TIME WARP

MY TRIP TO LAS VEGAS ON SUNDAY WAS TO MEET UP WITH A FAVORITE FIRST COUSIN, JERRY, FROM MONTICELLO, WISCONSIN.

OUR VISIT WAS LIKE BEING IN A TIME WARP........

HOW OFTEN IN LIFE DO YOU SIT DOWN AND VISIT WITH SOMEONE WHOM YOU'VE KNOWN FOREVER, OUTSIDE YOUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY?

WE HAD THE SAME GRANDPARENTS, WE KNOW ALL OF THE FAMILY STORIES AND HISTORY, FROM THE BEGINNING, ALL OF IT !! HELL, WE EVEN KNOW WHO "NORMAN" IS, AND UNCLE JOE AND AUNT HANNAH, AND GRANDPA RECHSTEINER.......... SOME OF THESE DEAD FOR ALMOST 50 YEARS.

SO WHEN JERRY STARTED A "GRANDMA STORY", YOU HAD TO STOP AND THINK......... IS THAT JERRY'S 85 YEAR OLD MOTHER? MY 81 YEAR OLD MOTHER? OR OUR REAL GRANDMOTHER, THAT LIVED TO BE 102?

BUT WHAT REALLY GOT ME WERE THE "UNCLE HANS" STORIES ......... TO ME "UNCLE HANS" STORIES ARE ABOUT MY BROTHER HANS, BUT TO JERRY, AN "UNCLE HANS" STORY IS ABOUT MY DAD. I RETURNED THE FAVOR AND TOLD "UNCLE JOHNNY" STORIES AS WE SAT IN THE GOLDEN GATE CASINO DOWNTOWN WHERE JERRY'S DAD AND NEIGHBOR ALWAYS STAYED WHEN THEY CAME TO VEGAS SOME 30 OR 40 YEARS AGO.

IT WAS A GREAT VISIT, AND FUN TO HEAR ABOUT JERRY'S KIDS AND GRANDKIDS, WHOM I'VE NEVER MET, ESPECIALLY MY FAVORITE, LACY CLARE, A FREE SPIRIT I'VE ALWAYS ADMIRED.