When I was a kid, we were very close to our extended family. My parent’s friends were mostly relatives. My Mom had a group of neighbors she regularly visited with, and there were two couples that my parents socialized with—Michelle and Jim Hungiville and Jim and Margaret Kearney. We were particularly close to Beth and Andy Baxter—who were what was sometimes called “shirttail” relatives—related to us through the marriages of aunts and uncles, but really family.

But I think that both Mom and Dad probably would have named my aunts and uncles as some of their dearest friends. In fact, my Mom’s childhood friend, Aunt Virginia, became her sister-in-law when they both married one of the Joyce brothers

So given this close family connection as a background, we frequently visited relatives.

My mother had two sisters who were much older than she was, and their children were several years older than me. These cousins were my first experience with a mysterious group of people called teenagers.

Teenagers were semi-adults—taller, bigger, and more experienced than me. They could do things on their own and sometimes even drove cars. They dated—another mystery to a ten-year-old in the ’60s.

One day, we were visiting Aunt Mary’s family, and her oldest son, Terry,  came into the house after driving home in his own car. He then proceeded to go to the refrigerator and drink juice directly from a carton! I had never seen that done in our household—so it was fascinating. I actually thought that that was one of the ways teenagers were unique—they could just go to the fridge and drink directly from a container—no glass needed!

One time, my cousin Sheila ( who looked like a young Elizabeth Taylor) let me accompany her to the local delicatessen. I guess Aunt Mary needed something to finish cooking dinner. As we walked into the corner store, Sheila saw a friend—a guy—whom she greeted warmly and asked, “So, how’s your love life?” Oh wow! Teenage girls could talk to boys ( who seemed to be just like  men) casually and ask cool questions! I was amazed. Would wonders ever cease?

Another time, one of these cousins, with whom I share a close relationship now, Ron, challenged what I was learning in 6^th grade History  I loved history and I remember saying something to Ron about the Crusades. It was Catholic School textbook information—obviously slanted heavily toward the Christians being heroes. Ron was the first person to make me wonder about the depth of what I was learning by asking some simple questions. Another discovery! Teenagers know more—they learned about some of the same things I was studying—but more in-depth!

I often think about these cousins and their younger sister who is close to my age and their late brother. They were great examples of what it meant to be teenagers. They embodied some of the best qualities of maturing—and interestingly, they never acted disrespectfully to their parents—at least not in front of us. They were nice to me and my younger brothers and sisters and seemed to genuinely like us.

They made being a teenager seem to be a wonderful thing—even though, I’m sure that they, like all teenagers, had moments of angst and had to navigate their way through their teens to make their way in the world—which they all did quite successfully. I do cherish my memories of these particular cousins. They were, and are, quite special to me.