Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins, Not Your Average Kinfolk.

Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, it is hard to get away with much without a family member finding out about it, because in small towns you are surrounded by family, especially cousins.

These aren't your normal relatives.  These cousins are like an extension of your brothers and sisters.  You grow up playing with them, then you begin partying with them as young adults,  then you are there with them when an aunt or uncle has passed.

 

Probably my most memorable cousin moment was one Christmas.  Ole Aunt Evelyn had it in her head that we needed to read the Christmas story each family Christmas gathering.  Well, we had a new crop of cousins, and I don't think she trusted my brother and me with that Bible of hers.  Musta thought it would have burned up in our hands.  She may have been right!  Little cousin Brooke got the nod to be the first reader from the new testament.  She got through the Jesus story just fine, but she forgot to stop there.  She got to reading about Jesus getting circumcised. and that is where Ole Aunt Evelyn jumped back in and "cut her off"!  That was the end of the annual Christmas reading!

 

Had an uncle that treated me as if I was one of his. He took me along with his kids on fishing trips, and watched over us during early dove hunts.  He was the first adult to counsel me on the evils of drinking beer, "its like drinking your own piss" he used to say.  I never did have the courage to ask him how he knew that!

 

Later in life, my dear Aunt Beebsie developed breast cancer.  She had a mastectomy and was given a prosthesis.  Ole Aunt  Beebsie was blessed with more than her fair share of boob.  She had to put a sack of silver dollars to weight the prosthesis down to line up with the real one!  Vampires didn't dare come anywhere near her!

 

This lady was some kind of special to me.  I needed money and she paid me to paint some of the rooms in her house.  Being the mother of five kids, she also had need for a maid and cook.  My favorite was Pie.  One day at the dinner table, Aunt Beebsie began to recite some of the Hebrew that she had learned as a child.  Pie yelled out " Mrs. Beebsie, I didn't know you knew Chinaman"!

 

After Aunt Beebsie left us, my Uncle begun to get lonely.  He checked out all the availables and went to courting.  He met up with a woman, who had a daughter that my brother had tried to date several times.  I learned later that she objected to the dating because we came from Jewish heritage.  Well, my Uncle fancied her, and they got married.  That Easter we were having lunch at Barbie's house,  Since I was sitting at the same table with my "new" aunt, I just could not resist.  I said, "this ham is delicious, Miss Rae Kelly, don't you agree?"  She nodded approval.  I finished by saying "I believe its the best kosher ham I've ever eaten"!

 

My cousin Barbie at one time was a teacher in Pascagoula.   Her brother and I would load up and head down there for a weekend of fun.  Met the Stringfellow girls down there, along with some others.  What a fun group we were.  Of course, we ended up in New Orleans, and I the designated drunk driver, driving up and down Canal Street for an hour, looking for the interstate on ramp.  Barbie took over till we got out of the city, then this ole country boy took the wheel. We'd wake up not knowing how we made it back in one piece!

We have our share of fast cars, mine was a yellow firebird.  Got more tickets in that thing than during any other time of my life.  I blame a few of those tickets on the color of the car.  MHP could see me for miles before I fell under their radar!  There are several trees that wonder how we survived to an older age.  We may not have invented the expression "tree hugging drunk", but we sure put it to practice.

 

All that hard playing led to some hard living.  Eventually it catches up with you.  We all have high blood pressure, some have diabetes,  some have hepatitis,  and some have had bypass surgery.  All our joints ache when we get up in the morning, and we are all swallowing a hand full of pills each day.

 There are a lot more stories out there, but its not about the them, its all about the living and becoming them.  (Also been threatened if I tell too much!)  Yes, we survived.  Sewed our wild oats, so to speak.  We all met our future spouses, got married, and had our children.  From all the stories she had heard, the spousal unit was scared that one of the Stringfellow girls was gonna show up at our wedding!

 We don't get together as much as we should, but when we do the stories begin to pour out.  Our children haven't been privy to many of the stories.  They don't have a clue on how we parents know so much.  Well duh, we lived it.  Hopefully they will continue the tradition and make their own.

 Live is good, all the time.  Start living it!