The Big Brother Program

Brandon? I have to talk about Brandon?! Yeah, I guess I’m ready to do that... 

First thing that I remember about my brother? 

He started out funny after he was born. And sometimes, he would get antsy, so when he did either me or Nana liked to rock him, so we would. And then when he got a little bit older (still young)... sometimes he would ask me if I wanted to play with him and if I was doing something else then I would tell him “No, I’d play with him later.” 

When he used to sleep in his crib, I used to watch him do that. And I still watch him do that [though not in a crib any longer]. 

Sometimes I remember when he used to sleep in my bedroom, he put some old headphones on when we were sleeping; we would put them on our head to listen to music.  

Sometimes I would babysit for him when either mom or dad wanted to go out to a store or something. And then, I used to watch movies but he was so little he doesn’t remember that. But I watched after him at the movie theater while Mom and Dad went to another to watch something else. The first movie that I ever took Brandon to... I think it was a comedy movie... I can’t remember the name of it... I just know it was funny and we laughed a lot. It’s not that I don’t want to answer that question, I just don’t know it off the bat. 

At times he gets in a little bit spoiled mood, a little. Sometimes he’s a little bit spoiled... sometimes he wants to look at something and doesn’t ask. If I was holding something and I say “I’ll give it to you in a minute, Brandon” then that is when he would try to grab it out of my hand sometimes... but we got over that now... 

He likes to do a lot of things that I like to do but he likes to do them differently. When I would bring my school work home to do... he would read the words upside down while I did my homework. And then, when I used to have piano lessons, Brandon used to come and walk in the hallway and I had to bring him back out from wherever my piano lessons were so he wouldn’t be in the room. 

I used to do racetracks (running) and Brandon always did it after I did my racetracks exercise... at Danny Jones Complex. 

I remember we had different classes... he had swimming lessons and I had a different swimming lesson. This was a long time ago, before... with different coaches teaching us different classes. 

I know when we got a lot older, we tended to do things differently. Especially costume-wise. I know we’ve done plays together, like Down by the Creekbank. Back at the Creekbank... I did “It’s a Rainbow” and Brandon had a solo then. And then we did another one called “Fat Fat Jehosephat” and Brandon sang a song and I did “Don’t Be Afraid.” 

Sometimes I like to tease him - like my favorite color was purple and his used to be pink (but it wasn’t really true) … I used to tease him, ‘cause it’s always been blue. My favorite color is still purple and his is blue but I play with him on that! 

Sometimes we have fun, like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Like opening presents on Christmas and eating Christmas dinner and good food on Thanksgiving, especially the turkey. That’s what we always do—eat and have fun! And sometimes, for Halloween, we used to dress up... I used to do it a lot longer than Brandon but when he started, we went from Batman and Robin to Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket (except he wouldn’t wear the makeup) and the last one was he was the angel and I was the devil but it was a costume joke kinda thing... people thought it should have been reversed. 

For music? We don’t listen to the same music. He does like 80s music... I just listen to country. About singing... we do karaoke singing... but we do it by ourselves and I’ll do country and he’ll do rock n roll. 

What do we do together now?! Now—well, nothing now, but in the past, we used to go to the movies. But, for the scary movies I don’t really go to the scary movies. Sometimes y’all [Brandon and Kristen] take me to buy CDs and movies at Monster. Sometimes we [my family and friends] do go out to dinner on Sundays and sometimes in the evening, but now it’s more take-out and eating at home. 

My favorite thing about having a brother? What’s my favorite thing? [He’s] sometimes funny... he makes me laugh. I love him... uh-huh... I just like him...  I think that’s the only thing I like about him, yeah... Some people say we’re both “only” children—But, NO! I’m an adult now... so we’re both “only” adults... 

For Brandon’s Birthday, I’ll say a couple nice things... Sometimes we have our ups and downs. It doesn’t have anything to do with today, just in general... I’d like to say I just like him... I’m glad to have him as a brother. I said love... But, that’s about all I can think nice about him now. Did I say love already?! I did say love! 

~ John Joyner