It was the summer of 1988.
“Rain Man,” “Die Hard,” and “Beetlejuice” were changing pop culture as
they played in the cinemas. U2’s Rattle&Hum became the first double
album to top the US’s charts in eight years.
And wildfires were ripping through Yellowstone National Park. But the best thing that happened to me was
getting a stamp in the Lucky Charms cereal box.
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Randy, my younger brother, had one, too. Mine was a stamp of a butterfly with a green
pad of ink. Randy’s was a tiger with a
black pad of ink. And as soon as the
cousins came over we started stamping our buddies and created two gangs: the
Black Tigers and the Green Butterflies.
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The Black Tigers were a motley crew of cutthroats, thieves,
and dirty boy cousins. They used weapons
aplenty. They had machine guns, knives,
and machetes. And thanks to our
allowances and close proximity to the Army Surplus, only a few of these weapons
were actually toys.
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The Green Butterflies consisted of me and all of the girl
cousins, including the Carrot Tops—ginger cousins fresh back to Idaho from
their stay in Wisconsin. Since we had all girls (and me) our weapons to
fight the rival gang of Black Tigers consisted of magic, wisdom, and the
awesome power of LOVE … which, according to most fantasy movies of the time,
was the force that pretty much kicked butt. The Care Bears had it. My Little Ponies had it. He-Man and She-Ra had it.
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As the Black Tigers retreated to the small fort in the woods
of our Grandma Alice’s house, we Green Butterflies took to the trees, in a tree
house made by Uncle Tex long ago in ancient days. Being slightly older than the Black Tigers,
and much more feminine minded, most of our time was spent passing laws, bylaws,
and philosophizing on why we were better than the Black Tigers. It was in such a meeting that Nikki, my
cousin with cool curly hair, said that we should change the Green Butterflies
to the Blue Butterflies.
I pointed out that our official stamp was green. But Nikki shrugged and said we could use a
blue marker to color it instead, and that blue butterflies were more rare, and
therefore more worthy of our admiration than green butterflies. Since blue was Nikki’s favorite color, I
guess she would know.
A vote was passed, and from that day forward, we were the
Blue Butterflies, champions of Truth, Justice, and the Awesome Power of
Love.
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I’m pretty sure the Black Tigers were spying on us when we made
this decision. Whatever.
After that summer, the clubs disbanded. But they were always a fond memory as we
navigated adolescence and began making the transition into adulthood. Later, when Nikki was suddenly going by
Nicole, and she and I were going to college, we found ourselves together as
best friends and allies in a world that wasn't always fair. We rekindled the Blue Butterflies, a club for
just the two of us. We are Blue Butterflies
to this day. Where ever we are, where
ever we go, we’re always there for each other:
birthing babies, grandparents dying, weddings, holidays, lonely days,
and happy days. Always.
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Blue Butterflies Forever.
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