Your First Friends are Usually Your Cousins...

Like most people I pick and choose my memories. There are things that happened when I was a little girl that are etched in my mind. I can bring them to the forefront of my memory and enjoy a visit with my loved ones at a moments notice. I treasure these memories and I hope I am allowed to recall them until the day I die.

LaDonna and I are a year apart in age.
Johnny is two years younger than me. Our fathers were brothers. I have no memory of them when they were really young,  but I have pictures and I have a ton of memories as we grew older.

                                     

This is Aunt Gene, Uncle Bill, LaDonna and Johnny Wray Humphreys.  I am not sure where this photo was taken. Aunt Gene and Uncle Bill were just starting their lives together. They were in their early 20's.

     
This picture of LaDonna and me was taken out at Mama Pearls. I spent a lot of time 'out in the country' at their home while I was growing up.

One of my fondest memories concerned our determination to "camp out" at Mama Pearl's. We did this each summer, for 3 or 4 years  and never once spent the night in a tent.

We worked all day long getting our 'tent' set up. Mama Pearl would give us some old quilts and we hung them on the clothes line to make the tent. We used another quilt for the floor and then each of us had a pillow and a patchwork quilt for sleeping. We made Johnny pack out all the 'stuff' we had to have for our adventure. He was more than willing to help...he also didn't have much choice. If he didn't help--he couldn't stay. He didn't mind. He wanted to camp as bad as we did.

 We collected all our dolls, doll clothes, toy guns and flashlights. Since we were all scared of the dark, each one had their own flashlight. The main thing we were concerned about was food. We made peanut butter sandwiches, collected all the cookies and candy we could slip out the back door. We had sodas to drink and an ice bucket to keep them cold. We worked all day long to get our tent arranged like we wanted. It looked like we were going on a safari. Actually we were a mere 10 feet from the back door.

I remember we ate our supper in the tent. We also read some comic books or looked at the pictures and we played cards. As it started to get dark, we told ghost stories. Each one of us trying to scare the other two. It worked...we were all scared. About this time Johnny shined his flashlight on his face and we were about done for. He glowed in the dark. I was pretty sure he was possessed. That comment scared all of us...especially Johnny.  He didn't know what 'possessed' was but he didn't like the idea at all!!   About this time the cows came up to the fence which was about 15 feet from our tent. The cows made all sorts of 'cow noises'...none of which I was familiar with. The dogs started barking and Johnny turned his flash light on again. We all screamed and headed for the back door. I don't think we ever made it passed 8 p.m.

It was fun to visit my cousins in the country. For years we had a good time together. Aunt Gene talked Daddy into letting her pierce my ears. They took me to basketball games and baseball games. I was a maid of honor when LaDonna got married.

                                  

Then we all grew up and went our separate ways. Tommy and I lived in other states for most of our married lives. We moved home for about 3 years when Lisa was 4 and soon we had another little girl, Tami. We moved to Missouri when she was two. We have been gone since then except for vacations and emergencies.


We stopped by Aunt Gene's on our Labor Day trip. As luck would have it LaDonna was there. I hadn't seen her in years except for funerals. We started talking like we had seen each other last week. She showed me pictures of her missionary trip to Thailand and to Hong Kong. It was amazing to hear her testimony.

Anthony and Darla are my cousins on Mama's side of the family. I was 5 years older than Anthony and 7 years older than Darla. I always went on vacations with them. We were together all the time. Holidays, birthdays, shopping trips, supper; we were literally raised together. Since we have been grown Darla has become the sister I never had. She is my right arm in an emergency. If I can talk to Darla, things will be alright. She is a nurse and helped me so much when Mama was dying with Alzheimers. If we were at a hospital where she worked, my life was so much easier. She made sure I was as comfortable as anyone can be staying in a hospital with a loved one. I will forever be grateful to her. I miss her and wish our grandchildren and children could have grown up together.

This was Christmas when Grandma was still alive. It may have been her last Christmas. I don't have anymore pictures of her. We always celebrated Christmas together, usually on Christmas morning.

Uncle Gene was a great uncle. I love this picture. I think it was taken before he and Aunt Donna got married. I patterned my role as a wife after Aunt Donna. I watched her and I remember thinking 'when I grow up and get married I want to be like Aunt Donna.' And I did.

 I don't get to see Anthony Gene much. We both live away from Clinton. Once again it is at funerals and every now and then at Christmas. Anthony is the perfect image of Granddaddy. I am sure Granddaddy looked just like this when he was a little boy.

While I was home Tommy and I went to Paducah to check on Aunt Donna. She had a hip replacement. She is doing good just has a lot of healing to do. Darla stayed with her. Here is a photo of us. Check out Darla's hands....some things never change:) 
                  

                                                                ...for us that is a good thing!