Jennifer Jo

I'm 4 years old... home from preschool... pacing the halls of our new house. Jason comes in. I am thrilled! Not because Jason is home, but because I know how he got home. He rode home from school with Jennifer, my cousin. I run down the hall to stand on top of the toilet and peer out the window. White Nissan? Check! Sound familiar? I wrote about this is my "Aunt Judy's Back Porch" blog. Since then I have received a specific request to elaborate. ;)

So the series of events go like this... I ask my mom if I can go visit.. she says no, and I call Aunt Judy who says I can come. She puts Macbeth away and I run down the trail. That is where I spent the rest of the day pestering my cousin. I would run into her room(and this is where you can start to be amazed by the things I can remember from my days as a four year old). She had floral wallpaper and a pink striped bedspread and she had 'Good Luck' and 'Congrats' balloons all over her ceiling! She had her megaphone and gigantic pompoms in the corner and I would play with them until I absolutely drove her nuts and my mom forced me to come home.

Other than the people in my immediate family, Jennifer was probably the most influential person in my life when I was little. This might explain a lot about my personality as I am very influenced by the people around me. Because of this I tend to have multiple personalities. I think that the portion of my personality that comes from Jennifer is the portion that allows me to laugh out loud in a room full of people.. REALLY loud with no reservations. Or to say what I think without being self conscious about how other people will react. These are personality traits that I learned because that is the kind of person Jennifer is, she is confident... and I am very proud to hold a peice of that kind of confidence even if it is just a very small peice!

I spent most of my summers with Jennifer. She babysat me during the days while my mom worked. I would start my day at her house and when lunch time came she would either make me Kraft Blue Box Macaroni and Cheese, or she would bribe me to call Grandmommie and see what she was making for lunch(this worked because I was the youngest and I was impossibly cute, so we always got an invitation). After we ate, we would usually get ready to go the Indian Hills Country Club and I would get ready really fast and then sit in the bathroom impatiently while Jennifer primped and shaved her legs. We would head out to the country club where Jennifer would slather me excessively in sunscreen and then make me wait forever at the side of the pool watching all my friends play as it dried. Eventually I could pull on my floaties and jump in. I would swim until my fingers and toes pruned... and when I took breaks she would send me to the Pro-Shop to get her snacks... I never wanted to leave! As summers went on Jennifer decided I needed to become brave and jump off the diving board like all my friends. I was so scared and she would swim under and catch me... until she decided I should learn to jump off by myself, and she pushed me. I still have issues jumping off diving boards.

Something I didn't notice as a little girl paddling around in floaties at the country club was the looks Jennifer got from all the little boys I hung out with. They know her as 'Jennifer Jo.' If you've ever seen The Sand Lot then you'll remember the boys at the city pool and their infatuation with Wendy Peppercorn. Jennifer Jo was the Wendy Peppercorn of my pool. When she wasn't sunbathing in the summer she was cheering for the Atlanta Rabbits as these same boys ogled her from the stands, I wanted so badly to be a cheerleader just like Jennifer.... and I made myself her permanent sidekick, attached at the hip.

We went to the Forrest Festival together, she took me shopping, we got snow cones, occasionally I got to spend the night at her house, and we fought... a lot. I later realized that 75% of the time my mom was paying her to watch me. I like to think that she hung out with me because she liked having me around.

Well over a decade later I'm still close with my 'big cousin' but these days I consider her much more of a close friend than an idol! I love going home and visiting with her, and my extended family and watching her three beautiful kids grow. In them, particularly her middle child... I see a bit of a role reversal as I pull my car up her driveway and watch a pair of big brown eyes peering out the window and then immediately run out to greet me. I currently have 5 saved voicemails on my cell from the very person behind those big brown eyes. "Hey Lauren? It's me. Umm... I was just wondering when you were coming to my house... I was just gonna let you know... ok bye.. umm this is Maddie."