Thoughts of Michael: My Close Cousin, Jason

Meandering Life & Creativity

One of my most cherished memories as a kid in the 70’s, was growing up close to my cousin Jason Mewis and the Mewis family. We grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and lived only a street over from one another. We even had a special arrangement with neighbours to simply cut across their property to get to each other’s houses, making it a super quick commute. Jason and his younger sister and brothers were always so much fun to spend time with.

Although I had a wonderful loving family of my own, the Mewis’s took me under their wing when I was younger, when my Mom returned to the workforce. My Dad was busy teaching and my siblings were all in school so I would go over to my aunt and uncle’s house to play and be taken care of. I always felt an incredible sense of love and belonging there.

Jason and I would play, and then have lunch, and at nap time my aunt would read us a story while we curled up in our special blankets we called our ‘doudou’s’¹. To this day, these memories give me warm feelings that I’ll never forget.

My relationship with Jason wasn’t always full of roses though. There were times when Jason and I would fight over the simplest of things. One day, after a nice prairie rain, we went outside and played. I had my rubber boots on and was riding Jason’s tricycle through mud puddles. I believe I might’ve been stuck in the mud. Jason was nearby and suddenly a man walked up to us. He had a camera around his neck and said he was from the Prince Albert Daily Herald (the local newspaper). He took my photo and then asked me where I lived. It was the 70’s, so naturally I told him and then we walked over to my house. Apparently he needed permission from my parents to put the article in the newspaper.

Meanwhile….

Jason was FURIOUS. He was so jealous and upset that I was in the paper with HIS tricycle. [I believe he has never let this go, it’s always been a bone of contention].

Someday I might lend him my tricycle and I can post a picture on my blog of him in his rubber boots, just to pay him back².

Here is the article.

I’m curious… do you see anything in this article that stands out as odd?

I’d love to hear your comments below.

As we grew older, we’d play games, build forts, ride bikes, catch frogs, ride motorcycles, and use our imaginations to learn and inspire each other.

One of the things that really stood out about Jason was his incredible ability to create and construct. My Dad always had a variety of electronics and mechanical things available for us to take apart and dissect. Jason was always so innovative with these things, it was inspiring to watch what he’d create.

One time I went to his house for a sleepover and he’d rigged up special strings running up along his walls, up to his upper bunk bed to turn the lights on and off. Of course, they worked flawlessly. Jason was (and still is) an incredible problem solver and innovator.

Not surprisingly, Jason went on to becoming a structural engineer and is now the President and Senior Engineer of ENGCOMP, an engineering company in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Jason is not only innovative in how he approaches engineering, but also fosters an exciting and dynamic corporate culture that has strong ties to his community.

It’s great to see Jason doing such great work with his company.

I’m happy Jason and his family were such a wonderful part of my childhood. I can only hope that you too were lucky enough to have wonderful cousins like the Mewis’s when you grew up.

I hope to always stay connected with Jason and his family. But in order to do so…. he’ll have to first let go of the tricycle story once and for all!

With Gratitude,

1. A ‘doudou’ is a slang French word for a cozy special item or blanket.

2. I’m only joking, he forgave me soon after and we laugh about it to this day.