Saturday Morning Confusion

While visits to my paternal grandparents were filled with lots of love and homemade goodies, visits to my mom's family meant adventure!  I idolized my mother's younger sisters who were teenagers when I was born.  They played rock and roll records, talked about Frankie Avalon and Elvis, and treated me like a princess.  I couldn't sleep if I knew we were going "down home" the next day.

My grandmother or one of my aunts might decide to make ice-cream late in the evening and then the race was on to find all the supplies before all the stores closed.  Everyone would help crank and maybe by midnight we'd have ice-cream!

When I was 4 or 5 my aunt bought a motorcycle.  I felt like the coolest kid in town when she would take me riding. My favorite trip was to a dairy outside of town for the best French vanilla ice-cream ever.

In the evenings I loved to hanging around the kitchen table listening to the adults talk and laugh while they played cards.  Even my parents seemed less "square" on these visits.  Family and friends would come and go all  weekend.  Everyone was welcome and everyone was fed!  I remember going to a nearby Italian deli and getting fresh Italian bread and meatloaf for sandwiches.  Some mornings my grandmother would make doughnuts- what a production that was!

Even after my aunts got married, we'd still all come to stay at my grandparents' home quite often.  My uncles were great, especially the one who would say and do the craziest things and sing "Born to Be Wild"  and "Saturday Morning Confusion" as he went through the house getting the kids all stirred up. Believe me, it was wild and confusing when we were all there!   My other uncle teased us all about something- as a preteen, it was my Donny Osmond obsession that amused him.

Having twin cousins just added to the fun!  We made forts in the back staircase, drove people crazy until they would take us places and spent summer vacations together on the Jersey Shore.

Changes came over the years- my grandfather who we adored had a stroke and then passed away when I was 12, my aunts got divorced and remarried, and my grandmother moved to a smaller house- but the adventures didn't stop.  I had my first lesson driving a stick shift in my aunt's VW Bug with my cousins and brother in the back seat screaming "We'll all  be killed!  On a Christmas visit while I was in college, my aunt threw me the keys to her brand new Camaro to take my cousins and brother to McDonald's.  This was a big deal for a girl who was rarely allowed to drive the aging family Gran Tarino!  I had my first beer in a bar with my aunt and Grandmother, who both swore to the bartender that I was old enough to drink.  (I wasn't)

We still get together every summer.  My grandmother died when my youngest daughter was a baby and one of my aunts died unexpectedly, but it's still always a crazy time.  Family times are at the top of my favorite childhood memories list!