Midwest Memo
Reunions
by Alan Shultz

I wonder if anyone tracks trends in family reunions? Are there more or less these days?

I know the interest in genealogy and family history is up. Some of this is all the information available on the internet. The threshold for research is a bit easier due to technology.

But do people still want to visit, reconnect, sit and chat and meet that third cousin twice removed?

I love to see folks in their specially printed reunion tshirts sporting some family name and some gathering date the t-shirt celebrates. Oh the planning that went into that day, the food that was had, the stories that were told - those tshirts can speak volumes.

Usually behind a reunion there's a lot more than tradition. There's a core of people that make that happening happen. Lot's of work, lot's of planning, there's lots behind the scene.

Belonging - that's part of it, isn't it? Belonging to something called family, something bigger and more lasting and maybe even more interesting than just self.

At the Peterson reunion just past, we had familiar faces and then a few new ones. The missing faces are always that, missing and you wish there was time in the day and room on the schedule to reach out and tell folks when they're missed.

For years my wife and I have talked about heading down south to Pine Apple, Alabama. That's where a grandmother I never knew, Julia Steen, that's where she's from. I'm told some Sunday in September all the Steens get together at the Mt. Moriah church. It's all talk from my end, won't ever happen, but what fun that would be, how precious that connection could be for a fleeting few hours over lemonade and potato salad.

"You're from where?"

"How are you related?"

I've heard tales of Willie Steen, the rascal in the bunch, and I'd love to hear those tales first hand. These are the kind of stories some of us have heard way too often but then there's someone new in the crowd and new life and new energy gets back in that old story. The details get sharper and the laughter gets louder and a new audience brings new life to old tales.

We had gnats at the reunion this year. There weren't many bugs really at all. I never saw a fly, never caught a peek of an ant on a table. I never swatted at anything other than those little bitty gnats that seem to appear out of nowhere.

The first Peterson reunion I

ever attended I learned the

parking rule. There is none. Head for the shade that is the nearest spot to the action. Once in a moon I will be somewhere and actually think ahead to try and park the car in the shade. I learned that trick going to family reunions.

I love when folks bring the babies and the little ones. Children bring out good qualities in all of us. They tend to divert the conversation away from politics and more toward the kind of talk reserved for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Whoever came up with the idea of name tags, well, reunion planners and attenders all should give a big bit of thanks to that dear soul. I can run through the list of names in my mind in advance and then when the time comes for a greeting - wow, where is that name?

One more thanks is due, too, to one more inventor of a good idea. Whoever it was who came up with the idea of a family reunion, bless them. Who knows, maybe they're cousins of the nametag inventor. You never know.