Swimmerly Relatives

My mother's father grew up in a small town outside Gettysburg...specifically Fairfield. As a child I have memories of my mother and I driving up to Fairfield to powow with her brother, his family and my grandparents (my memories are more of my grandmother than my grandfather but that's really not here nor there). We all stayed in my great-aunt Helen's house, sleeping two or three (in the case of kiddies) to a bed. Helen's house will always remain a little magical in my mind. There was a back stairway from the main bedroom to the kitchen that was always dark and that I think we weren't ever supposed to use. Helen's closet had all these dresses in it and her parlor all these boxes to open with nothing inside. Oh and she had a little telephone sitting spot in the hall-way with this way old-school phone. Anyways. This was the place where we would gather in between visiting my grandparents outside of Columbus. I remember countless card games, tiddly winks, and cousinly sulks. I remember going to the local super market and buying bubble gum and MAD magazine (something only done in Fairfield, never carried over to my every day real life). I remember my aunt's back yard, its strip of sidewalk in the middle of the yard, a clothes line running parallel to it....fields and a school in the distance. Oh, you know, I remember stuff. Helen eventually had to go to a nursing home and her house was sold, leaving the extended family with no easy meeting place in the area...but we adapted. My uncle, a Gettysburg University graduate, still wanted to make at least a yearly trek to the area (just as his father had before him) and so we started meeting up at Larson's. (This is one of those posts where I have to write it all out but I know I've already lost all my readers...too bad). This continued during my teenage years until my grandmother died (my grandfather having died years before). I have not as vivid or fond memories of those trips but Larson's had its charm (it had yet to become a Quality Inn). So. The point.
This past weekend my uncle and aunt, my favorite cousin (sorry all other cousins but it's true that K...though sometimes bossy:)) is maybe my favorite), and my other cousins/K's brothers and their respective wives and children all came to Gettysburg. They stayed in a house associated with Larson's and had access to its pool. When I went and visited with them on Saturday, after visiting with my father of course, we went to the pool. No one needs to see me in a bathing suit and there is no photographic evidence but look! cute little cousins and my uncle!