Sisters

So I was sitting in my friend's yard the other day and we got to talking about 'kids these days' because yes, I'm that old. We reminisced about our childhoods and how we amused ourselves without video games, went outside, all the things that those young folk don't do anymore. I brought it up because I had been listening to Howard Stern that morning and Tina Fey was talking about her new movie 'Sisters'. It reminded me of my childhood. I have many cousins, most of whom are my readers so you know each other and the things we did and more importantly, the things we did together. The reason that particular interview brought memories up for me was that I have two cousins in particular who I played a game called 'sisters' with. They are both younger than me but I don't think that actually matters to the story so ignore that part. The important part is that they would occasionally come over when their parents came to hang with mine. Their mother is my father's sister so there was a closeness inherent in that relationship. The time I remember is when we lived in this one house that had a really long hallway. My Aunt and Uncle (Ameh and Amou in Farsi) would come over for dinner (and I suspect many drinks too) and they would stay the night, or at least late into the night, my memory is likely as fuzzy as theirs. My two cousins and I would play a game that started with us hanging out in my room and getting 'dressed for work'. I don't recall the actual outfits but we would get ready, pretend to eat breakfast, and then we would leave my room to head to work. The big part of the game was that we were sisters living together who were all teachers and we would leave at the same time to go to work. We'd all leave my room, sit in separate parts of the hallway, and teach our classes. I'm guessing that since we were all really young (I was 11ish) we taught elementary school. We'd sit like that, talking to ourselves, for about 15-20 minutes and then we'd conclude our teaching days and head back 'home' to my room. Then we'd pretend to make dinner and do whatever we thought adults did at the end of the day. We were happy and the thought that maybe that could be our lives was fun to us.
There is so many aspects of that I find interesting. The imagination that kept us busy and out of our parents' hair for the evening, the fact that we didn't need anything electronic to entertain us, and the really weird part of us thinking that 3 spinster teachers living together was awesome. I'll tackle the first bit first. Well actually one and two are together. I spent  my entire childhood amusing myself. I did have an Atari but it was more of a sideline, not an all consuming part of my day. I spent much of my days making elaborate bird's eye views of Barbie houses, roller skating, dressing my dog up in doll clothes and taking him for a walk in a baby buggy, or trying to build an entire town out of mud so I could end up on That's Incredible!
Ok, so now we end up at the point I am trying to make about the idea of my childhood game of Sisters. (Yes, I realized that it is highly likely that none of this has anything to do with the movie but as I haven't seen it, I don't care...inspiration comes from where it comes from, yes?) I love my cousins. All of them in so many ways. These two cousins in particular have a special place, as do all of my cousins but for different reasons, in my heart. We were sisters. At that young age we thought that living together forever was something special. We didn't dream of marriage or children, we dreamt of just living together. It seems ridiculous at this point. I don't think any of us would actually be happy being one of three spinsters living together in a one room house with only a teacher income to live off of. Then again, three people sharing just one room (and I'm not talking one bedroom, just one room total) and hoping for a government pension may not be that bad...
My darling cousins, each of you have touched my life and I love that I have random memories of all of you popping up in my head throughout each day I live. I'm blessed.
P.S. any of my regular readers who sat through this and are hoping for more embarrassing high school diary stuff, don't worry, I'll get on it and post the really really really bad poetry I've got saved up. Thanks all!