Aunts - Pennsylvania

I grew up with many Aunts, four on my Dad’s side, and 3 on my Mother’s side. I also had many great aunts, as both of my Grandma’s came from large families. Both sides of the families had annual family reunions every year, I loved those reunions, and it gave me a chance to know my extended family. Unlike my husband’s family, we in our family did not call Aunts, “aunties”, they were my “aunts”. I notice that these days, many nieces do not use the title Aunt when talking with their aunts, but we always did, and I still do call them by the title Aunt. I think it’s the honorary thing to do.

My maternal Grandmother had a lot of visits from her sisters and brothers, (my Great Aunts and Uncles), and since I spent a lot of time at Grandma’s, I was able to get to know and get close to my Great Aunts and Uncles also.

My Mother didn’t get help rocking the cradle or babysitting with her babies from the aunts on a regular basis like I did for my children, but I received a lot of love and attention from every one of them in many other ways. I was the first grandchild on my Dad’s side, so I was given a lot of attention, especially from my aunts. Three of them especially, would take me for overnight visits, and do special things with me.

Aunt Grace took my cousin and I to my very first movie, at around the age of 8 or 9, in the big
City. It was Cecil DeMilles “The Ten Commandments”. I was in such awe of that experience! To this day when I see it on TV, I remember how we sat in the movie theater to see it, my first movie. Aunt Grace and Uncle Bill would take me along with my cousins to an amusement park not far from their home. I spent a lot of time at their house,playing with my cousin, Susan, great memories!

Aunt Sara and Uncle Bob took me to my first drive in movie, along with my cousins. We played at the playground at the movie theatre until dark when the movie started. They lived in a row house in the city and it had three stories, the top story we called the “third floor” and my cousin, a few years younger than me, and I would play "house" up there, when I stayed over at their place.

Aunt Jane worked at the local soda fountain and she would buy me ice cream sundaes.
She always took extra time to talk to me when I was a teenager, and really related to me.
I appreciated that she didn’t treat me like a “little girl” when I was a teen. Since Aunt Jane was only 10 years older than me, Grandma had all Aunt Jane’s formals and fancy dresses that she wore to high school dances at her house yet. So, when I needed a gown for a choral concert or prom, guess where Mom would take me. Not to the store, but to Grandma’s third floor to look through Aunt Jane’s gowns. For my senior prom, I wanted a long gown, and the only thing close was a ballerina length, which wasn’t in style then. My Grandma G., matched the chiffon scarf on top with chiffon material and taffeta and put a piece on the bottom to make it long. No one was the wiser. Now, I wouldn’t have been as lucky as a Mother in that situation as my Mother was, because my daughter would never have let me get by with that!

Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Dick had me overnight the most often because they didn’t have their daughter until I was a teenager. They had a lot of time to devote to me, Aunt Sylvia was a first grade teacher, so she knew exactly how to entertain me when I was a little girl. She had great children’s songs on her record player, and lots of fun books that she would read to me. They took me to see Santa Claus at Christmas. She made me homemade ice cream sodas. They took me to restaurants, something us kids never had the chance to go to. When I was elementary age and stayed over, I read a lot of classics such as “Heidi”, in the mornings in bed, waiting for them to get up (you know how early kids get up!). That’s probably why I became a reader of books.

Most of my Aunts and Uncles on my Dad’s side, made a trip to Duluth to visit me. One Aunt and Uncle that didn’t make it, had good intentions one summer to come out, but their trip got canceled due to hurricane damage at the place where my uncle worked, he was an engineer and he couldn’t take his vacation due to the hurricane damage. I appreciate how each of them knew it meant a lot for me to have them visit.

Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Dick have been here many times. I can’t even keep track anymore how many times they have traveled here to visit us, but I know it was at least 6 times in these last 36 years. The last visit was in 1997, when they came out for our son’s high school graduation party. Every time I am home since then, they talk about trying to make a trip one more time. They are both over 80 now, and my Mother told me one time, “don’t insist for them to come out, they are getting where travel is hard for them”, I told her that I understood that, but was just grateful that they talk about it, and we are so grateful for all the visits that they did make.

Remember when I was writing about the farm, I told how my aunts and uncles from the city would often come up on Sat. or Sundays and visit us. That is another reason why I am so close to my aunts and uncles.

Now, my aunts and uncles on my Mother’s side meant a lot to me too, I didn’t see them as often, but when I did they showed their love. I did stay with my cousin in Lancaster quite a few times over the years; Aunt Mae was so loving and kind to me during those visits. One time she took my cousin and me to Farmer’s Market in Lancaster. It was a real experience.

Aunt Liz and Uncle John took me on a wonderful trip with them and my cousins, to up state Pennsylvania, through the mountains and we stayed overnight in a very rustic hunting cabin in Potters County. This is the cabin that my Dad and uncle would go to for deer hunting each fall. That trip I will never forget.

Adults, when relating to kids, keep this in mind: the smallest thing you do for children, is remembered as a big thing, even if it’s small. When I tell my aunts and uncles the things I remember so vividly as being so meaningful, they are surprised that those things made such an impact on me. They really didn’t think they were doing that much. But they loved me and they showed me their love in action.

Weren’t Bob and I lucky to have wonderful Aunts and Uncles and wonderful memories with them! They are in our hearts everyday!