#811 – Dick Bernard: "Smooch! Siblings"

If you’re part of a family, most likely you have siblings. If you were an only child, as many are, “sibling” had another context: nonetheless, likely there was someone in close proximity who played a similar role to sibling for you.
My last surviving Uncle and Aunt, 88 and 94 respectively, never married and have lived their entire lives together. There may be longer lived “siblings”, but my guess is that there are few who have lived their entire life in close proximity most every day. These days they are just a couple of rooms down the hall from each other in a Nursing Home. Being siblings they had their differences. But when my Aunt became the first to move down the hall to the Nursing Home next door to their assisted living, I noticed that my Uncle missed his sister and looked forward to visits with her. That is just how it is. Siblings. Brother and Sister. Now there’s no trip needed to visit each other, and I think they like that.
Into this mix comes a wonderful project, the Smooch! Project, and the Projects first book, “Smooch! Siblings“, brand new, was first released last Saturday in Minneapolis; photographs by Bonnie Fournier, text by Julie Meier.
I came home with seven books, and I’ll get more: my spouse has siblings too, and children who are siblings, and she was very impressed with everything about the books.
You will be too. Perfect for coffee table, for conversation, for sharing memories!
Even my sister, Flo, who has true tales to tell about her four years older brother, me, that aren’t at all complimentary, will, I predict, like the book (she and I are long past the time when I really “got her goat” as a truly obnoxious seven year old (she was three). We were in our tiny dining room, and…well, she’d certainly be willing to finish that story.
These days, for many years actually, we’ve gotten along famously. As siblings universally can attest, there are ebbs and flows…and the older you get, the more likely the flows!
The founder of the Smooch! Project, Bonnie Fournier, is a graphic designer who I first met when she and I worked together in the same building, the Minnesota Education Association, from about 1991-94. One summer she took a leave to do a residency at Yellowstone Park and, until I gave it back to her a year or two ago, a valued possession of mine was a postcard original drawing she had sent from Wyoming.
We were out of touch for many years, then in the early 2000s I saw some of her photo art at a Minneapolis coffee shop and we reconnected. In 2004 a whimsical “selfie” of Bonnie being “smooched” by her twin sister Barbara, launched what has now become Bonnie’s life work. (That first photo is in the book as are many others from among the 4,500 people she has photographed in the past nine years.)
The “Smooch! Siblings book is now on sale at 11 Twin Cities locations, as follows: (Out of area? Or can’t get to these stores? You can order at the Smooch! Siblings internet link)
Bibelot (4 locations) – DEC. 14 BOOK SIGNING! 11am-1pm, St. Paul store (1082 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105)
Bloomington Drug – DEC. 15 BOOK SIGNING! 1-2pm, 509 West 98th St, Bloomington, MN 55420
Common Good Books – 38 S. Snelling (Snelling & Grand), St. Paul, MN 55405
The Goddess of Glass Shoppe (2 locations)
Live, Laugh, Love – DEC. 14 BOOK SIGNING! 3-5pm, 5019 France Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55410
Paper Hat – 2309 W. 50th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55410
West Side Perk – 7700 Old Shakopee Road, Minneapolis, MN 55438
I took camera along to the opening, but forgot to take a photo….
Bonnie had given each of us an opportunity to pose for some funny shots. Here I make a hideous (she says “hilarious”) Grandpa Face.

Dick, by Bonnie, Dec. 7, 2013

Dick, by Bonnie, Dec. 7, 2013


Don’t worry. You won’t have to pose if you go to the signing! On the other hand, it’s a fun experience.

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