Mae's Real Stories

Almost all our cousins were older than we were. I'll only write about a few cousins, who were all relatives of my mother. My cousin Marcia was two years older than I was. We liked to go to her house when we were little. The photo shows how she looked shortly before I was born. We often went to visit her.
In her room, Marcia had a record player with a record of two songs which she often played when we were visiting her. On one side of the record was "God Bless America," and on the other side of the record was "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean." Also in her room was a small crib with many baby dolls in it. Her brother Bip was too old to play with us.

Sometimes Marcia came to our house and ate lunch and spent the afternoon with us. She chewed gum. Once she showed me how she ate a string bean on one side of her mouth while she was holding her chewing gum on the other side of her mouth. (No one remembers this except me.)

The next older girl than cousin Marcia was cousin Myrtle, who is in the photo riding a horse. In the photo, she was about ten years old. She was in junior high or high school when I remember her best, and had lots of party dresses and high-heeled shoes. She was a very tiny person, so sometimes she gave us her dresses and shoes when she was finished wearing them, and they were perfect for playing dress up, because they almost fit us. Her shoes fit me when I was only 8 years old or thereabouts. I think that Myrtle took piano lessons. I remember that there was a piano in her living room when I was little. My grandmother lived with her and her parents when I was very little, so we often went to visit there. In the second photo you can see Myrtle as she was just before she got married, when I was in seventh grade.


Myrtle's older sister Merilyn was a grown, married woman. I had gone to her wedding when I was a very small child. My sister was a tiny baby, too little to go to the wedding, but I was old enough to wear a beautiful pink dress decorated with lace and go to the wedding with my parents. Merilyn wore a long white wedding gown. There were lots of white flowers at the wedding, and a very tall white wedding cake. At least that's what I remember.In the photo you can see me and Elaine with Merilyn.

We had two second cousins named Lois and June, sisters a little older than I was. We liked to play with them too. They lived in a big house, and their parents had a photography studio.

We also had a younger cousin named Judy who was the same age as Elaine. The little girl on the steps of an apartment building is Judy (confirmed by Myrtle). Judy sometimes came to play with us and her little brother played with my little brother. We once went to her birthday party at her house, but then we never went to her house again.

As we grew just a little older, several of our cousins started to have children of their own. In this picture, you can see Merilyn's two daughters Andy and Leslie with Ellen, the daughter of another cousin.