In a photo album of memories from her life, Adrianne Egan Garber saved some snapshots of two children she baby-sat as a teen-ager growing up in Pennsylvania.
Included is a holiday photo card with a hand-written message wishing her a merry Christmas in 1992. It pictures a tow-headed toddler and her younger brother in matching red-and-green plaid outfits.
That tow-headed toddler is Taylor Swift, now one of the most famous pop music icons in the world.
Garber said her parents were friends with Andrea and Scott Swift, Taylor’s parents, in their Pennsylvania community. The Swift home, and their Christmas tree farm was across the country road, and Garber’s brothers also did small jobs for the farm.
As a 14-year-old in the early 1990s as well as the families’ friendship and proximity, Garber was a natural choice to baby-sit for the Swift family, which she did for about a year (including one whole summer) before her mom and step-dad, Peggy and Bill Fidler, relocated their family to Henderson.
Garber’s memories of her time with the Swift children include a favorite playtime activity of Taylor’s. The little girl liked to go outside in the field beside their modest house and have Garber spin her around and around.
“She thought that was so much fun,” Garber said.
Though she’s a huge animal lover, Garber remembers being a little bit apprehensive about the Swift family’s Doberman, Asia, until the day she was holding newborn Austin with older sister Taylor sitting right beside her and the dog came up to lean on her legs. Garber considered it a little bonding moment.
And she remembers Taylor as a “sweet, thoughtful, fun-loving child.” Garber said the little girl didn’t display any unusal musical talent on her watch, but she did love to be in a “breezeway” area of the house where there were numerous musical instruments.
“She liked to crash around in there and play around with an instrument,” Garber said. “I think her parents gave her free rein.”
It didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary.
“They were just a normal family,” she recalls, noting that the Swift family wrote her a “really heartfelt” letter telling her how much they would miss her when the move to Kentucky was about to take place.
“(Andrea Swift) wrote that she was so sorry to see us go,” Garber remembers.
Then they pretty much lost touch except for one isolated time when some of her family members saw Taylor Swift perform at the Wild Horse Saloon in Nashville. By that time, the Swift family had relocated to Nashville to facilitate Taylor’s career.
Garber distinctly remembers the first time she became aware of the fact that something big might be happening for the little girl she’d once baby-sat.
She was in her sophomore year at the University of Kentucky when she received a phone call from her mom.
“She said ‘You should listen to the radio,’” Garber recalls. “’Taylor Swift has some songs out.’”
The singer was still pretty young then, but it was already clear that there was a lot of potential for a music career.
“It was so crazy,” Garber said about tuning into the radio. “She was really good.”
She said it makes her think, especially on Thursdays and Fridays when she works with pre-schoolers at Holy Name School.
“I look at them and wonder ‘Who are you going to be someday?’” she said. “No one could have predicted anything about this little girl.”
