I love New York - more family lore
In the intervening 30 years between Winn cousin meetings, mom got married, bore 5 children, and gently encouraged them as they were growing up to return to the land of her birth to study/ train/ live/ follow their dreams. Bro and I made the leap in the same year, and shortly after we were settled in the big city we took the bus to Springfield, Massachusetts to meet our American cousins.
Peter married and produced his own 5 offspring. The youngest 3 - Ashley was 13, Emilee was 10 and Alden was 8 - were still living with him. Smalltown, MA, and our Yankee cousins were very exotic to my brother and me, as was Uncle Peter who to this day is one of the kindest and goodest people I have ever met. We learned that Peter was named after his father’s favorite cow, drove past my grandfather’s one-room clapboard schoolhouse, got invited back to go apple-picking in October, and caught glimpses of the old Mohawk trail. On seeing the trail, the painting my mom’s cousin sent her, of thick black not-quite-parallel lines against a yellow speckled background — that perplexed me while I was growing up — suddenly made sense. We also went to an animal-petting farm, and Emilee’s “Are YOU a cracker kind of goose?” feeding cry would stay with us for years. We found the cousins so adorable that we asked their parents if we could borrow them for a week.
After that one week in Manhattan, we saw the kids one other time before I left in Jan 2003. Uncle Peter came to my wedding in July, and looked dashing in his pinya barong. I saw the kids again when the whole gang drove over for Mona’s wedding; we spent the Sunday after walking around Manhattan. I told Uncle Peter how gorgeous everyone was now, and how tall they’d grown. “Well, that’s what happens when you feed ‘em, Maya,” he winked.
So in case you were wondering what my American kindred look like, here’s a gander at that gang
That’s Ashley who’s now 19, and her boyfriend Ahren.
Emilee, the cracker girl, and huge John Lennon fan.
Alden and his crazy older brother Ben, who was away at college when I first met the kids. It was Ben that got me to eat deep-fried Oreos at the Broadway street fair. I completely enjoyed that culinary experience
And it was Emilee that gamely posed with me and Mookie and the young sailors wandering the streets during Fleet Week
A fun time was had by all that day.