Reunion 2006

I'm taking a break from our trip to California so tell about the reunion. Our reunions since 1985 have been held on this beautiful campus - Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. Since several who were unable to come have asked me about the reunion I'd thought I'd try to give an account.

Where do I start? Once upon a time... Oops, wrong story. It all began...

There are so many good things to tell about! Even though Baby J is still less than two years old he is getting so big. His dad informed his mom they needed to come to the reunion just so people could see the results of their prayers, and to meet this miracle baby. When Rich asked Ruthie if J was running yet, Ruthie said no, but as they watched, that was just what he was doing! So nonchalantly Ruthie says, "He's always doing what I'm not yet expecting." It's hard to believe this big guy started out the size of his daddy's hand and is now almost the same size as his cousin Daniel who was born full-term two weeks after J and weighed around 10#.

Then there were Rosie and Rob, first timers who took the reunion by storm. Most of the family will know them best by his accounts of helping the Katrina victims, but no one left without having had at least a few moments of Rob's complete attention with them personally. He was so good at going around to get to know everyone. Rosie said if Rob hadn't gone into the ministry he would have been a politician. Lyn wrote a song for the Reunion which is printed in Cuz Nuz. Rosie had the obligation of teaching it to the group since Lyn wasn't able to come. What a hoot Rosie is. Though the song is serious, Rosie has too much bounce and vitality to her for some of that not to be included in her song leading. You would have enjoyed her as much as everyone else seemed to. Rob was even more of a hoot. He couldn't get over the history of the town - wild and shoot 'em up - and Aunt Hazel being a Harvey girl back when - and everytime he found out something new he went around telling everyone "Did you know...?" And since they were having so much fun with this Wild West town they decided to go on to Dodge City, an even wilder town in it's day and mentioned so much in western writings and songs. He was so into it that he had Rich writing out the words to "Ghost Riders in the Sky" but couldn't wait and went out to transcribe if off a CD and then came back singing it to everyone and no one. This went on all weekend! Oh how we loved this couple!!!!

Friday evening Rob and Rosie shared stories and pictures of the Katrina effects in their area. Then Rachel shared the work she is doing with her new husband Roger. She has changed mission boards since her marriage. 'Course we ended the evening at Braum's - our family traditional feast of ice cream - located on land that the family farmed when first coming to Newton.

Saturday Tom and Janet did a good job with picture taking. It was very laid back. The weather had turned much cooler (down to the 80's instead of the previous week of 100's plus) so it was very comfortable outdoors, even in the sun - though the sun was really bright. Causal group pictures were taken on a bench under the trees. The big group picture was on the steps of the Science Hall, a building we've never used before because there was not a lot of room, but it was facing west so we weren't squinting into the sun and a bunch of chairs were brought out so the older ones could sit - except for Uncle John. Leave it to him. The oldest of us all at 92 (I'm leaving out Cousin Anna who is 102) and he's up there on the steps with the youngsters. I just love that man! Oh to have his spirit!!! You can tell by pictures gotten from Tom how good the choices of locations were. By that evening Tom and Janet had a CD put together and gave us a slideshow during the later part of supper. Not hard since both had used digital cameras. And for the first time no one had to leave campus to get pictures developed, nor did we have to spend time looking prints over to see what choices we wanted. The response of getting a CD with all the pics was very positive. They were able to get a few made but are willing to send a CD out to any who asked - at no cost. Boy, were people surprised at that!

After lunch on Saturday the ladies had a "Tea" organized and put on by Jen with preparation help by several relatives in her line. The part I liked the best was seeing Adam, this 13 year old guy, helping to set up the tables - setting out plates of food when they were filled, putting candy at each person's place, little things like that to be helpful - and seeming to enjoy helping the ladies to have a good time.

Adam was not the only helpful one though in his family. Before supper on Friday Sam, his older brother, came to me and asked how he could help since I was in the dining room wiping off tables - they were a mess and it was nearly time to eat. So I put him to work finding more napkins and salt and pepper shakers for the tables. Figured it would help out food service since they seemed so busy putting on the last touches for the meal.

The last part of the Tea-time also included each lady cutting out cup pieces from fabric so Jen could make a quilt for the next reunion (which will also include the ladies' names and birthplaces). This was so much fun that we ran way over our hour and for those wanting to go on the family tour of Newton prepared by Uncle Paul (includes different places the family has lived) there was barely time.

I'm not sure what the guys did during the afternoon. I heard something about going shooting but what, I don't know. Some stayed around to read, while several worked on a computer problem, and others - well, they just made themselves scarce.

Paul had a heyday signing and selling his book, "Real Owls Don't Bark." Said he should have brought more - but then he had good salesmen in Rob and Bruce.

Saturday evening was our normal business meeting after the slide show ended. Uncle Waldo officially passed the torch on to Jenn regarding the genealogy and Jenn informed everyone there were CDs available instead of printed copies this time. We also had people share about those who are no longer with us, and the best was when Judy got up to share about her sister, Diane. She said she was going to have the last word - finally! It was a very humorous account of memories of her sis. Wish I had a transcript of what she said! It was a good close to that part of the "program." And again everyone headed to Braum's to end the day.

The whole weekend had one really interesting aspect. Since we were not the only reunion being held on campus that weekend we shared the dining hall during mealtime. They served for a full hour at each meal instead of just the 45 minutes given us in the past and the other family liked visiting around the table just as we did, so we were often ready to start our next activity while the other family was still in the room. 'Course that really didn't stop us, once I got on the mic they usually cleared out to go down to Bubberts. We also had dinner music each evening by Eli and Adam and Sam. That was a nice touch.

Fortunately Sunday morning the other family planned to go to Pretty Prairie to have their worship and needed to gather 1/2 hour before our service was to begin, so we were able to use some of their tables to gather closer together and be more centered in the room. Dave led the singing of a favorite hymn of each of the Uncles, Elouise played the piano all weekend whenever we needed someone to play (which was every meeting when we sang our reunion song), and Bruce spoke and had a very good message. Something new to do at future reunions is some kind of outreach to serve others. The other family there served supper one night at a food kitchen, probably in Wichita. At the end of the service each of the F troop kids played a piece on the piano - some were really difficult pieces - even Lij had the courage to play. So proud of him. Steve played a special number on his violin and we also enjoyed Roger singing in his native tongue while playing the drum they'd brought with them. By tapping different locations, using finger tip, or tips, curled side of his fist, heel of his hand, etc. and damping with the other hand, he had an amazing array of tones and sounds to make tunes with. The drum is their source of music in their local church.

Robin walked in shortly after the service had broken up. She'd driven up from OK by herself. I was so pleased she made that special effort of representing her family when none of the others could come. Some were at a family wedding in Wyoming. So for this second reunion, the reunion on my mom's side of the family, the only extras besides our clan were Robin, Aunt Linda and Uncle Leon, and their oldest son, Larry and Jeanie. It was a small group but a fun ending to a fun weekend.