, it can even be construed as a feministic anthem for women everywhere.  (which may explain why it was also good enough for the pittsburgh pirates.)

anyway, my twisted mini-memory of this song comes courtesy of toms river intermediate west, which has since been renamed toms river intermediate north, which should ALSO not be confused with toms river high school north. (my hometown has a slightly screwy school-naming situation. it is the proverbial tip of the iceberg, one might say.)

the big excitement of eighth grade would be the year-end talent show. i still remember being one of the lucky kids selected to be in the end of year talent show, though i cannot, in fact, recall what my talent was or how i performed it. (i do remember the christmas show, where i performed a milquetoast song called christmas is a feeling while some high-pitched eunich boy sang along. yes, virginia, christmas is a feeling; a feeling of wanting to self-immolate.)

nevertheless, i do remember the big finale — everyone danced down the narrow stage to we are family. i still recall this one girl, angela, from south toms river who danced so amazingly. i wanted soooo badly to dance like her, but alas, as a nice jewish girl, i knew that i would not. i simply looked stellar in my white pants with attached suspenders (this was 1979, after all); in retrospect, considering there were strobe lights and such, i wonder whether everyone could see my underpants.  (thank Dog i had no idea at the time or i would have never, ever lived down my mortification.)

yep. we are family reminds me that no matter how stupid i looked, there were people in the world who still publicly admitted to being my relatives. lucky for me, they still do.

but just in case, i think i’ll avoid white pants at all costs.