Cousins

 Last month my cousin Julie and I planned an 80th birthday party for her mother, my Aunt Maxine.  Julie and her brothers and sister were flying Uncle Bob and Aunt Max up to Utah from Arizona as a birthday surprise. Julie just got home from a mission and wanted to invite all the cousins in the area so we could have a cousins reunion as well.

Cousins are family members who while not as important as siblings have a special place in my heart. At this time in our lives we see each other mainly for the funerals of our aunts and uncles and each time I visit with them I wonder why I don't see them more often because I still really enjoy them.

Dad had four siblings, his twin brother, Uncle Bob and Aunt Maxine, older brother Uncle Joe and Aunt Evelyn, and sisters Aunt Anne and Uncle Bob and Aunt Nancy and Uncle Drew. Naturally our family was closest to Uncle Bob and Aunt Maxine's children, Scott, Julie, Chris, Suzanne and Kent who we grouped together and called "Scott and Julie". At least Roark, Jayne, and I did, I am not sure what the rest of the family called them.

The first vacation I remember is a trip we took after dad graduated from medical school and Uncle Bob graduated from law school was a trip to Arizona to see our cousins. We lived close together in Stadium Village, the student housing for the University of Utah but after they graduated I imagine we didn't see much of each other for a couple of years. After that trip, the road between Arizona and Utah was well traveled by the Neville cousins. Mom always bought us new clothes to travel in so we would look nice when we stopped  because she didn't want people to look at the family with all those kids and think she couldn't take care of us.

One of our first trips in our 60s finery Left to right: Shelley, Stacey, Jayne, Annie. Jeanne, Brett, Roark and Mom. This was the first time we ever stayed in a motel.

We would alternate Thanksgivings in Utah and Arizona. It was such a treat to miss school and drive to Arizona on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I remember driving past schools in Panguitch and Kanab  gloating to myself that kids were in school and I wasn't. In the days before seat belts Mom would make up the back, back seat of the station wagon as a bed so the "babies", Stacey, Shelley and Ann could sleep through the early morning drive. Those in the middle seat got to lean against the door with their pillow and sleep, but the poor person in the middle had to either sleep sitting up or ask to lean again the lucky person against the door.  But the best seat of all was between mom and dad in the front bench seat. I soon discovered that if I complained of getting car sick I got the front seat more often. I really truly got car sick but for some reason by brothers and sisters never believed me and to this day give me a hard time because I always got the front seat.

We also went to the beach every other year with Scott and Julie. We would rent a house on a California beach and spend a glorious week just being with cousins.  Our California cousins, Jan, Christie, Barbara, Susie and Carl and Joey, Valerie, Jared and David would sometimes  join us. It must have been quite an undertaking to plan meals and beds for all those kids but mom and Aunt Maxine never complained, or we were just clueless kids loving life.  In fact I  don't recall what we ate, just all of us kids eating outside on an old rickety picnic table.  I remember one beach house with just a cement side walk and 3 foot wall between us and the  ocean that had a converted garage behind it. The oldest kids got to sleep out there without parents. It was wonderful. We played cards, talked and hung out to our pre-adolescent  hearts content.

Chris, Brett, Annie, Shelley, Kent, Stacey, Scott, Christie and Roark.  I have no idea where Jayne, Julie and I were, but this is such a typical cousins moment.

My favorite beach picture. Me on the left and Jayne on the right. I think we were about 10 . I loved those swimsuits!

This next series of photograph tickles me.  We are in Uncle Bob and Aunt Maxine's above ground pool in their first home in Scottsdale.  I am actually not in the picture for some reason, but I could lie and say that I am Jayne.  I was probably sulking in a corner some,where I did that a lot in my growing up years. So sad.  From left to right,back row: Scott, Roark. Brett, Julie, Jayne. Front Row: Shelley, Suzanne, Stacey, Chris, and Annie

And the best picture of all is the picture of our family and Scott and Julie's family when we were teenagers in 1973. Look at those pants the boys are wearing. The short skirts. The side burns and hair. We were the 70s! Left to right, back row: Shelley, Ann, Suzanne, Kent (David); Front row: Scott, Jayne, Roark, Jeanne, Brett, Julie, Stacey, and Chris. 

I didn't feel a real need to go to my 40th high school reunion.I haven't stayed close to anyone. But this reunion was important. My cousins  were the people who mattered to me when I was growing up. Even though we only saw them once a year or we were always happy to see them. These memories are part of me, because there is something about family.