cousins
6:28 p.m. x 2003-09-25
Do you have special childhood memories of playing with cousins? Talk about them.
I came from a big family, not in the sense that my mom and dad had a lot of kids, but their parents did. Therefore I always had a cousin around in some form. When I was a child, it was usually Clara, Michelle, and Johnny (my dad's brother's kids) but with my dad having 8 siblings, my mom having 3, and cousins staying close knit (which added a lot of second cousins to the mix) there was always someone around when I went to family gatherings.
I'll just run down the list, as that seems easier.
Michelle, Clara, and Johnny
I spent the most time with them of any of my cousins in my early childhood. They were all older than me but I do remember playing Barbies with Michelle, and Clara was old enough that she was more of a babysitter than a playmate but she did play like you would if you were watching someone else's kid. There were times when we'd play board games (a lot of monopoly), or with Smurf stuff (Michelle was a big collector at one time), and just other things that girls do. Johnny would be aound trying to teach me how to ride a bike or something when he was younger but he's like 18 years older than me so he went off to start a life in Southern Illinois when I was pretty young.
Johnny has like 5 kids (I lost count), Clara has 2, and Michelle has like 3. Clara's hubby died in about 1997 and these are the cousins that I got into it with when my dad died so I don't know much more than that, unless my mom tells me.
Nicole and Joey
I was about 2 years older than Nicole, and Joey was quite a bit younger so once he was past baby stage, I didn't pay a lot of attention to him.
I remember going to their house once and playing in Nicole's room with the stuffed animals in the net in the corner and both of us getting in trouble.
We spent a lot of time together at my aunt Nina's (her grandma) for family gatherings.
They're both in college now.
Heather and Jimmy
These would be like third cousins, I think. I only saw them when the whole family got together, but it was mostly with Heather, because Jimmy is quite a bit younger than either of us. I think he's still in high school if I'm counting right.
Bobby
I'm not including him in with his siblings because they weren't raised together. I'll get to the rest of them later.
Bobby taught me how to cut eggs and do the moonwalk. He rocked. Need I say more?
Jim, John, Melissa
There's quite an age difference between them and their siblings so I'll include them later, too.
I played Go Fish with them, we ran through the sprinkler in our undies together, camped out in a school bus made into a camper one year, and I packed all of my belongings to hide in the bus when they left because there was a tornado watch.
Okay, so it was a nightgown, a pair of undies, and some toys, but it seemed like enough to me.
Melissa hit me in the eye with a frisbee by accident when I was 4 and my dad considered her a "little bitch" from then on.. but we played dolls and other girlie stuff.
Jim recently finished his reserve duty after leaving the air force, and he's living in Montana with his wife and 2 kids.
John has like 4 kids by different women and is always getting teased about putting a rubber on it.
Melissa is pregnant with her second child, living in Canada, and has been married for 4 years.
Kris, Jon, Alicia, and Destinee
We played tag, barbies, pretended to be rock stars, went to church together, went to the zoo together, even lived together on the weekends for a while (they lived with my mom when they moved here from Alabama and I visited on weekends).
At family dinners, they'd steal each others' food off each others' plates and try to get each other in trouble, while farting like our parents.
We got high together, got drunk together, and were more like sisters and brothers than cousins. I could still trust Jon, Kris, and Des with my life.
Alicia lives In Tennessee and we don't speak. She recently got out of jail over something about a debit card and has gone through about 5 boyfriends.
Des lives in Rockford. She's a sophomore in high school, going through drivers ed.
Jon has a good job near Chicago, and lives in Schaumberg. He's the "player" of the bunch and always has a new between the sheets gig that he's working on.
Kris lives with his girlfriend in Rockford. He's a chef at the country club, and is really overcoming a lot. He hd a drug addiction (crack) and was nothing more than a loser 2 years ago but he's doing great now.
Amanda and Jake
They're about Destinee's age so I took care of them more than played with them but they kept me busy when I went to Wisconsin.
They're both in high school and doing well, although Amanda is a bit of a snob.
All of them have grown up, or are pretty close to it, and those days can't be revisited but I'm glad that I had the chance to grow up with all of these people, even the ones I no longer like. They had a part on making me who I am today.