COUSIN'S CLUB VIBE — Sharon Mark Cohen

Thinking about cousin’s clubs reminds me of my mother insisting they never work out. She would say, “The one starts, and the next one tries to outdo the other.”

That said, fond memories surface of a cousin’s club meeting at my husband’s cousin Sharon’s apartment in the Chelsea Section of New York City. Probably, that was in the late 1970s.

Sharon was a renowned NYC psychologist with an office on Park Avenue. (See WHEN SHARON LONDON DIED - A LINK TO A GENERATION THAT'S GONE, dated March 12, 2024 at sharonmarkcohen.com). She received a telephone call during the “meeting,” which her husband Lex answered.

As he was about to pick up the landline, Lex laughed with his characteristic naughty, even devilish sneer as Sharon took a deep drag of her cigarette and uproariously hollered across the room to him, “Tell them to take Compoz and call me in the morning.”

I suppose no one wanted to outdo Sharon because that was the last official cousin’s club meeting in all these years. Many family get-togethers and celebrations followed, but none were billed as a cousin’s club meeting.

Sharon passed away in 2024 before the re-advent of the cousin’s club on her mother’s side of the family. Recently, Arby, age 80, and his son Jordan, had dinner with two of Arby’s first cousins.

My husband Arnee, who is younger than Arby, but was a first cousin to Arby’s mother, and to Sharon, and many others, asked to be invited the next time they got together. That’s how the new cousin’s club evolved.

While I was speaking with Arby on the phone, he asked who else they should invite. I suggested Arnee ask our son Moss to join, and Arby whole-heartedly agreed.

This time, instead of meeting at a restaurant with limited seating times, they were invited to their cousin Eric’s car seat-cover shop. See AIRPORT ANXIETY, dated July 4, 2023 at sharonmarkcohen.com.

A surprise guest was Zoe Ann, Jack’s sister and a cousin to the other men, who drove across the Cuomo (Tappen Zee) Bridge from her home in the hamlet of Hartsdale, New York. As a teenager, she attended Sharon’s long-ago cousin’s club meeting. Being raised in New Jersey, that day at Sharon’s, Arnee recalled, she decided she wanted to live in New York.

Before the meeting at Everlast, I messaged a cousin, Susan, living in Chicago, who grew up in Linden, New Jersey, where the guys were scheduled to meet. Her mother and Arnee were first cousins, and we keep in touch.

After commenting on where the guys were meeting, she replied, “Holy cow!! Growing up in Linden, I never knew Herbie’s business was in Linden or even where it was. Just looked on maps. Holy cow, I passed that a gazillion times and never knew!!”

Cousin Susan added that I should tell Arnee to tell everyone, “Hi, from me, although Jack is probably the only one besides Moss who would know who I am.” How sad to not know your cousins. (When we spoke, I didn’t know that Jack’s sister was coming to the reunion. At one stage of her life, she lived in Chicago and visited Susan).

Now that the ambiance for the cousin’s club meeting was antique cars and kosher deli sandwiches at Eric’s treat, my dear mother would have said, “See, how’s anyone going to top that?” All I can say is, we’ll see. Maybe they’ll all fly out to Susan’s in Chicago.

Happy thoughts have us counting on Moss. After taking the train from Brooklyn, following a long day at work, we’re hopeful the vibe at the “new-age” cousin’s club meeting is as imbedded, as the rumble seat from his cousin’s garage, which he recalled from seeing in his youth. He may carry as many fond memories as Arnee and I have of that first cousin’s club meeting at Sharon’s.

Although Sharon’s get-together was in a packed, smoke-filled room in her bi-level underground apartment, it was memorable. Many of the relatives who were there are no longer living, but, if you were there, you’ll remember.