How in the hell did I acquire this many relatives?!
Papa’s generation: 3 boys, 2 girls. Papa, Bill (d), Walter (d), Louise, Babs (d).
Papa’s kids: 11
Papa’s grandkids: 14
Papa’s great-grandkids: 3
Bill’s kids: 8
Bill’s grandkids: 12
Louise’s kids: 5
Louise’s grandkids: 3
Louise’s great-grandkids: 2
Babs’s kids: 6
Babs’s grandkids: 12
Babs’s great-grandkids: 1
Total Body-Count: 82
Warm Body Count: 79 — plus spouses and sig-others.
Probably 40-50 people at the park on Saturday. Imagine trying to keep track of everyone… and that’s just my mom’s dad’s branch of the family. I’ve still got Elberfelds and Roemers and Sperrys to remember too. At least my Sperry branch is small… 2 grands (their wives are still alive at least), 5 prior-generation types, and 2 second cousins. Of which 6 plus Grandma and G’Aunt Norma are still alive.
We’re gonna explore what Schalks/Elberfelds we can starting tomorrow… yick this is getting hard to follow! Okay, so the aunt-types we’ll be visiting are Mom’s second cousins. So they’re once removed from me (generational difference). And their kids would be my third cousins. If it weren’t for still being in touch with them, I wouldn’t think of them as family at all.
…mind-bending, much?
Meanwhile, I have bonded with my second cousin Paul. He’s 25 and helps me mess with the younger kids. Yesterday I showed up to the park with about 500 water balloons. We both bombed hell out of everyone we could reach.
Then today we messed with Nathaniel. He’s 11. He deserved every bit of it.
“Nate, get out of the pool, we gotta go get ready for dinner”
“what are you doing out of the pool? you can still swim”
“what are you doing? get out of the pool!
“dude, why are you getting out? you’ve got time to swim!”
“get out of the pool, you’re gonna be late!”
…We got him in and out of the pool about 12 times in 5 minutes… I love hanging with Paul!
Oh, and I’m finally old enough to go drinking with the aunts/uncles/once-removeds… Paul and I threw paper airplanes back and forth with Eileen and Pat. Meanwhile Henry and young-Babs were grooving to the blues and letting out shrieks of approval every now and then.
My family rocks. I just wish it were easier to keep track of everyone!
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