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My materal materal family (yeah, I said materal twice, in other words, my mother's mother's family) gets together every year. It's always the 3rd Saturday in August, the Saturday before "Homecoming" at the traditional family church. Sad to say, I haven't been in the past 2 or 3 years, but I'm definately going this year. We've had a few deaths in the family and I don't want to have anyone else leave this earth without me seeing them. There are usually about 100 people there. The "family" consists of the decendants of my great, great grandparents. I doubt the true "kin-ness" of some of them. We have folks who were married to a distant cousin back in the day who come with the new spouse and children talking bout "Chile, you know we still family!". Any adult cousin over 50 is called "Cuddin" (cousin) as in "Cuddin Sallie Mae". Folks typically bring their own food and (sometimes) share desserts. (I do have one aunt though that always wants to "go in with somebody" and her contribution is a can of green peas!) Even though we family I ain't eating everybody's potato salad and I don't trust some of them enough to give 'em $20 for the food! LOL There is usually someone who has just gotten out of jail, or someone missing who just went to jail. We have a lot of fun laughing and talking--it's not organized anymore than "We gon meet at so and so park. Get there early so we can get some good tables.
Who gon bring the cards? Who got some bones?? (dominos) That side of the family is a trip!!
My father's family has a reunion ever other year. That side of the family tends to be a bit more organized. We have it in a different city each time, based on the "branch" of the family that organizes it. My dad's family is pretty large, even though we can only really go back as far as my grandparents. Unfortunately, I have found that as of late the folks of my generation (my dad was the youngest of 17, so the folks that are in my age range are my 2nd cousins) aren't participating that much. It's the 50 and up crew, then the youngins (under 20). We usually have a talent show for the kids, a formal dinner with awards, family trivia contests, etc. It was in Virginia Beach last year and will be in Atlanta next year, which means I am on the planning committee. We used to do it around the 4th of July, but that has also begin to change.
The funniest story from this runion probably won't translate, but let me just say it involves a drunk uncle who was supposed to be saying the blessing but ended up preaching a sermon, then crying. During his "sermon", one of my aunts was punching him on the arm saying "Bless the food, Grover! Bless the food Grover! The food is getting cold Grover! These folks wanna eat Grover!" It was soooo funny!! I still have to repent everytime I think about it 'cause I end up laughing!! This happened about 20 years ago and to this day, if someone prays a real long time I get the urge to say "Bless the food, Grover!"
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