The Superior Express -

National Cousin's Day was observed Sunday. Though I don't often make note of all the National Observances, this time it tugged at my heart. It brought back a lot of cousin memories. A sharing on social media stated, "Cousins are the best of both worlds because they are family and friends at the same time. Even if you're not close anymore, no one will ever understand you or your crazy family like your cousins do!" That is a great description of my cousins!

Cousins are the first best friends most of us have. We often form a strong bond at an early age that lasts through the years. Cousins are easy to talk to, have fun with, share inside jokes with, explore with, and sometimes manage to get in trouble with. I was blessed to have numerous cousins on both sides of my family. The only problem in my early childhood years was I was one of the eldest cousins on both sides of the family, so I didn't get a chance to be really close to some of the younger cousins until later years. Some of my cousins weren't born until I was in high school.

On my father's side, I was the fourth eldest cousin. There were two girls and two boys including myself. I learned much from the girlwho was my eldest cousin. Since she lived in a larger town, visiting her family was an adventure. She and her brother would take me to movie matinees while our parents remained home to visit. She would pass down her lovely clothes to me, teach me how to put on make up, and how to play board games. We ended up sharing the love of playing the piano. Her brother would come down to our grandparent's farm in the summer and help with the farming duties. We'd often ride horses together. He'd go to church with the family and began dating a girl who attended church there. With that girl's sister being one of my best friends, we had a lot of fun times together.

The second older cousin was from California. He'd also come about every summer along with his sister, to stay with our grandparents. He had such a different sense of humor. For him life on the farm was so different but meaningful. He would later become an author and write about this area and the family.

I try to keep in touch with all these cousins on my father's side of the family and social media has made it much easier to do so. Like me, most are grandparents and we share photos of our families and memories.

At one time our families lived so close together, except for the cousins in California, that we saw each other often. We were a close family through the years. We passed down family recipes, cousin stories, and we all grew up sharing a love for this country.

On my mother's side of the family, I was the top of the cousin line as I was the eldest. An uncle was only one year older than I, so we were close as a uncle-niece and also were much like cousins. The older cousins lived so far away the local cousins only got to see them when the family came back to visit Grandad and Grandmother. One of the older cousins, I didn't get the chance to really know until we were adults. Now we keep in touch and have grown close as we visit each other and make calls regularly.

Another older cousin's father was in the Army so that family was always on the move. When all the cousins got together, there was a lot of us and play time was fun time in the grandparents' barn, riding horses, playing dress-up out of the aunts' closets, and jumping on the aunts' beds. When we'd get to jumping too hard, Granddad would get irritated with all the noise and using a broom, he'd would hit the ceiling down stairs to let us know we'd best quit. The cousins would often be outdoors playing cowboys and Indians or hide and seek. Today, the younger cousins have grown up. We all have connected and use social media to stay in touch.

It's sad thinking about all the fun times together at family dinners and holiday get togethers that don't happen anymore. The family is scattered out all over and visits are fewer and further in-between. My cousins now have their own families and are involved with their activities. They hold their own family dinners and holiday observances. The extended families are drawn together at a family funeral, reunions or weddings and it's so great to connect with all the cousins again. Recently there was a family wedding. It was good to laugh and re-connect. We need to keep the family connections alive and teach the younger generation the family history. I wish there were more family reunions and family weddings, but less family funerals but that's the way life goes. If you haven't connected with your cousins in a while, I hope you do so soon.