The "Cousins by the Dozens - Part 1" Story

Prologue - Family means everything to me. I can't imagine what it would be like not to have family surround you and share important events in your life. And as I age, it becomes apparent that family means even more than ever. My family is medium sized and I have many relatives who are still living. Many of them are cousins who I get to visit with from time to time. I thought it would be neat to share a few of their stories with you so you can see what it really means to me to be part of my family. Today's vignettes will deal with the cousins I have on my mother's side and tomorrow I will give you some vignettes of the cousins on my dad's side as well as a few of the cousins that I inherited when I got married.

Story - It was an ordinary day. Just got an email from my cousin Susan telling me about her first pony. She begins with .... "I got my first pony when I was 12 ..... the day we found

out Lynn was pregnant. Boy. What a day. But, my pony, Judy was my best friend, And we brought her home in a truck, dad saddled her up, helped me get on, and that was that. I trained her myself .... or she did ... not sure. Then, I got bigger if you can imagine. We kept Judy, or course, because sometimes Amy rode her. We got Skeeter then .... from Gordonville .... a dapple gray quarter horse ..... sort of clumsy with his feet but a big heart. Dad rode him/whipped him home to the farm because apparently he didn't want to leave Gordonville. Didn't have him too long as he died of a heart attack one day while dad was riding him and I was on Judy. Dropped dead in the field. Dad

sent me for a blanket but now I know it was so that I would not see him actually die. Then, we got Candy from the New Holland Stables .... she was a dark colored horse ... here she was pregnant and dad and my poppy thought a MULE was going to come out of her but on May 6 a Buckskin was born! And, she was cute! We named her April because the due date was April. Whatever. She had big feet but was very pretty. I rode her sometimes. Then, we bought my Goldie ... from New Holland Stables ... she was supposedly related to Trigger ... she was a Palomino and was a GREAT horse .... boy could she run. Judy was the last one to die .... we buried her down on the farm. That was when I was 32. Had to get a back hoe in each time. I miss having a horse, of course, but not the expenses that go with it. I am always grateful for the times I had with my horses. Not many people can have those experiences. Judy andGoldie both lived to be in their late 20s. Rode in the Strasburg Memorial Day parade onct with Judy and Goldie. That was exciting." Susan is one of the three daughter's of my mom's sister, Virginia. She is one of the many cousins that I have, but the one who I keep in touch with the most. She and her husband Gary (G-man) live near her mother on the outskirts of Strasburg, overlooking the family farm where she got to ride her horses. My wife, Carol, and I can still remember the many picnics that we held in the meadow at the foot of the farm. Small stream goes through it and I would look for crayfish under the rocks of the stream.Come to think of it, I even helped my children look for those same crayfish when they were very young. Naturally everyone would always fall in and get wet, but hey, so what. Susan and G-man have two daughters, Amber and Afton. Get to see Susan her every now and again when she brings Aunt Virginia to visit with my mom at Moravian Manor where my mom is a resident. Also get to 'talk' with her by email on a regular basis. She has two sistas, as she calls them, Lynn and Amy who naturally are also my cousins. You got a glimpse of them in the email you just finished reading. Lynn, my oldest cousin on my mom's side, was married at an early age and I didn't get to see her very often. She and her husband Les had their daughter, Michelle, when Lynn was 16-years-old. Lynn has moved to Florida now and Aunt Virginia gets to visit with her on a yearly basis. Amy, Susan's other sista, lives nextdoor to Susan and has two girls, Emily and Olivia. Amy's husband is Darry and his mother is the well known artist Dolores Hackenberger who is known as the "Grandma Moses of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country." Her Americana oil paintings are found in the homes of many famous people such as Rod Stewart, Paul Newman, and George Bush. We won't count that against Amy, though! I get to see Amy occasionally when she comes to visit my mom with Aunt Virginia and Susan. My mother has a second sister, Lois, who is slightly over a year older than me. Yep, she is as much a cousin to me as she is an aunt. I have a photo of her in my living room taken when we were infants, playing in a playpen on the porch of my grandpap's house, her dad, at 617 South Prince

Street in Lancaster City. Saw quite a bit of Lois for the first few years of my life, since my dad was in the service and my mom and I lived at 617 S. Prince with my Grandpap and Grandma. She got married when I was in high school and has two children, my actual cousins, Johnnie and Michael. Michael is only three years older than my oldest son, Derek. When Lois and I were kids, she often would go on vacation with my family and spend time at our home on North Queen Street. Many of the old photos that my

mom and dad still have show her as a member of our family. Well, if you count my Aunt Lois as a cousin, I have given you some insight into my mother's family and my cousins. Half a dozen so far. Tomorrow I have a few more tales to tell about my dad's side of the family as well as a couple of Carol's cousins that I now consider mine as well as hers. It was another extroardinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Photos from the top are: (1) From the left: cousins Lynn, Amy and Susan in their Easter outfits circa 1960ish, (2) Susan's horse Goldie with Amy, Susan and Michelle, Lynn's daughter, (3) Susan's horse April, the Buckskin. She was spoiled like a puppy, since Susan's poppy spoiled her. She would get tobacco pouch out of his back pocket with her lips. (4) This photo shows Susan's horse April in the middle of the photo. This photo also shows the meadow behind the family farm where we would hold our summer picnics. (5) Cousins Susan, Lynn and Amy with my Aunt Virginia in her red top. Taken at Christmas 2007 in Aunt Virginia's home. (6) LDub pushing while my Aunt (faux cousin) pulls my mom in my wagon in the back yard at 929 N. Queen Street.