The following article was written by my younger brother, Mark, at my request. Thanks, Mark, for this article about our baby brother, Jack (aka Jackie Boo-Boo).

This was taken at 1240 South Sprigg Street, Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Not sure of the date, Jack looks older, maybe it was taken in 1963 or 64. Now he drives a real fire truck!

My sister, Darla, asked me to write an article or two for her blog on memories about growing up on Sprigg street in Cape Girardeau in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  This is a reluctant attempt at my first one.  Everyone tells me that I write just like I talk, so this should be short, grammatically challenged and uninteresting to most.

This one is for my brother, Jack Maupin who still lives in Cape.  I must start by saying that I am proud to be his brother.  He may be the youngest of us siblings but all of us in the family have a lot of respect for him.  He has many character traits that I wish I had.

Jack was born in 1960 when I was 7 years old and we lived on Sprigg.  As Darla has mentioned in her previous blogs, sometimes home life was a little rough.  That is where Jack comes in.  I was so excited to have a younger brother and to be an older brother.  What I noticed immediately was that there was a lot less attention being paid to me and more to him and it may not make much sense but I liked it that way.

I just wanted peace and acceptance and Jack was helping me with both!  Less attention on me meant more peace.  No matter what I did or what somebody else thought of me, I could do no wrong in his eyes, a gift of acceptance.  It wasn’t until later in life that I found the true source of peace and acceptance but that is another story.  I was really confused as a young boy and wanted desperately to move to be with my father.  Surely that would bring peace and acceptance.  Often when you find yourself in that kind of situation in life you are looking for anything that brings hope and normalcy to your life, an anchor.  At that time, for me at home, that was Jack.

When we got older, Jack expressed his sadness and sorrow with the way my step-father (his father) was to me and Darla in our childhood and apologized.  He thought when I did move away to be with my father, that in some way I was mad at him, when in reality the hardest thing about moving was leaving him.  It brings tears to my eyes even now when I think about it.  Why, because of how kind and thoughtful Jack has been, willing to try and assume guilt that wasn’t his.   It humbles me that he would even think that way.  He was assuming guilt when in my eyes he was totally guilt free, never wanting anything bad to happen to me.

I have not spoken these words to Jack.  Don’t think I could get all of the words out.  I know this wasn’t a lot about Sprigg Street and sorry if it bored you, but this is for my brother Jack, who I love and respect!  The most important event that ever happened to me on Sprigg Street.  Everybody should have such a brother!