Well, Ethan is a Camus. It was pretty unanimous after some of Ed’s cousins met him. Which is rather scary. Because I now see motorcycles in his future.
As we were making plans for the trip, Ed asked for one thing. Thinking he was going to ask if we could stop in Pittsburgh on the way back, I braced myself and tried to figure out what argument I could make against it. But apparently the fiasco of the last trip has cured any homesickness for now and he didn’t even mention Pittsburgh. He wanted to know if we could stop and see his cousin and family in Bethlehem, PA.
I had nothing against seeing his cousins…nothing except I couldn’t predict how my kids would behave after being in a car all day. I wasn’t sure we were going to be the best of company and rather dreaded the impression we could potentially make, but those are things only mothers worry about. So, I didn’t bother to try to explain and just let Ed set it up.
By the first day on the road home, the kids had somewhat adjusted to traveling and were all quite tired. So, they did really well and took naps! It was a short trip (comparatively) as I was watching the directions as we got off the interstate to head to their house. The first road we were looking for was strange. It ran right at the first light we hit and left at the light ahead of that. We wanted to go left, but Ed somehow got confused because the road he was looking at didn’t run left. The left at that light turned into a roller skating rink, but he made a left anyway. As I tried to explain, he went around the parking lot and made a right back up the same light, this time turning right back into the skating rink parking light. At this point even Ethan and Emry were shouting from the back, “Papa, go left!” And then, clear as day in the midst of it all, Ellyson shouts, “Left!”
And Ed finally turned left.
So, a brief Camus background: Ed’s father is the youngest of four boys. He didn’t marry until he was in his later twenties and didn’t have Ed until he was 35. So, all of Ed’s cousins are a great deal older than him. (In fact, some are so old theirkids went to school with Ed’s brother David.) This cousin, Sean, is from the eldest brother so I estimated from conversation he’s about five or six years older than Ed. But the bond among Camus men is motorcycles. All of them had ridden motorcycles together with their dads. And later on after Sean moved to Bethlehem, Ed would stay with them when he made business trips out there. And even though that was 20+ years ago, they’re still close.
Anyhow…I shouldn’t have been worried. Sean and his wife Laura were so wonderfully gracious! Sean’s older brother Patrick and his wife were there as well. And Sean and Laura’s younger son Jay (age 20) came by as well. It was a Camus reunion! And there was a moment when it all felt very surreal that every single one of has had the same last name. I couldn’t figure out why that was so strange until I realized I didn’t have any cousins with my last name. My dad was the only son. We were the only Sturms.
Laura had enough food to feed an army: fried chicken, ribs, baked beans, potatoes, slaw, jello salad, and an ice cream bar for dessert – with cake! Even eating our fill, I don’t think we made much of a dent in it. I also learned that Camus’s put potato sticks on their baked beans. (Yuck!) And afterwards the kids had the time of their life splashing around in the above ground pool. It wasn’t huge, but it was rather deep. Emry could stand on her toes, but Ethan couldn’t. They didn’t care! Laura was very impressed at how well they swam. I was impressed at how well they were getting along!
In fact, I momentarily thought I left my actual kids back in New Hampshire. They were all so well behaved! Even herding them to the car as they chased lightning bugs didn’t cause any fits or tears. All the adults complimented them to high heaven while I just wondered what had gotten into them. And if we were ever going to get out of there. Jay had just bought a new motorcycle (after having had a big enough accident on his ATV that he had gone to urgent care…his mother wasn’t real pleased!) and I thought those Camus cousins would never stop telling motorcycle stories…see what I have to look forward to?
The Camus men: Sean and Patrick (in the back) and Jay, Ethan and Ed.
Most of us: Me and Ellyson, Emry, Ethan, Laura, Jay and Sean.
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