A decade before Monty Python galloped through the hillsides with coconut shells, there were The Cousins. Bitsy, Scott, Benny & me. Four cousins, sans coconuts, slapping the sides of our legs, wildly galloping through our grandparents’ yard and neighing to the wind.
The origin of the game is undocumented, but it undoubtedly began in the heart of our ever-equine-loving Bitsy.
Side note. "Bitsy" is not her birth name, but definitely a "given name" bestowed by parents who had monikers for each of their 5 children. Although Bitsy eventually outgrew her childhood nickname one sister did not, T9E. How could you ever stop being three digits? Cute. Easy to spell. Rock Star potential.
The herd would meet in Itasca, TX at MaMaw and PaPaw’s house. Bitsy & Benny along with their three older sisters would arrive from El Paso. Scott , our sister Kim, and I would travel from whichever corner of Texas we were living at the time. While the older girls, Kim, Squeaky, Tissie & T9E, played dress-up and other girly things, we played HORSE. Not the basketball challenge, but horse, as in wild and free; just four cousins running barefooted in a yard full of grass burrs and not caring a bit (we were tough little buggers)! No rules. No goals. Only imagination, endless fun, and family. The herd grew from time to time as other cousins arrived. There was always room for more.
The same principle, “always room for more”, applied to our grandparents’ two-bedroom home. On any given holiday the walls would bulge with up to nine aunts and uncles, and 14 grandkids. Somehow there was always enough food to feed a small army and room on the floor for palettes to sleep the grandchildren. It must have been chaotic, but that’s not how I remember it.
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Sandra (the adult name for Bitsy) recently texted me. Preparing to watch the Kentucky Derby on tv, she planned to join in on the race (while remaining seated in her living room chair) slapping her thighs and whinnying. I laughed out loud … Bitsy was still in there!
Six decades have passed since the original herd first galloped with abandonment. We grew older, Benny left us all too soon, and our lives have taken us in different directions but the best things remain.
I wish for you, my friends, a heart where there is always room for more, overflowing sweet memories, deep love, family, and the occasional childlike desire to gallop wildly.
