This One's For You, Cuz...

These three sisters... these three friends...

The relationships between them was probably the closest relationships I ever saw growing up. Aunt Pauline, Aunt Mack (Maxine) and mom, Mary Lou, (in that order in the first photo), were so very close. I don't ever recall anything but laughter and lots of talking when these three got together.

It didn't happen nearly as often as they would have liked, because Aunt Paul and her husband and two children lived in Santa Monica, California. Aunt Mack and her family lived in Okla. City like our family.

So many times when we were growing up we were out in the 'country' (south OKC on a small acreage) at Aunt Mack and Uncle Bud's place, playing with our cousins and learning about 'country' ways.

Slopping the hogs was just that. I don't know what all was in those buckets, but it looked like slop and in the deep summer time it smelled like slop. I learned how you milked a cow. I always loved to watch my uncle milk because they had barn cats around and he could squirt that milk right into those cat's mouths.

I helped pick corn and tomatoes, snap and hull black-eyed peas and green beans. And if mom and Aunt Mack were tired of us they'd shoo us outside to play. When Aunt Pauline would come to visit, mostly it was just that... visiting. Time shared was so precious to all the sisters that they would talk for hours on end, all help in fixing up whatever meal it was time for, all help in cleaning up after the meal, then it was more visiting time.

My family would go to California every two or three years to visit Aunt Pauline and Uncle Benny and our cousins Bonnie and Mike. I always looked forward to those trips because seeing new places and going to the beach.

On those trips we saw the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, Yosemite, Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park and other places I've forgotten.

But the best part was the family getting together to re-connect, to talk and catch up on what was going on in our various lives.

This photo is the only one I know of that has all the children of the three sisters together. You've seen my cousin Bonnie, she of the beautiful curls, my baby brother Bennett, being held in place by my sister Sue, and me on the right. Our cousin Carol is next to Sue, my middle brother Walter, cousin Ray Lynn and Cousin Mike. On the back row from the left, is our cousin Nancy Gale, my oldest brother Bill and my oldest sister Lou Ann. This photo was taken approximately in the summer of 1951.

I get to see my cousin Carol mostly, because she lives the closest, but every 10 or 15 years I get to see Bonnie when she comes to visit in Oklahoma and just last week I got to visit with both Carol and Nancy Gale when I met with them for dinner and to watch Nancy's granddaughter play in a basketball game in Shawnee.

And the reason that this one is for my Cuz... We were talking about the old photos and I promised her when I found the one of all of us kids, I'd post it so she could see it and print it off if she wanted.

What better thing is there to do but share with family.... and with friends.