Family Reunions

A few days ago an acquaintance of mine created and posted on Facebook a memorial of photos and music for his recently deceased grandfather.  While watching this I became fascinated with the family pictures that he was using as it started reminding me of my family and the gettogethers that we would have years ago.  They were called family reunions.  Now I am wondering -- what ever became of family reunions?

I grew up on a ranch in the Sandhills country of West Central Nebraska. The nearest city was North Platte 40 miles to the south.  I went to school in a small town of 350 people some 15 miles from the ranch.  The ranch house was positioned about 1 miles south of the nearest road and our nearest neighbor was about 2 miles by road (1 mile cross country).  I tell you this to give you an idea how isolated people were who lived in the Sandhills country.

Most of our family members were scattered all across the state of Nebraska.  We would, on occasion and usually on holidays, get together with some of them who lived close by.  However, the only times that the majority of the family would ever get together would be at weddings (seldom), funerals (more often), and our yearly family reunion.

I always looked forward to each spring when the family would gather in a park located in Kearney, Nebraska.  It was a time of fun, food, and relaxation.  Often it was the only time throughout the whole year that I would get to see some of my cousins, aunts and uncles. Of course it wasn't always all fun as we all had to put up with the embarrassment of having the elders fawn over us and exclaim how much we have grown/changed over the past year.  Although secretly, we all enjoyed the attention, at least a little bit.  However, after the initial introductions we were free for the remainder of the day to do as we wished.  It was always with a great deal of sadness when the day ended and we had to say our goodbyes and head back to our respective homes.  Even yet today I think back and remember these events with great fondness. 

Unfortunately we all grew up and moved on in different directions.  For me, after I graduated from high school, I left to go to college and then joined the Navy.  Others moved on for reasons of their own.  Those of my generation did not stay in state as much as our parents did and it became much more difficult to have these gettogethers.  The elders started to die off and the reunions continued to shrink until a time was reached when they were no more.  It is a shame because our children and grandchildren have lost that family connection I grew up with.  Today I have lost track with almost all of the cousins that I used to play with growing up.  Even though it was only a day or two a year, it was a special time.

As I mentioned, I really miss those times, and I feel that I have been deprived of the opportunity that my elders had of being able, each year, to embarrass my nieces and nephews by telling them how much they have grown and changed.