Family Reunion - 2008

Desmond Tutu wrote "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them". Well, in a few hours Joe and I will have the opportunity to visit many of those gifts. These are the relatives on my mother's side of the family primarily coming from around south Georgia and north Florida. The numbers keep getting larger with the grandchildren having children who are now having their own children. And, the problem is knowing who all these people are. We've always had name tags worn by each and every person in the past, but that was to primarily be used for the drawing of door prizes since the tags were also numbered. Nowadays, you need the name tags to identify people and still may not know who they are related to. This is the only family reunion I'm required to attend and it's always held the Sunday after Mother's Day each year. Everyone usually gathers at the designated location somewhere before noon since that is when the dinner is served. Long ago the dinners were held at Grandmother and Granddaddy McGhee's home or some relatives home - I do remember dinners at Aunt Grace's home. I also remember the after dinner softball games the cousins used to play - the ones that were played in the field next to Grandmother and Granddaddy's house. This was the field that the cows used and many times the bases were marked with cowpatties. Now, this was something way out of the ordinary for a city girl such as myself, but I learned how amazingly hard a cowpattie can be after it's been baking in the sun for many, many a day. In the years following, the ballgames gradually migrated to one of the City softball fields since the location of the family reunions were moved to a facility uptown. Now that we're back in the country at a new building, I wonder if the games have continued? Hmmm, I'll have to check that one out. Also, back in the "old days", it was a real adventure to come for the family reunions, Since Dad was in the Air Force, we either never made them because of time and distance or when we did, it was a real treat. It was about the only time that I got to hang around my cousins my age. There was Terry, Larry, Joan, Diane, Peggy and others whose name I can't remember. There were also those relatives that you could count on for being predictable. Aunt Ruth always looked perfectly coiffured, Aunt Alice was always doing something totally unexpected from the norm (bandaids on her boobs one year) and Grandmother always saying that she hoped she'd be at the next reunion if the good Lord was willing.

Anyway, back to the present...There is the frantic picture taking with various flashes flashing and people calling to find their family members for the obligatory family groups to assemble. There are always the pictures taken of the babies, someone about to put food in their mouth and relatives sitting next to each other in conversation. These conversations consist of discussing the pictures in dated 3-ring notebooks of past reunions which have been cared for by my dad, whose gained weight, whose lost weight, whose had a new baby, whose no longer with us, who couldn't make it this time, etc. In some ways, the conversation appears to be just nods of the head to each other, smiling and waving and then drifting off to others who you spend time with on a regular basis.

There is the anticipated food that shows up every year - Aunt Rachel's extremely large pot of chicken and dumplings (there is never any left), Aunt Grace used to make the best cornbread dressing and if I remember correctly, she was the one who made the fried fruit tarts. Family reunion dinners are totally different than church dinners. Here the pace is laid back - you know there is plenty of good food, no one will leave without feeling well-nourished. Church dinners, people seem to act as though it is "The Last Supper" they will ever consume and go through the food like a human tornado.

Yep, it's time for Family Reunion - 2008. I think I'll take a better look around this year and spend more time talking with people I've not visited with in a while. Why? Because I know that some of those people won't be back next year. There will be deaths due to old age or misfortunes of life and then I'll be sitting back looking at those dated pictures wishing I'd spent more time with them and getting to really know about them. We have to realize that those persons for whom this reunion was begun so many, many years ago, my grandmother Beulah Miranda Goddard and Dewey Cleveland McGhee, are no longer with us, but their memory still lives on in our hearts and in those pictures. And, I for one have come to find out in the last few months that we never know when and where life will take us and so we need to make good memories every day.

I will admit that I'm sure there will be a time tomorrow when I will find a chair in some relatively quiet corner of the room and experience some small measure of disappointment. That disappointment will come from the fact that this was my year to have the spotlight shinning on my little family group. This was the year that I would be able to proudly show off my new grandbaby and formally be introduced into that elite group of people who've done so in the past. Though the world may be getting smaller all the time, there are still some things, such as time and money, that can't be overcome. But, I'll have my Grandma's Brag Book and memories from the Utah visit a month ago and I know my little extended family will be with Joe and me in spirit. I can always take heart that there will be the possibility of next year at Family Reunion - 2009.
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Well, this reunion started out a little differently. Mom had to go home before it even began. Could it have been too much partying the night before? Maybe one sausage dog too many? Whatever the reason, Nancy took her home before Joe and I even arrived. Nothing too spectacular to report. There was Aunt Rachel's dumplings - yeah!; seemed like a lesser amount of people this year; David didn't get up and do any of his long speeches...seems someone suggested that he not this year - do I hear another yeah?; there were a couple of fantastic door prizes given out this year - $50 in cash (a non-family visitor won it) and a one week use of the Carrin's condo in Daytona Beach - that was won by the David Seaman family. Another nice touch was recognizing all the new grandmothers and Martha gave each of us a gift bag. It contained a teddy bear for the baby, a car mug that said "grandparents are special people" and a ceramic mug that said "grandpa hugs are the best". How very thoughtful for us. When my name was called, I had my Grandma's Brag Book open proudly flashing pictures of my new grandbaby.