Gutter Girls

When my sister and I were growing up, we had
ample opportunity to experience our dad's more multi-faceted nature. The bitter - and often violent - fights my sister and I would get into every 3 hours led the earnest parent down a whole gamut of emotions where he would go from negotiating to stern to cajoling and finally to complete and utter resignation (read fly off the handle!)

It was at one of these turbulent moments that my dad came up with the name that would haunt my sister and I for the rest of our lives. Gutter Girls. His exact words were "All the time you fight like gutter girls!" (Well, as exact as they can be in my memory more than twenty years after the fact.) I remember my sister and I both stopped mid-invective - we were so taken aback.

The name stuck - my sister and I made sure of that. We proudly told any one who'd listen and took great pleasure in using the term on each other whenever we found an opportunity.

Why I say it still haunts us is because this photo that you see here was saved on my sister's computer under the name, gutter girls.

Look at our angelic faces and answer me this. Do we look like gutter girls to you?