George Pembly and the Internet

My baby brother, Jason, Christmas 1973

I was 19 years old when my brother, Jason, was born. He could have been mine. In fact, sometimes Greg and I pretended he was ours. This picture was taken a couple of months after our wedding. We loved to have Jason spend the night with us. He was funny and adorable, and so very entertaining, even before he could talk. One night as my mom was giving him a bottle, a fire truck went by the house with its siren blaring. Jason stopped, listened for a second, then imitated the wail of the siren perfectly. He was only a few months old.

One of my favorite stories about Jason involves a friend of his, George Pembly. One day, Jason was playing in the kitchen, snacking on a little paper cup full of m&m's, while my mom was elsewhere in the house. Hearing something skittering across the kitchen floor, she hurried to investigate. Jason was busy with his cars or action figures or whatever he was playing with, and paid no attention to Mom, so she had to ask,

"Jason, how did these m&m's get all over the floor?"

"George Pembly spilled them."

"And who is George Pembly?

"He's my friend."

That's how we all learned about our little brother's imaginary friend. I don't know how long they remained friends, but I don't remember any other stories about the little dude. That's why, many years later, thinking I needed to come up with an email address that was clever and unique, I decided to borrow old George. My first internet connections were made via georgepembly...com.


Here are two pictures of Jason taken about a year ago with his very real son, Ryder Thomas Karlek. Now who needs imaginary friends?