Yesterday ...... Sept 10 .... was my uncle's birthday.  He would have been 74.  But he died in March 1982, at age 47.  Cancer.  He was my mother's older brother.  I am named after him.  (His middle name was Paul).

He and his wife had been married for eight years and hadnt been able to have children yet.  I was his girl.  He would come get me and keep me for hours.  And spoil me rotten.  We were always very very close.  My first child was born two years after he died.  A baby girl.  The day she was born I missed him more than I have ever missed anyone in my life.  He would have been there.  And she would have been his girl.  He would have spoiled her.

He had a boy fifteen months after I was born (and he is named after my father).  We grew up almost like brother and sister.  Three years later he had twins ... boys.  I was still his girl.  My brother was born almost seven years after me.  My uncle claimed him too.  He was always taking all of us somewhere - maybe just down to the park to play ball - but he was there for us, and with us. 

 He always went to everyone's house on Christmas morning to see what all the kids got.  He'd get his boys up and let them play for a little bit while he fixed breakfast then they all had to load up and go see what everyone else got.  They never seemed to mind not getting to stay home and play with their own toys though.  One Christmas my brother got a go cart.  A two-seater.  It had poured down rain for three days before Christmas and our yard was a lob-lolly.  When my uncle arrived the go-cart was on the carport and we were inside.  He said "let's go ride".  My brother said "we cant, it's too muddy, we'll get stuck."  He said "come on boy, we got a go-cart and we're gonna ride".  So out the door they went and onto the go-cart.  The minute they left the driveway and went off into the yard they bogged down and mud started flying everywhere.  Now, that wouldnt be so bad but you see, my uncle was wearing a suit and tie.  That's what his (second) wife had gotten him for Christmas (he wore them to work) and so he put on his new suit to show her how much he liked it.  I'm not sure they ever got that suit clean enough for him to wear again -- but he rode that go-cart!

When I got my first car I wasnt quite 16 yet, but my Mom and Dad wanted me to have it a little early so I could get used to it while still driving with them, so they would feel better about turning me loose in the car I had been driving all along.  The day it was delivered to the house by our local dealer my mom and dad were both in bed with the flu.  So, no driving the new car.  I called my uncle to come see it and he said "lets' go for a ride."   Now, you werent supposed to drive without a parent or legal guardian, but we took off anyway.  We stayed to the backroads .... I'd never been on most of them before, and havent been on some of them since, but we rode for two hours in my new car. 

Every time I sit in front of a fire -- fireplace, campfire, bonfire -- I think of him.  He and I would sit for hours around a campfire.  Long after everyone else had gone to bed we would sit there.  Never saying a word, just staring at the fire.  Once in a while we'd add a log or stir it around a bit.  And then we'd just sit there some more. 

Happy Birthday Uncle.  I love you. 

For the first time in many many years, I just opened a piece of Juicy Fruit gum and popped it in my mouth.  Boy, have things changed.  First of all, it was yellow!  I’ve never had a yellow stick of Juicy Fruit gum before.  It was always that same shade of grayish just like every other stick of gum of every flavor used to be.  Second, it sure doesn’t taste the same as it did back when it came out of the bib pocket of my grandaddy’s overalls. 

Back when I was a little bitty bit of a girl (and trust me, that was a long time ago), my granddaddy (my momma’s daddy) always kept  Juicy Fruit gum in the bib pocket of his overalls.  He was a mechanic, and overalls were his standard attire.  All of us grandkids (I’m the oldest grandchild on my mom’s side) can remember crawling up in his lap and unzipping that pocket and getting us a stick of Juicy Fruit.  I was fortunate that from the ages of two to six, we lived within walking distance of both sets of my grandparents.  Of course at age two I couldn’t walk there alone, but it meant that we spent a lot of time with all of them.  And it was a neighborhood where we could walk and ride bikes without fear of traffic or other hazards.  All us cousins (on both sides) would ride our bikes all over that side of town every weekend.  Even after we moved across town and lived on “the highway”, on Sunday afternoon Dad would load up me and my brother (almost seven years my junior) and our bikes and we’d go to one or the other set of grandparents for Sunday dinner (that would be the noon meal.  Around these parts we call the evening meal supper.)   There’d be lots of cousins with bikes and we’d ride around the streets all afternoon.

Oh, and sometimes dad would let me ride on the running board from our house to his mom and dad’s house.  Now that was a thrill.  I’d stand on the running board and he’d put his arm out the window and around my waist and off we’d go.  It was one block and turn left, then ½ block and turn right, then in ½ block you were at their house.  But that was always a thrill to ride on the running board. 

Then there were all the times that all the grandkids would spend the night at my mom’s parents house.   This was before the last two came along.  At the time there were nine of us.  They had two fold out sofas, and all the girls (five of us) would sleep in one, and the boys (four of them) would sleep in the other.  Not because we had to, but because we wanted to.  It was so much fun.  We’d all sit up and watch scary movies and then go to bed, and once we even woke up to find out all the boys had crawled into our sofabed too! 

Wow!  It’s amazing how one little stick of Juicy Fruit gum can bring back so many memories!