I had a very interesting time this weekend – my youth group had a reunion. Yep, the kids I spent the majority of my time with during my teen years all got together for dinner and memories.
Now, this might sound odd to you, but you have to understand that I grew up in a charismatic Christian environment: homeschooling, speaking in tongues, the whole bit… Luckily, we all turned out fairly normal. :) But since I was homeschooled through high school and graduated in a class of 4, this is like my high school reunion. So I was a bit nervous…
But we had a great time! Everyone brought nostalgic food, like the oatmeal brown sugar cookies our youth leader made for every event, chili cheese dip that my husband perfected in high school, and the hot ham rolls our family introduced sometime in our late teens. We got to meet spouses we’ve never met before, and the next generation: lots of kids. Little Man had a few moments of freaking out when a whole hoard of kids descended on his room and toys, but for the most part they did really well.
Then we talked, and talked, and talked. My sister and I had brought out photo albums and scrapbooks, which provided a lot of fodder (for name calling, memories, and some things we’d rather have forgotten). We also had to catch up on who everyone was now, including spouses, kids, jobs, etc. The highlight of the evening was a SPOONS tournament (if you haven’t played this card game which results in fighting over plastic spoons, it’s a hoot), and guess who won the championship belt? That’s right – me! Of course, I won it from my husband, who kept the custom made belt since he was a teen. I call it keeping it in the family.
So tell me, what kind of reunions have you enjoyed? Which ones do you wish you had a good excuse to avoid?
Angel
9 comments:
I'm heading for a family reunion next weekend. It's my mother's family and I haven't been to the annual reunion in two years. It's always nice to catch up with family members, but sad to see that some have passed away or become ill. I'll also be connecting with a couple of high school friends at a hot dog lunch at the church my mother attended growing up. I'm really excited about that. And after the reunion, we're going to visit my uncle, and I'm going to have dinner with a friend from college I haven't seen since the day I got married.
I skipped my 40 year high school reunion because it was the same weekend as our writer's group retreat. It wasn't a difficult decision to make at all.
My favorite reunion was a family reunion in Charleston when I was about 12. I learned so much about my family that I didn't know. The movie The Patriot is loosely based on one of my ancestors known as Swamp Fox Marion. It was pretty cool to come out of that movie knowing the background of it.
Instigator
I guess I haven't been to a reunion. My family has them periodically, but I've never gone. And I didn't go to my 10th HS reunion. I went to DBs 20th, but I knew no one, so it wasn't the same.
I guess I'm not much for reminiscing. Once I move forward, I don't like looking back. If you were mean to me in high school, why would I want to chat with you? If you were worth keeping around, you'd still be in my life and we wouldn't have to 'reunite.'
YOU'RE related to Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox?????? How cool!
I had the best time at the reunion. Although almost all of us live in this area, we're all so busy we don't get together all at once. Introducing our kids and spouses was pretty neat too. I've never enjoyed family reunions, really ('cause most of the time it's family I don't or don't want to know), but with friends, it was great!
Family reunions are the best to me - wonderful food, family, and gossip....lol but true.
I enjoy some family reunions -- depends on the family. :) And it isn't that I didn't want these people in my life anymore, its just that we all started going to different churches, finding ourselves in different places in life, or moving away and the opportunity didn't present itself to get together.
And I think one of the things I enjoyed about it is that we all fell back into catching up and talking really easily. There wasn't much stilted conversation. :)
Hubby didn't attend his 10th hs reunion and said he won't go to a 20th either. I was grateful at the time (I'd just had a baby). And I can kind of see his point. The people who meant the most to him during that time were here last night, or he keeps in touch.
Angel
So glad you had a good time! I had a blast at my high school reunion. Enough time had finally passed...
Each year on the first Saturday of August all of the Grandchildren of Will and Annie Shelton (my mother's parents) gather at one of the cousin's home on Lake Norman near Charlotte, NC. This will be the 7th or 8th year that we have been doing this. Of the 15 grand-children (who live in NC, SC, GA, AL and CAL), there are 11 still living. Some attend with their spouses (some like me attend alone) and then there are numerous great and great-great grandchildren who attend. The meal is catered (Barbecue pork and all the trimmings)so no one has the burden of cooking for this crowd. We are (and have been) a close-knit family so we really enjoy this get-together each year. I'm leaving Thursday so I can visit life-long friends in the area, so it is really more than a family reunion for me. At age 84 I am the Matriarch of the family and I expect to be treated like a queen!
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