Flashback Friday 11 01 28

These are my cousins Johnny and Kathleen back in about 1944 outside my paternal grandparents' house. They were my eldest cousins and I didn't see nearly as much of them as I did of the three others who were also born in 1944. It was a bumper year for babies in our family as the war was drawing down. We were the ones conceived on our fathers' last leave before heading overseas to Germany.  Everyone lived in Pennsylvania so our mothers got together a good bit when they could. Sharing worries and pregnancy issues and baby talk.

Johnny and Kathleen's father had a good deal more money than my parents and their mother, my father's sister, and her husband were great favorites of my mother.  Sadly, my aunt died of alcoholism in her mid 30s and her children had their own issues growing up. I really can't recall if Uncle John ever remarried. I still have the bedroom set that Johnny and Kathleen's grandfather carved for my parents for their wedding. It was a gift from Uncle John and Aunt Kathleen (yes, both children were named for their parents).  Some things as well as memories last.