Cousins

My friend Delphine is an only child married to an only child. This means her children have no aunts and uncles and no cousins. This seems so strange to me. Growing up we were always with our cousins, from both sides of the family. We spent holidays together and most weekends someone was having a sleepover.

On my mother's side there were girls close to my age. Shelia was 2yrs older and Tami was 2yrs younger. We would play school, office, Barbie's, and jump rope . In my dad's family all  the cousins that lived close were boys. We still saw them a lot and had fun when we were together. We played outside on the swing set or played tag. Sometimes we would  pretend we were in Atlantis,  the furniture was  islands and the carpet was the ocean. I can still remember jumping from the sofa to a chair looking for other survivors. Of course my aunt would not be home or we would not have been playing in the living room.

Often my parents would go out with my aunt and uncle and we would all stay home together. We would pop popcorn (in a pan with oil) and watch T.V. until we feel asleep. On nights like this our cousins usually spent the night at our house. For years Shelia and Robby went to church with us. Aunt Diane and Uncle Billy and their fours kids came over later Sunday afternoon and ate dinner with us.

I have very good memories of time spent with my cousins.