As I've mentioned before in the bloggitany, my brothers are all much, much, much older than I. Because of that, I became an uncle when I was about nine years old. That means I was, mostly by accident, the favorite uncle. Now, I've never been the "favorite" anything before or since so I cling desperately to this distinction. It really happened because I was so young myself and, obviously, single. Even in my little town, having nine year olds marry, was frowned upon. That meant I had plenty of time to hang out with the little kids. As I got older, into my teens, it meant I could take them places like Wisconsin Dells where we rolled through town in my old Ford Van with the windows open and music playing as loudly as possible. Sure, it was most likely Sinatra or The Goose Island Ramblers doing The Hurley Hop! but it was still loud. I also used to do this thing where I'd pretend my hand was some sort of alternative personality with a will of its own. I'd have long conversations with my hand that made my nieces and nephews giggle. Unfortunately, this particular behavior has continued and, every now and then, a producer will catch me in a heated discussion with my friend, Mr. Hand. Usually, our arguments stem from a discussion of history. Mr. Hand simply refuses to acknowledge any of Millard Fillmore's strong points as president. Ever since he read those books by presidential historian, Michael Beschloss, he thinks he's the expert or, as he calls himself, The Upper Hand. Still, even with that annoying habit, I must admit that without Mr. Hand's work, viewers would be staring at an empty map as well the empty suit they usually see. Okay, now this has just become creepy. My apologies. And, the same from Mr. Hand.

What I'm getting at is that I was lucky enough to be a pretty active and involved uncle and, now, in a case of "what goes around comes around" one of those formerly little squirts is filling a similar role for my own kids. Although he's old enough to be their uncle...because, as I may have mentioned, my brothers are all really up in years...he's their cousin. His name is Kurt but, since he was a tot himself, I've called him Kurtie which, in the language of our own little kids, became Kootie. So, he was and is Cousin Kootie. He pulled up in a rented red PT Cruiser on Thursday, in town, in part, to commemorate Alexander's graduation. Of course, seeing Cousin Kootie in what looked to them like only a step or two above a Fisher-Price car, gave the kids plenty of early ammunition to use. (To all the PT Cruiser fans, please know that I like the PT Cruiser. The kids just thought it was a little too cute for Kootie or is that coot for Kutie?) However, for the next several days, whenever anyone had to go somewhere the cry was "I'll ride with Kootie."

Cousin Kootie took the kids to movies. Attended a church service where Alex was awarded a scholarship, then attended a part of Alex' Senior Day and, to top it off, spent the afternoon eating buffalo wings with the graduate. He played lots of Scrabble, basketball, volleyball, football and more. He also drove around in his little red buggie with the windows down and radio blaring. Wonder where he got that idea? All-in-all, he won the Cousin of the Year contest hands down. It behooves me to mention that in the Scrabble matches, daughter, Samantha, tended to win. But, to be fair to Kootie, Samantha and brother Harrison really were double-teaming him with very short, annoying words, inhibiting word-building potential. There was also a fair amount of questionable wording placed on the board. You can make up your own definition of "questionable." Anyway, Kootie was a good sport.

Kootie has a Master's Degree in special education, focusing primarily on people living with Autism. I've seen him in action working with students and young adults and he is terrific. He has a deep well of empathy coupled with just plain common sense. He is also, despite the oxymoronic sound of it, a working actor. Right now, he is filming a movie in which he plays a football player. Not just an extra but a "core extra!" According to Kootie, that means he gets to sit at a separate card-table in the extra's tent. Obviously, this is a man of many talents. But, his best talent, if you polled the residents of my house, is just being Cousin Kootie.