Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: The Family Reunion (06/05/08)
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TITLE: A Day to Rememer | Previous Challenge Entry
By Joy Birky
06/06/08 -
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A true story
It was a day to remember! Blue skies overhead dotted with white puffy clouds, temperatures in the 80’s with a soft breeze to cool the heat and humidity of the day. All the aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, in-laws, spouses, grandparents and great-grandparents had gathered to celebrate their roots. Everyone donned a red “Family Reunion” t-shirt. It was a festive occasion! All ages, all sizes, all faiths, all nationalities, all colors—wait, all colors? Yes, adoption and intermarriage had changed the family tree from its WASP look. Now dark-skinned cousins intermingled with their counterparts sporting red hair and freckles. Slant-eyed babies were cuddled by their fair-skinned siblings. Diversity in action!
While English was the pre-dominant language, Spanish, bits of Chinese, and even some Creole were mixed into conversations. Southern drawls and British, or perhaps Australian, accents added color to the mix. Nevertheless, communication was ongoing, even with a few furrowed brows for expressions like, “Corre!” which was called out by the dark-eyed, brown-skinned leader of the running games, and as “G’day” and “blimy” rolled off the tongues of those from “down under.”
The beginnings of this family, over 100 years ago, saw an English maiden and an Irish lad building their farm home above a small creek on land later to be known as Cedar View, for obvious reasons. A huge grove of cedar trees graced the bottomland near Big Lick Creek. Seven children blessed their union. The family lived through WW I, the Great Depression, WW II, hail storms, droughts, and floods and survived.
Times were not all hard. There were gardens full of produce, chicken nests with their eggs, warm milk squirted straight from the cow’s udder, orange tiger lilies blooming in a circular plot later used as second base by the grandchildren, and starry nights laying on the grass and identifying constellations. Minus the numbing effects of television, radio supplied all the news they needed and more. The “three shorts and a long” ring of their wooden telephone on the south wall alerted them to the needs of their neighbors. It was a simple life, yet full of activities for the large family.
The children shared many fond memories of their growing-up years with their own offsprings. Among them were the challenge of feeding the new-born calves from a nipple bucket, milking the large herd of Holsteins by hand, chasing the stray chickens who wandered from the hutch, snacking the large vegetable garden, picking and preserving the black grapes, apples, and peaches in season, riding over the snow fences during the winter in the pony cart to their country school two miles down the gravel road, warming themselves next to the cob-burning kitchen stove, and playing hide and seek in the barn loft among the bales of hay.
Thirty years later, the first of 19 grandchildren joined the family, followed a few years later, by great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren, a legacy almost too big to count! It was then that the idea of a reunion stirred among the relatives. “Why not?” was the general consensus. In California, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, New York, across the “pond,” and even Central America, they were contacted by a wonderful invention that was never even dreamed about when the couple first married—the internet, the great communication device!
Plans to reunite were formulated by a new mother and her parents, who now lived on the “home place.” “If you plan it, they will come” was their motto, and come they did. From all corners of the country and beyond, they traveled anticipating a wonderful get-together on the most patriotic day of the year, Fourth of July! What better way to celebrate The Family Home than to meet all those who had become part of it, by birth, by adoption, or by marriage. The fun of the day was culminated with a wedding, the beginning of a new family within the group.
The final chapter of this Family Reunion saw the dedication of a park bench in an area once donated by the town’s founder, the Great-Great-Great Grandfather of the clan. The idea was to honor the couple who were the catalyst for this particular branch of the family. The circle of life was celebrated once again as the family rejoiced in their family’s reunion.
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