my cousin john......

ok, so last night, while the three of us were assembled on the sofa watching a library copy of yet another british murder mystery......i received a terse phone call from close kin with the directive......call cousin john.....he turned 50 today.....here is the phone number....he'd be really surprised if you called'.......i had forgotten, in all of my personal focus of late, that if i turned 50 last week, then i have two cousins who would be reaching the same milestone within a few weeks....john, who lives on the family apple farm (his mom's family, not the crown family) in the middle of ohio........and tim, who lives in texas and who named his first born graham michael crown so his initials would match his truck.......i haven't seen my cousin john in maybe 8 years.....on a visit to the area with my mom, dad and children.....for a family wedding......the particulars of his life are all coming back.....we saw a lot of him and his 3 sisters, as his dad and my dad were close in age, went to ohio state together because they were discharged from the service about the same time.....and lived close enough that a weekend visit was do-able.....john was at osu for a at least 1 semester of my freshman year...his next older sister recruited me for her sorority.......and like cousin debbie on my mom's side.....dropped out after just one semester.......he got married to his hometown sweetheart....and has a daughter .......who changed her name at some point....that marriage didn't last....it was quite a surprise to hear a few years ago that he was having a baby with his younger girlfriend....and now he has a daughter aged 28 and a son aged 6.....and yes......he was ever so surprised to hear from me.......we covered hairloss and haricolor.....both our fathers failed to turn grey, but rather lost their hair in a similar pattern......so far john has avoided both greying and hairloss.....it wasn't after i had hung up the phone to return to our movie that the irony sunk in.......my close kin....the one who called to suggest that i call my cousin on his 50th.....hadn't called me on my own birthday despite being.....close kin........typical.......which kind of brings me back to my cousin......who was lucky enough to have 3 siblings......whenever he fell out with a particular sib there was always another to play with until things calmed down.....with one sibling there is nobody to turn to when the relationship is strained.....of course, if one falls out with all siblings, there is still nobody to turn to......maybe only children have it best....as they are used to having nobody.........regardless......i have entered an alarm into my pda to remind myself to call this close kin when his birthday comes up on a month or two.....he'll not see the humor in that call.......but i suppose that is not the point............