I don’t know how often we got together with cousins when I was growing up, but I remember gatherings of cousins on my father’s side of the family being day events. My father’s parents lived in a town about 60 miles from our house and his sister and one of his brothers lived in another nearby city. The three places formed a triangle that allowed family get togethers for a mid-day meal and a return home the same day. We thought it a bit strange that dad’s brothers had fairly small families, but ours and his sister’s families had lots of children, so whenever there was a family get together we had lots of cousins.

There were a few less cousins on my mother’s side and her sisters lived a bit farther away. When we got together with the cousins on that side it usually was a multiple day event. One of our mother’s sisters lived in the Washington DC area, and there were two others who lived in Montana, but places a couple of hundred miles from our home.

One of my strong memories of gatherings of cousins on my mother’s side of the family is of times when the family gathered at our aunt and uncle’s farm between Great Falls and Fort Benton, Montana. The farmhouse was a tiny two-bedroom structure with an additional room in the basement where quite a few people could sleep on cots and roll-away beds. Our Aunt Teddy was one of the world’s great refrigerator engineers. By that I don’t mean she designed and built appliances. Rather, she could find just the right container for each bit of leftover food and stack those containers into her tiny refrigerator in such a way that huge quantities of food could be stored inside. In my memory there was never any spare space in her refrigerator and most of the time there was at least one and sometimes as many as three coolers in the basement with blocks of ice made by freezing water in paper milk cartons into half gallon chunks. The ice came out of the freezer and the coolers were filled with food. Aunt Teddy’s pantry cupboards were equally masterpieces of stacking and piling and finding a variety of canisters and containers for food.

It didn’t matter which side of the family we were visiting, whenever we got together with cousins there was a lot of food available. Everyone brought food to the gatherings and we ate well. And when we got together we had enough kids to form teams for softball.

We have been blessed with five grandchildren. Four of them live on their family farm just a couple miles from our place. The fifth lives with his parents in South Carolina. Since we retired we’ve been blessed to have all of our grandchildren together at least once a year. This year we have an extended visit because our son in law is deployed serving our country and so our daughter is able to visit a bit longer than some other years. Cousin time is just five kids, but it still involves significant refrigerator engineering. And yesterday, we got a couple of blocks of ice out of our freezer and filled the cooler for a picnic with my brother and my sister. They each have only one grandchild, so we managed to have seven cousins together. We have another brother and he has grandchildren, but he wasn’t able to make it to our gathering.

Our children and their cousins did most of the organizing with a chain of emails and we contributed some of the food. We have a cooler that is larger than the ones of our parents’ generation and our refrigerator is significantly larger than the one at Aunt Teddy’s farm, but there has been considerable refrigerator engineering going on at each meal. Last night after the picnic food was shifted into smaller containers and containers were stacked rather tightly into our refrigerator. The picnic generated even more leftovers because when everyone brings food the result is a lot more food than we can eat even with many of us eating a bit more than typical. Seven grandchildren together each had watermelon and cherries and chocolate chip cookies and cup cakes as well as hot dogs. I think a couple of them even ate a bite or two of the generous and tasty salads that were present.

Seven cousins may not seem like a lot, but a lot of planning and coordination was invested in getting them all together. There are more cousins but the grandchildren of our oldest sisters are significantly older than the grandchildren of the siblings who are still alive.

Yesterday seemed like a rare and delightful treat. One of the bonuses of being of the older generation is that we get to enjoy the children while their parents assume the bulk of the responsibility for care of those children. I get to entertain the children by breaking a watermelon over my head while their parents have the job of getting them to sleep after they have had way more dessert than usual. While the parents were putting those seven precious ones to bed, we were sitting on our porch swing sipping tea and watching the neighbors. This grandparent job is really fun.

We do, however, have responsibility for a significant amount of refrigerator engineering. Before long everyone will be going back to their homes and we’ll be left with a refrigerator full of leftovers. Some of that food can make its way into the freezer, but we’ll be eating a pretty varied menu for a while. Each gathering means a fresh meal plan. Last night was picnic. Tonight we’ll only have six of the cousins together and the plan is for a taco bar. Our refrigerator already had leftovers from a pizza dinner, a bit of macaroni and cheese, and a variety of lunch meats. We added some brats and hot dogs from last night. Tonight will produce a bit of taco meat, cheese, and probably a few refried beans as well.

And when all is said and done, the cousins will remember getting together as being good times with good food and happy adults. Their grandparents can’t stop grinning with the joy of it all.