Resau Cousins Remember....

I will always remember this birthday party. It has to be one of my most favorite birthday party memories. We had pink lemonade. I would remember this because my dad liked plain things...red jello, vanilla ice cream and of course, I lived and died for anything different. It was also a day that all the cousins were coming. I remember asking mom over and over again if liz was coming, or eileen, or bobby and vernon...must have drove her nuts. I would keep asking who was coming and what we were going to have and so on...now looking back it's a wonder she didn't lock me in a closet until the party. Anyhow this is a grand picture of most of us with Granny. Now that I am a grandmother I realize how special this day and photo must have been for Granny.

Bobby and Vernon were our older cousins...look how dapper they look here with my youngest brother Chip...and yes, Chip still has an occassion to wear suspenders. We didn't see them often but this must have been an occassion. There are several cars in the background...they probably drove. Vernon taught us the dot game and Bobby taught us hangman. I ask what would you do with cousins who were at least 10 years younger and try to keep them entertained?

This is a picture from our house in Hanover Maryland. From left to right is Elva Resau, Esther Rehbein and Clyde Resau. If you came to our house in Hanover...at some time you sat on the swing and had your picture taken. Everyone who visited from late spring to late fall found themselves visiting with us on the front porch. The kids could play in the front yard, dad could keep an eye on his garden and of course the swing just made life seem grand.

Someone mentioned that the blog would be entirely black and white...and I thought there must be a color photo somewhere in the mix. Sure enough I found this one...and why...it's another birthday party for Granny. No wonder she used to say she hated birthdays. I used to ask her how old she was and she would say "as old as the hills..." and at 7 or 8 that keeps a kid quiet for awhile. I would contemplate that for an hour or so and then ask how old are the hills? She would reply "as old as I am..." She kept me on my toes for sure. This picture is from our house in Hanover. That's Becky and Liz (sister and cousin) in the chairs with the long hair...so very stylish then! That's mom to my left, Chip peaking out behind Granny and Lester in the front of the photo. Yep Lester...we got you finally in a photo...that's what happens when you are the youngest. And of course the lady of the hour...Granny in the middle. Since mom was our number one photo taker I'm not sure who snapped this photo. But thank you....

This is a picture from my cousin Carl Rehbein's collection. It is his mom (Aunt Esther) with quilts. Granny was always making quilts. Mom said one time that she made every grandchild a quilt. I have mine. It is a wedding ring patten. I wonder if these are quilts Granny made or perhaps Aunt Esther made...since she was so very talented too. All I know is that we all seem to gravitate to quilts of any kind...we seem to love the patterns, the effort to create one. I do remember Dad sitting at the lunch table one Saturday saying he was going to the feed store and asking Granny if she wanted to go pick out feed bags. Sure enough off we went (I was forever getting on the rides...I loved the rides). Anyhow I remember Granny picking out bags. There were blue stripes, small, very small, red flowers and a yellow daisy flower. Not sure who got those pieces in their quilt. She had a cardboard patten and very sharp scissors and after the feed bags were washed and ironed she would carefully cut the pieces out...there would hardly be a piece of material left. Then she would pin them together and put them in the box.
I loved to sort the box by color....she wasn't overly fond of my sorting but as long as I was quiet I could sort. She would stitch by hand each piece to the next making small pieces into bigger pieces. Sometimes she would have me count how many stars (or whatever the patten was)...now looking back...I'm sure she knew how many she had. She would tell me how many she would need to make a baby quilt or a twin bed or a full size bed. Fortunately for Granny at the time there were no queen or king size beds! I'd pin those pieces together and she would keep stitching. I was always amazed because she wore a thimble and how fast and small neat stitches she could make. One time I asked her...how many stitches did she think were in a quilt..."as many miles as to the sun" she would say. Someday all of us cousins will have to find our quilts and take a picture. She would like that.

This is one of those photos that I was delighted to find in my cousin Carl's photos. Carl and I had actually discussed this memorial. You see it was at our elementary school. I remember mom picking me up from school one day and I was standing on it and she told me that dad had built it with friends after World War II with some of his friends and family to remember soliders from the area who had died in the war. So a few years ago, when Carl was visiting us in Minnesota, I asked Carl if he knew if the memorial was still standing...mind you this is like me to ask someone who lives in NH or FL if something is still standing in Elkridge. He didn't remember it all. After Mom mentioned that Dad had helped build it (and I think it was Elkridge High School then) I looked at it everyday. I was always keeping an eye on it. I was pretty darn proud of my dad...who can do some mighty handy stone work when he wants to ...and never taught his daughter this skill either. On my next venture east...I will be checking this out. This photo looks like the memorial is almost done...I always like the stones and wonder if they were local stones from a nearby quarry.

There was nothing better in the world than having cousins and having the cousins come to visit or going to visit the cousins. Usually it was a birthday party or the holidays but sometimes it was just a good ole family get-together. Here we are, the FABULOUS FIVE...We look like we just got finished playing tag, badminton...how anyone got all five us to stand still long enough for this picture is beyond me. I'm sure they either promised us pop or cake or both! That's cousin Eileen in the back (the quiet one who could make the rest of behave just by raising her head a bit and looking at us! she kept us in line for sure)...Then me sort of in the middle row..then front row, Becky (sister) Mary (cousin) Liz (cousin). Looks like summer... and I will also note that Liz has ribbons in her hair...note none in my hair. Mom had long given up on those type of presentations for me. This hair do looks like one I cut for myself...and did I care?Someday soon I hope to get the FAB FIVE together again for another photo...wouldn't that just be grand!

Here is a picture I do believe from the wedding of Uncle Don (dad’s brother) and Aunt Elva…with Uncle Howard to the left and Aunt Esther to the right of the couple. I really know nothing of the occasion but I enjoy the happiness in all of their faces and the lovely flowers the women are holding. Perhaps one of the cousins will have the date, time, place...to finish the details.

Now I came to this picture (and more that will you will see from time to time) from a CD I got in the mail about five years ago. Not just any CD but one from my cousin James (aka Jimmy). He had placed his dad's (Howard in this picture) photo album on a scanner and had copied the pages. It was just marvelous I tell you. It was a chance to see and learn about people I had always loved and cared about. I was wearing the CD out spinning it in drive. Son John made a copy (always make a copy mom he says) and then took it home and painstakingly edited the pages to individual photos. To which Son John said…mom you need to learn to scan and use a scanner. I did. Then Son John said you should make copies for your cousins. I did. Then Son John said…you should write your memories about your family for your grandsons. I’m working on it John, I’m working on it.