Auld Lang Syne

Should old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind

The oldest friends I can remember, the oldest "friends" I can remember playing with as a child, are my cousins Mark and David Boe. Aunt Mary would come over to our house fairly regularly to visit with mom and while she did, Mark and David would play with Susie and me in our backyard at our house in Bloomington. It's probably about then that I learned how to tell time, because when it was time for Aunt Mary to leave, we'd hide Mark and David. After all, if they were hidden, they couldn't leave, could they? Never mind that we couldn't play with them either, it was all just part of a wonderful game. We had all sorts of wonderful games, we four! Some were part of the silliness that is just part of being a member of the Boe family...

At family dinners, someone will always quietly starting passing ALL the serving dishes around the table in the same direction. There will be some people who are in on the joke and others who are so busy talking and eating, they don't realize it's all for nothing. Everyone waits to see how long it takes those folks to notice. Except for the year Barbie, who was still in a high chair on the corner of the table, got impatient with the nonsense and flipped the bowl of mashed potatoes on the floor. She still hears about that one!

Another dinner table bit of silliness is to put your index finger on the side of your nose. If you noticed someone doing it, you were supposed to do it too. You were just supposed to continue doing whatever it is you were doing, or saying, but with your finger on your nose. The big joke was to see who was the last one who noticed.

We also held Easter Egg hunts and then Easter Egg smashing contests. There's an art to coming up the winner in the egg smashing contest. But I still remember the year Mark hid my mom's egg under a plant next to a dead robin. Her shrieking and scolding and his laughing are the epitome of both of them and still makes me smile.

Then there is the habit of pulling out your hankie (or kleenex, or anything white) to wave goodbye as people leave. I'm told that comes from great-grandma Geisen, Big Muddy. But everyone does it for everyone, especially as they leave the Farm. It's a way of saying I Love You.

But probably the biggest silliness Susie and I had with Mark and David growing up was on holidays when someone was cooking a turkey and we'd form teams to try to be the first to get the red and white temperature probe that pops up when the turkey is done. I have no idea who came up with this game, but we played it for years. We'd form teams of two, usually me and Mark and then Suellen and David. We'd go to great lengths to get the cook (usually Aunt Mary) on our side, then distract the other team so we could be in the kitchen at the exact moment the bird came out of the oven and claim the probe. The rest of the evening would be spent trying to steal it away from the other team. This was incredibly important because whomever had the probe could POKE the other team with it!

Mark and David are from a family of five boys. They've shared with me that Susie and I are like the sisters they've never had. I always looked at Mark as the older brother I never had. I don't see him that often because he lives half a content away. But he always calls me when he comes back home so we can be sure to see each other. I have always felt protected by Mark. He was there for me when my mom died. He keeps in touch in spite of the distance. So....as we take out our white hankies and wave goodbye to 2011, here's a toast to my oldest friend and favorite cousin. Love you, Mark!

We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For auld lang syne