Been A While

It's been a while since I posted. There've been two local family reunions: The Memorial Day reunion in Russell, IA and the 4th of July reunion in Williamson, IA.

Williamson is like our Christmas reunion in Lucas. For the older family members, it survives as a reenactment of what came natural in the "old days".

There used to be a 3-4 day celebration on the town square in Chariton, where my grandparents lived and most of the family, me included, grew up. The celebration is still there, but it is a shadow of its former self. Less the half the carneys show up and the equipment is old, unpainted, and worn out. The family atmosphere has been replaced by a bingo tent and a beer tent. Author Thomas Wolfe said it, "You can't go home, again." But I digress.

The family from near and far came the to fair. And when you got tired, or the kids got cranky, you'd end up out a Grandma's on the edge of town. Grandma always had a treat on the table for the kids and ice tea for the adults. She'd watch the grand-youngin's while the adults went back to the celebration. Actually, I think the older kids ended up watching the younger ones and reporting back to whatever adults were on hand in an unofficial supervisory hiearchy.

By the time the day was over, you've run into all the family that made to the fair, caught up on old news, and created some new. About dark, there was a fireworks display at East Park - They call it Yocum Park now - and most of the family went straight home from there. The out of towners might rack out on an in-towner's sofa and take off the next morning.

There was nothing formal about it in those days. Everybody just kind of showed up then they just trickled off and everything was back to normal.

It's not the same in Williamson. Williamson is close enough to Chariton to go see what is left of the fair, but it's too far away base out of it and come and go all day. We used to go to Red Haw or East/Yocum Park which are closer, but Williamson has the air conditioning!

Still, it's great to get together, albeit far more formal that before. Someone has to reserve the building and pay for it. I don't remember if anybody stuck around to help Grandma clean up after the festivities, but someone has to do it in Williamson. And the cooking is a shared function - pot luck, some times a theme, but not Grandma's cooking. It is great to watch as the younger family members grow and to listen to the older members.

We've lost four of the aunts and uncles, Betty, Rose, Ray and Jim, and one spouse, Evelyn. Of the other eight, you can count on six or seven to be able to make it. And there's 30 or so cousins (depending upon how you count us) ranging in age from 55 to 25 and who knows how many children and grandchildren we have. We now stretch across the continent. It's going to be things like our 4th of July tradition that keeps us together.

Sorry, this was meant to be a short note contrasting the Memorial Day and 4th of July reunions and I got to rattling on so much a the the latter that I forgot the former. Perhaps I'll discuss it in a short note, soon. This year's was particulary eventful.

Ray jr