Sometimes, I
still see my little brother Joe(y) as a 15-year-old mischievous high school
freshman, who generally had a comment on all the family drama around our house
and was probably, if the truth be known, the cause of most of it.
His favorite
target was our sister Julie, who was a year older than him. He would terrorize
her and get such a kick out of himself while doing it, always managing to skirt
the jurisdiction of Mom and Dad in doing so. If Joe had ever said, "I have
connections. I know the Governor," Julie would have replied, "The
only call you're ever getting from the Governor someday is to stop your
execution."
And yet now, a
generation later, Joe starts a new job tomorrow as Judge of the Warren County
Juvenile / Probate Court. He was given that job a month ago when he received a
phone call from -- you guessed it -- the Governor's Office. He takes over for
Judge Mike Powell, who is now a jurist on the Ohio Twelfth District Court of
Appeals.
It's a big
deal in our family. And it'll be a good fit. After seven years as a Judge in
County Court, Warren County's municipal court, Joe's proven himself as a smart
guy and a good judge. He'll do an excellent job. It's easy now to say that,
even though it wasn't something any of us would have dreamed of back when he
tied Julie's shoelaces together or put garlic in her toothpaste.
We're all
proud, and I'm surely Julie is too, as she looks down from heaven (with Dad).
But I can only
imagine what Julie would have to say about his new role.
Let's just say
she be willing to risk contempt of court charges.
"Juvenile
Court? That's just perfect," she'd say.
"Because
it takes a juvenile delinquent to know a juvenile delinquent."
And do you
know what Joe, the master of all comebacks, would say in response to that?
Not a thing.
Pitty the
juvenile who tries to pull a fast one on him. 'Cause it ain't happening.
Good luck,
Joe.