Braggin' on my Bro'

My brother hasn't always been the strapping young man that he is today. He started off as a little roley poly with white hair and a really cute raspy voice. My sister and I used to dress him up as baby Carrie (she was a necessary character when you were pretending to play Little House on the Prairie).


He grew, and so did we, into sometimes sweet, sometimes pesky siblings. We did all the normal things kids do, like touch each other in the car over and over, even when the other person has "asked nicely" for you to stop. We also loved each other very much.


Life took us in our various directions and our paths were those well traveled. We graduated from high school and went on to college. Nothing to far from the ordinary. Which I guess is why we were all so surprised when, the summer after Clint's first year in college, he sprung a crazy idea on us. Nate had been accepted to OCS and Clint informed all of us that he had decided to join the Marines. We were all a little nervous that he was just going to up and enlist. My parents had some pretty serious talks with him, mostly stemming from the fear that he would wind up cleaning toilets in Iraq, or something else that was less than desirable. He was more than determined and left a couple of months after Nate for boot camp. That's basically the short version of how my family went from being a pretty average American one, to the kind that puts yellow ribbon bumper stickers on their cars. We were all pretty proud of both of them. You don't really hear a lot from Marines at boot camp. So we weren't really sure what to expect when we arrived at his graduation. We knew that he was the Guide (I hope that's what it's called, he led everybody out and carried their flag). When we showed up there was such a huge sense of patriotism and pride around the whole thing. I know the first day I had tears in my eyes and my sister went into a full blown "ugly" cry! I don't think any of us had ever seen that side of Clint. It was a really amazing experience and one I know I'll never forget.

Beyond boot camp he wound up about as far from cleaning toilets as you can get. He was stationed in Washington D.C. as a member of the Presidential Guard. It's kind of a big deal. He has spent the last couple of years standing post at the White House. We've spent the last couple of years completely in awe of him. The transformation is pretty amazing. I'm always getting photos that I feel like someone photo-shopped his head into...it's just hard to believe that is really his life.

So, all this is to say that this past Thursday was his last day at the White House. He's not out yet, but getting close and I guess it's time for him to move on. He'll have some decisions to make about whether to stay in or get out, but it's been awesome to hear his stories and the most recent one I just have to share. Friday he wound up at a Congressional picnic on the lawn of the White House. At some point George W. actually came up to him and shook has hand. He said, "Hey big guy how are ya'?" He then went on to ask him "So, what do you do around here?" Clint said, "Well sir, I'm actually one of the Marines that's been guarding the White House." The President told him he thought he looked familiar and then went on to say, "Well that's exactly what a White House Guard should look like!" I couldn't agree more.


Clint and his new squeeze hanging with George:
I'm so proud of you Clint. Of all you have done and become...you win the award for coolest career out of the Spradlin kids, although that's kind of a tough call with Kim being a white water rafting guide and all. How did such a cautious, normal gal' get such a cool brother and sister? Oh wait, I was ya'lls "second mom" (growing up they always called me that and not in an endearing way) so, I guess this means I raised ya'll well!