Did you know that National Cousins Day is this weekend? I didn’t either until one of my cousins tagged me on Facebook a few months ago with a “Happy Cousins Day” graphic. I had never heard of Cousins Day before so I Googled it to find out more. Well, turned out it wasn’t actually Cousins Day when she posted that, but there is really is such a day and it’s July 24th.

I have 31 first cousins, so I think I ought to celebrate Cousins Day. Dad’s parents had 19 grandchildren and Mother’s parents had 27 grandchildren. Subtracting the 5 of us from both sides, the math still doesn’t seem to add up. However, I have two sets of double cousins, as two of Dad’s sisters married two of Mother’s brothers, so their kids are my cousins on both sides of the family. How cool is that?

My cousins currently range in age from 13 to 63. They live in Louisiana, Illinois, Mississippi, California, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio… and Italy! (That I know of. Some may have moved since I last heard about them.)

I’m not sure what the proper way is to celebrate. Send ’em all flowers? Sing “Happy Cousins Day to you…”? Or better yet, have a cousins party! Wouldn’t that be fun? Too bad all my cousins live far away. Since I can’t throw a party–well, I guess I could, but probably none of them would come–I thought I’d share a few throwback pictures to celebrate. Throwback Thursday, you know.

Circa 1968. Mother’s parents had 7 grandchildren at that time. I’m the curly-haired tot with the sun in my eyes. My sisters are the twins in the red dresses. And the others are cousins. The elderly couple in the back are my great-grandparents on the Easley side. I remember them well. PaPa Easley passed away when I was almost 14. Granny Easley lived to be 101. I was married before she died.

Here’s one from Christmas 1971 of Grandmother and Granddaddy Easley with all most of their grandchildren at that time. I’m the one in braids sitting highest on the steps. My sister, Naomi, has a matching dress. Her twin is not in the picture. None of us can remember why. The blue elbow in the corner belongs to my brother, Allen. My youngest brother is the baby on Granddaddy’s arm. The other kids are cousins. I’m thinking the photographer snapped this picture before we were all quite ready. Except me. I was ready.

Let’s try that again, shall we?

Nope. Still not ready. Must’ve been kinda like herding cats. Except you can actually see Allen in this one.

This next picture is from the late 1970s–as if that isn’t obvious. It’s a snapshot my mother took of my sisters and me with some of our girl cousins on Dad’s side of the family. MawMaw Ezell had given all the middle-school aged granddaughters (those of us in the picture) nightgowns for Christmas the year before, so someone had the idea that she ought to host a Cousins’ Slumber Party. Being just the right kind of grandma, she agreed to the idea… and so a few months later she came around to pick us up. Naturally such a party involved a whole lotta giggling and not a lotta sleeping. That seems to be all the “cousin” pictures from my childhood that I have in a digital format just now. I’m sure there are more, but I’m not going to take the time to dig through albums to find them. Maybe next year for Cousins Day, huh?

Here’s one from last summer of my kids with their cousins on my side of the family. We were together to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. My sister, Dori, was the photographer. 

The old truck belongs to my brother. When we were kids it belonged to Granddaddy.

Fun times!

Happy Cousins Day!