Aunt Sis and Uncle Dan

Aunt Sis and Uncle Dan Amey lived on Union Ave. in Woodbury just a few doors down from Nanny and Pop-Pop.
Aunt Sis was my mom's older sister Bertha. Bertha, a good Germanic name. I think she preferred her nickname, Sis or Sissy. My Aunt Sissy was different from mom and her other sisters Bette and Helen. Aunt Sis wasn't afraid to do anything as far as I could tell. I was always impressed that she drove a car when most of the women in our family didn't. She had a distinctive gravelly voice,dark hair and a dark complexion. Once when I was older and sitting on my grandparents' porch, Pop-Pop told me that we had American Indians in our family bloodline. If you looked carefully at Aunt Sis and Uncle Pat, you got a feeling that maybe it was true. Aunt Sis and Uncle Dan had five children. Danny,Barbara,Diane,Kenny and Ronnie. They were all older than me of course, but they always treated me like one of the family and not a baby.
They let me play high/low water and hide and seek and half ball in the street. Once they all played King Arthur with all their friends in the neighborhood and I was allowed to join in. Thanks to Uncle Pat I was fully armored.
Aunt Sis's house was full of 1950's kitsch.One of those ketchup dispensers that looked like a tomato. They had a black cat clock whose eyes and tail moved back and forth.Those aluminum cups in jewel-like colors of yellow,green, blue and purple and bubble lights on the Christmas tree.
Their family was loud and raucous. Dinner time was orchestrated chaos with lots of talking and the passing of plates.
Uncle Dan was a loud and heavy-set man. He was the kind of guy who was never embarrassed to tell anyone his opinion. He laughed loud and he also giggled. Uncle Dan's personality was as broad as he was, and for some people he was difficult to take. Sometimes he was a little scary, but he was also capable of great acts of kindness.
When it came to candy, Uncle Dan was the man. He kept a great big bowl next to his chair in their living room, and it was always full of some of the best treats . Kraft caramels and fudgies. Tootsie Rolls and Mary Janes. Sometimes it was filled with Dentyne gum. That bowl was just like him; you never knew what to expect.
He raised rabbits in their back yard. He had a pet skunk. He bought Chihuahuas.Yeah, you just never knew.
Their sons would play all kinds of sports and Aunt Sis and Uncle Dan would drive them and their team mates to all the games in their station wagon. Lots of times they would take me along. It was too cool to ride in the back of a station wagon with older boys who didn't want to use me as the butt of their jokes.
The Ameys were loud and crazy and all crowded together in that narrow little house, and they'd let me stay there one week in July of 1955.
The week my brother Carl was born.