Reunions, Heat Wave and Fun

This year is almost half over — Sunday being the halfway mark, and I’m just beginning to fully realize we are already in 2018!  Time just seems to move so quickly lately and I’m wondering if that is because I’m getting (?) old — the question mark is because some days I feel like I’m still in my twenties, and then there’s today!  Today, with our heat index above 100 F., storms in the forecast for the next few days and my bones letting me know with an almost noisy statement that I must be over 100!  The only thing about that is that I know a lady who is 106 and she gets around better than I do and looks 20 years younger than I am today.  She is my hero!  But I try to ignore days like this and remember the other days when the weather is better and I don’t have the “forecaster” joints, some of which I didn’t even know I had, letting me know there’s stormy weather on the way.

Next weekend, July 7 to be exact, about 140 to 150 members of my family will meet at one of our favorite parks for a family reunion, the first in almost 18 years.  We are all looking forward to the reunion, family members are coming from all over the country and we already know we will need name tags to identify each other according to family.  My cousins as well as siblings, come in age groups from the Senior group — my group, to the ones who were born so many years later they are younger than my children.  We keep in loose contact on Facebook, but if I had to point some of them out it could prove very embarrassing for me.  It’s not that my razor sharp mind (lol) is slipping, it’s just that I’ve never met some of them!  

I’ve heard there are 50+ of my first cousins still living out of the huge group of us, and most of them will be attending– I hope!  Kudos to my cousins, Patty, Mark, Janet, Diane and several others who have done the planning for this affair, and sorry I couldn’t mention every one of them, but they have done a wonderful job working to make this happen for all of us.  On the menu is the best barbecue chicken in the world, using the family recipe for the sauce, and all kinds of sides.  I’m not sure about all the menu because the chicken is the star of the party!

Last week one of my brothers took me riding around and one of our stops was the park where the reunion will be.  I said something about wanting to take a photo of the old wagon at the entrance of the park so on our way out he stopped the car and took these photos for me.  Many thanks, bro!  We all grew up in that area and it was almost like going home to visit the area again.  It is one of my favorite places in the area with trails that lead off in every direction around Panther Creek, each trail with its own special memory for me.  I often took Max for walks out there and we explored every one of the trails, with Max continuing to pull at his lead until we were so far out that I think he knew I would have to pick him up and carry him back, at which point he would sit and refuse to budge.  I knew his tactics though, so I had scoped out every rest area on each trail and always made sure to stop at each one so I would not be too tired to stand and wait him out.  I sure miss that little mutt!

This was Max’s favorite place.

Mem’ries Light The Corners, Blah blah

I just read a post called “Siblings” by a new follower and it brought back so many memories of my young days.  Avni has an older sister and a younger brother, but even though my older sib is a brother, followed by two more brothers before my first sis, and Avni lives a world away from Kentucky, some things seem to be universal and all-time the same.

This photo was taken at a family reunion in July of 2000.  Only part of my extended family made it that year, but it was the first really big one we had done for so many years we figured one fourth of the family was doing good.  These are my mom’s family, my aunts, uncles and cousins from all over the country.  To say we had a good time would be an understatement — we had a great time.  We wore name tags, our name and the “elder” responsible for our own branch.  The setting was Panther Creek Park, very close to the old place where many of us grew up.  The area around this place has been cleared and manicured now, but back in the day?  Well, just taking a walk off the beaten path gives an idea of what our playground looked like all those years ago.  My favorite game was swinging on grapevines out over the creek.  For a person who was as chicken as I was, this was the ultimate adventure, led by the older male cousins and their friends, and copied by the girls.

First Communion day for one of my brothers with one sis and two other brothers posing with Mother.  This was our back yard which seemed so large back then.  At one time, when we first moved in to the house Dad built there, my Uncle’s barn stood about where everyone is posing.  Older brother and I took care of that one terrible day when he was demonstrating how the cinder blocks the house is made of didn’t burn.  The blocks were fine, it was only the straw big bro stuffed down in the holes in the blocks that burned, all the stuff in the holes plus everything else that caught flame when the fire spilled over the sides and across the dry barn.  Now the yard looks so small, with the house so close to that highway I wonder how we all survived being run over by the coal trucks that were a constant danger to us all.  One of my cousins was hit by a coal truck after getting off our school bus and crossing the road to her home.  I recently talked with one of the cousins about that day.  I saw it happen from my seat by the window, and still have recurring nightmares about that.  The truck driver not only didn’t stop for the bus, he hit Judy after she was several feet into their driveway, still holding her older sister’s hand.  I’m so glad I didn’t realize the entire situation back then, because it gives me chills now, all these years later.

Have to collect my brain cell again now.  More memories later  A.