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"Invaders of the North"

It was the summer of 1973. There was a ruckus at the front door and my mother made some excited squeals looking outside. I pushed my way out the door and saw a truck with livestock walls filled to the brim and overflowing with clothes, boxes, furniture.

The livestock walls were made of worn wood, tilting out from the rusted bed of the truck as if about to burst like a cartoon scene all over the quiet street on which we lived.

And then like a clown car people started raining from this truck, from on top of the pile, from under the pile, from the cab of the truck. It was like a scene from the “Beverly Hillbillies” television show. Approaching our house like an invading wall of army ants they came, a very large woman carrying an infant, a short man with a big grin and misshapen head, and children of all ages from about 10 years old to 15 years falling behind them.

It was a shocking view and I had no idea who these people were or what they were doing coming to our house looking so excited.

But my mother seemed to know them. The man rushed up and gave my mother a hug as the children rushed past us, through the front door, and started invading every nook and cranny of our home. What was this!!

My mother introduced the man, Laramie, to me as her first cousin. I had never heard of him in all of my 14 years. More cousins!! I already had 14 1st cousins and now I found that I had at least 7 more cousins here! I was not real happy about this, as it seemed the most interesting place in the house to all the invading juvenille cousins was my bedroom!

This covey of cousins was a peculiar band of invaders, each with their own unique characteristics.

The youngest was the infant, Chrissy, old enough to crawl through the house leaving a strong trail scent with a diaper that was always in need of changing as it sagged from the weight of moisture and occasionally fell off.

Next was the 10 year old boy, Jimmy. Jimmy seemed to want to fight anything that moved and half of what stood still. I was quite small for my age of 14 years, and Jimmy was actually larger than me. The sight of an older male cousin that was smaller than him seemed to stir up some deep-seated brute instincts that perhaps were leftover genes from some critter in the ancestry. I spent a good share of my time staying away from Jimmy and his flying fists.

Next on the ladder was an 11 year old girl, Joannie. Joannie was like a ferret seeking out any item in any lost corner she could find and later in life would lose her teeth when a dumpster lid would hit her on the back of her head as she pursued that elusive piece of treasure.

After that was Millie, a 14 year old girl with very long golden straight hair, an infectious laugh and very mature and proper behavior. Millie was forced to be the caregiver of all the other children except the oldest one peggy. She would chase the baby around, try to calm Jimmy, and yank Joannie by the ankles out of small areas. Over the next years I would observe as Millie did almost all the house cleaning, dish washing, baby bathing, babysitting, and general chores as the other children and parents ignored her contributions while either consciously or subconsciously pushing more and more work on her.

Millie and I would become best of friends that would last a lifetime.

However, the most interesting members are yet to come.

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