Only a thin ray of light pierced the darkness in the cramped space.  I barely fit, but still bounced around inside the case as they carried me along.  Why had I ever let my brothers and their friends talk me into this?

When they set me on the floor and cracked the lid, I slowly rose, squinting against the light.  I heard the laughter, though.  There I stood, having been transported into the midst of family and friends-in a guitar case! 

This was not the only crazy and bizarre thing that went on in the Hutchison home in the late 1960's.  We grew up in Downer Grove, a suburb of Chicago.  I was the youngest female child of three older brothers who, along with their friends, always seemed to find it amusing to pick on me.  Of course, what siblings don't?  All three of my brothers played instruments and we always had live music in our home. 

I recall another childhood memory when I was baking a cake in my Easy Bake oven.   I became puzzled as to why my cakes were not baking properly.  What could have gone wrong from the previous cake I had baked?

After becoming increasingly frustrated with my easy bake oven, I decided to move on and play with something else.  I passed my brother Ted and his friends on my way down the steps to play with my Barbie dolls in the living room floor.

Ted, my middle brother, began to take an interest in photography in those days and had built a dark room in the basement of our house.  Ten years younger than Ted, I had no idea what he was up to . . . until after his death in 2003.

In the summer of 2004, my brother Tim, along with his friend Brian and me, packed the car with some of Ted's personal belongings.  Tim and Brian laughingly confessed the prank they'd pulled so long ago:  they had changed the light bulb in my Easy Bake oven to a lower wattage bulb!  No wonder my cakes didn't bake!

It was that day that I realized why Ted had given me the nickname "Bird."