Today is National Cousins Day, a day to celebrate the unique relationship between cousins.  Having been an only child, my cousins were especially dear to me.  I was the youngest of the cousins that lived around here and my aunt watched me while my parents worked, so many days of my childhood were spent trailing after my cousins.  My cousin Billy, although I am sure that he balked many times, let me follow him around like a lost puppy. He used to take me out for subs at Big Bill's on Albany Street. He taught me to walk on stilts-really tall ones that he had made himself, and he helped me ride his unicycle.  My cousin Ron, a Casey Kasem Top 40 fan and an amateur musical buff let me listen to all the "cool" music that was too old for me-except he used to put his hands over my ears whenever he played his "A Chorus Line" album during one particular song and whenever Hall and Oates' Rich Girl song came on the radio.  My cousin Donna used to let me play Barbies with her all all the time, even when she got too old for them, and we would get mad together when her sister Sandy, a tomboy all the way, would bring in her G.I. Joe's and disrupt our girly play.
But Sandy was not left out of the fun either-she and I would play board games forever.  I still have the monopoly game that my cousins gave me for my tenth birthday-it's the same one that my own children still play!

    I have so many memories of growing up with my cousins.  I remember as clear as it was yesterday the day that our grandfather died, us kids were out back of our grandmother's house trying to stay clear of the adults.   We were playing whiffle ball with the toys that our grandparent's kept in their garage for us and I was upset about the day's events and wanted to hug Billy.  This would have been fine, except I got too close while he was batting and he smacked me smack dab in the mouth.  I had a fat lip for days.

     I remember sleepovers at our grandmother's house in our sleeping bags that she had got for all us kids.  I remember walking over to the corner store with quarters that she had given us to buy "whatever we wanted."  Back then, you could get a whole bag of actual penny candy, a glass bottle soda, or a twin pop and some candy.  I remember how proud I was that my cousins were older so whenever I was with them, I didn't need a baby sitter.  We used to walk to the public pools in Herkimer and Mohawk together.  Since they were older, they would ditch me once we got there to hang with their friends, but I always knew they loved me because they would come check on me.

    My cousins were with me when my Dad took us sledding behind the elementary school in Mohawk.  My dad loved my cousins, too.  One year, my dad bought me one of those really long wooden toboggans.  It was kind of silly, being an only child, but he really bought it so that all us cousins could fit on at once, with him on the back.  It was this way one particular time-the time my dad flew off the sled and literally broke his back.  Us kids loaded him on the toboggan and pulled him all the way back down Church St to our grandma's.  What a sight we must have been!

   I have hundred's of cousin stories and it saddens me that we have all gone our separate ways as adults.  We no longer share commonalities, but it is these stories that come rushing back into my thoughts when I read Book 2 of Dorothy Stacy's Erie Canal Cousins.  


     Mrs. Stacy has 23 grandchildren and it is my impression that the relationship between cousins was a legacy that she wanted to leave for her grandchildren through her series.  She writes of the intricacies involved between cousins-the same as it would be for siblings-sharing special memories, working and playing together, getting mad at each other and making up with one another.  


If you haven't had the opportunity to read one of Mrs. Stacy's Erie Canal Cousins books, I know for a fact that Frank J. Basloe Library has to borrow, so I highly encourage you to head on over there and check one or all five out!  And don't forget to enter this month's contest, and you may win a signed copy of one of the books.

Please feel free to share special stories of you and your cousins here and don't forget to tell your cousins that you love them.

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