The phone rang for a third time before the boys’ mother finally answered it. As she proceeded to talk, the boys continued their game of tag, in the house.

“Enough!” Mom yelled, hanging up the phone. “Get your sneakers on, we’re going out.”

The boys continued to run. Jeff hit Joe on the back, yelling “You’re it!”

“Now!” Mom shouted, louder than before.

The boys took this tone seriously, and began wiggling their feet into their sneakers.

“Where are we going?” Joe asked, forcing a foot into the already-tied beaten up old thing.

“Out.” Mom answered, gathering her purse and unplugging the coffee pot.

The boys ran out past their mother, and opened the car door. As they began to fight over who sat where, their mom called out to them again.

“No, we’re walking up the street to Aunt Jeanne’s. Shut the car and stop fighting already.” she said.

“Aunt Jeanne’s? Why?” Jeff asked, trying to flatten his mussed-up hair with his hand.

“Because Aunt Del and Uncle Bill are down on their visit. They just got there today and we are going to go say ‘hi’. And you two better behave.” Mom answered, and meant it.

“Yay!” the boys shouted in unison. They had forgotten their great-aunt and uncle were coming for their annual visit. The boys always loved seeing them, and their enormous camper.

They began running up the road. Their Aunt Jeanne lived five houses up the street from their home. They had gone up and down this road so many times over the years, they knew each crack and bump in the sidewalk.

After waiting a minute for their mom to catch up to them, the boys turned down their aunt’s driveway. The camper was visible immediately. A regular Winnebago-type, it seemed like a mansion on wheels to them.

“Wow! It’s huge!” Jeff yelled, already feeling the side of it, checking out the tires that were nearly as tall as he was.

“Can we go inside?” Joe asked his mother, as his hand went to the door handle.

His mother whacked his hand away from it. “You don’t just open it. Wait until Uncle Bill shows it to you. “

They walked towards the back door to the house, the boys eyes locked on the camper the whole way.

Behind the house, in the backyard, Aunt Jeanne was sitting in her lawn chair, her hair in it’s usual aqua-blue kerchief. She wore her sunglasses and had a cigarette in her hand.

Sitting at the picnic table nearby were great-Aunt Del and her husband, Uncle Bill. They looked the same, year after year.

Aunt Del had curly blond hair and big, movie-star eyes. The boys were always struck by how she looked. She reminded them of movie stars and California.

As their mom walked over, saying hello to them all, Aunt Del and Uncle Bill both stood up to greet them.

Uncle Bill shook the boys’ hands, commenting on how big they had gotten since last year. He seemed like a giant to them. He was tall, over 6 feet, and had blond hair. Joe was reminded of how his great-uncle never seemed to be as he expected him to be.

A strict, by-the-books, Navy Commander should be mean, menacing, intimidating. But Uncle Bill was always genial and good-natured. Soft-spoken, he was someone who made you feel at ease, easily.

After their mom was done hugging Aunt Del, she turned to Bill. Del then shifted her attention to the boys.

She hugged them and kissed them. Her voice seemed so different to them, her accent giving sharper definition to words. She had makeup on, and big, dark eyelashes.

Joe thought again how much she seemed like a Hollywood movie actress. When he looked at her hands, he saw rings he had only seen in jewelry store ads.

“Can we look in the camper?” Jeff asked, already getting bored with standing around.

“Well, sure.” Uncle Bill answered, taking them over to it. Their mom stayed behind with Aunt Del and Aunt Jeanne.

The boys waited as he unlocked the camper door. Joe looked back at Aunt Del, who saw him and waved. Her rings reflected the sunlight, causing sparkles on her hands. She was always smiling, happy.

He knew she hadn’t had an easy life. Del, like her sister (the boys’ grandmother), had come from humble beginnings. Their parents had emigrated from Portugal, the Azores, to the United States, to become farmers. Never an easy life, and especially not through depressions and world wars. Yet, she was at peace with it all. Del and Bill both knew the rough road of life. But they kept on traveling and enjoyed the journey. Joe smiled back at her and followed his brother into the camper.

While the boys were excited to see the camper, they were also looking forward to more tales of their trips across the country. With their zest for life and their love of being together, Aunt Del and Uncle Bill were two of the richest people they had ever met.

And for one week every year, they spread their wealth, their enthusiasm, here in little old New