I have an excess of extended family in the Helena area. This is not surprising. On my father’s side of the equation, my family arrived in the nearby gold rush town of Marysville, Montana, in the 1860s. Though none of my predecessors become rich, they worked hard, knew their way to the best taverns, and produced a lot of children.
On August first, Desiree and I
joined the Helfert wing of my family at JFK Park in East Helena. The park is literally within a stone’s throw of
my childhood home. By the end of the evening
the place swarmed with my cousins, first cousins once removed, and first
cousins twice removed.
Chatting with my cousins and
walking the trail along nearby Prickly Pear Creek brought forth a lot of
childhood memories. My dog, Sandalwood,
and I spent a lot of days along the creek.
At the end of the evening (and
a game of tee-ball), the lot of us collected for a group picture. Quite a collection we are—now that we have
worked our way out of the taverns.
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Cousins (Normal)
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Cousins (Crazy)
—Mitchell Hegman
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