'59 It Was A Very Good Year (Remembering Aunt Anne)

I got a call today from my sister, who let me know that our Aunt Anne passed. Naturally all the memories of us kids and cousins, nieces and nephews,  aunts and uncles, parents and pets came flooding into my memory like a herd of kinfolk toward a family reunion meal.

Aunt Anne was my father's sister...one of three actually, and as long as I can remember she and her son Cousin Larry lived near us...first with Grandmother "Nanny Pumpkins" in the family home, then on their own in a nice apartment once Nanny had passed.  She'd been called "Nanny Pumpkins" because, as family lore went, she made the best pumpkin pie.

Anne was active in her church, a hard worker on the job and a good mother to her son. She served as Den Mother and Sunday School Teacher for the church; mentor, mediator and confidante for many young adults through those turbulent times. She had a very deep, personal relationship with her Savior, which included an unshakable faith that though tested through the years, never strayed.

Anyway, Mom, Dad and us kids used to pile into the car and go visit her and Larry,  we kids would end up in the basement or outside while the grown ups sat around talking or playing cards or talking and playing cards....or Yahtzee.

The boys usually found things to do that involved rumbling around, making car noises. My sister, the oldest, was either chaperoning, sitting with the adults or out with her friends. I was kind of the "odd man out, " in a matter of speaking.  For a while it was okay, we were all young enough so that me playing army with them wasn't such a bad thing, but as they got older things changed.

They called me a "girl," and left me to my own devices....which was fine by me! I loved looking through my cousin's comic books and listening to his records. Got to read my first Mad Magazine there, falling instantly in love with Spy vs. Spy, the t.v. show and movie parodies and the fold up picture puzzles on the back cover. 

They had a copy of Bill Cosby's album "Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow...RIGHT!" Larry put it on the record player. I laughed so hard, my sides hurt! Who am I kidding, everybody came to the "rec room" to listen.... pretty soon the whole house was doubled over in laughter...then we played it again, just to make sure we heard what we thought we heard.  F-U-N-N-Y!  It's also where I first heard Bob Newhart the Button-Down Mind......F-U-N-N-Y!

There are so many wonderful memories of growing up with a great bunch of cousins, assorted aunts and uncles and so on....from earliest childhood, featured prominently among these treasured moments are those shared with Aunt Anne.   

For today, Fifty Five is the New '59 (as in 1959, the year Cosby's "Funny Fellow" album was released) , in memory of my Aunt Anne who always gave of herself, and loved to laugh....it was a very good year.