Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Family

I don't have a strong sense of family. It's the way I was raised. My mother's family was small, one sister, but my dad had a large family, brothers and sisters and cousins everywhere, all in New Jersey. The only time of my life I had a sense of family was when my dad convinced his brothers and sisters to move to Southern California in the early 1950s. For a year there were big Deemer family gatherings. Then a big earthquake struck, and all but one family raced back to New Jersey.

In my old age, it seems a close, large family would be nice. I think this was an issue with my parents. Mom didn't really like all the Deemers, a little too redneck for her, I think, and she was often the butt of Deemer men practical jokes. She wanted to live in Oregon, Dad in New Jersey, and so they moved often. It looked comic at the time. It reflected a real issue about family.

I've connected with my first cousin Robin in LA and enjoy this. She visits about once a year. And that's the extent of my family connections.

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