As I perused the pictures my baby sister Marcia sent me this spring via Facebook, I noted only one of just her and me. That’s not that surprising; I have not a lot of memories of things she and I did alone together. There were many things the THREE of us did together: Leslie, 16 months younger, and Marcia, five years my junior. Also, Leslie and I sang together, and Leslie and Marcia shared a room.
Still, there was one thing Marcia and I did together that was just ours, without Leslie or my parents: we played spies, based on the 1964-1968 NBC-TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; the acronym stood for the United Network Command for Law Enforcement. The two prime agents were Napoleon Solo, played on the series by Robert Vaughan, and Illya Kuryakin, played by David McCallum (who now plays Ducky on the TV series NCIS). It was one of those spy shows undoubtedly influenced by the success of the James Bond films, complete with an array of gadgets.
When we played, I was the debonair Solo, while Marcia emulated the clever Kuryakin, busy fighting evil in the form of a group called THRUSH. I don’t remember storylines, but I do recall vaulting off the side porch of our house to capture the imaginary bad guys, with “Illya” on the stairs right behind me.
Happy birthday, Marcia; thanks again for all those photos. (Can’t call her little sister; she’s taller than I am!)
I love these little fun vignettes! Happy birthday to your baby sister!
You were beautiful kids. TV series are wonderful for children to imitate. I remember that my youngest daughter and my son used to play Battleship Galactica or Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.
Nice post, Roger.
Oh, and happy birthday to Marcia.
Something else we have in common: As a kid, I also played spies from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Thanks for sharing the memory!