Coming Home
I have often wondered what it would be like to be an only child. I couldn't imagine a childhood without a ready-made group of playmates, mentors and critics. I am sure that those who were only children couldn't imagine what life would have been like in a family as large as ours. I never wanted to be an only child. Oh, sometimes I might have wished for a little more of the goodies I saw some of my friends have. But when we had spontaneous picnics and adventures within our own family I felt sorry for singles.
In adulthood the advantages of a large family continued. No matter where we wanted to travel there was always a sibling, or a niece or nephew who lived close by so we could combine our trip with a family visit. (When I wrote that sentence I wondered why there isn't a convenient word that means nieces or nephews like siblings stands for both brothers and sisters. Maybe we should coin one!) This week our Gray family is gathering here at the home place, The Wayside, for our quadrennial family reunion. We get together every two years, but in between the ones here at the farm, we meet at a resort or camp in a location near some group of the family. These often have been in the Washington, D.C., Virginia or Maryland area because several of the older relatives lived in that area.
This year however age is not keeping our oldest brother, Harold, from returning to his birthplace and boyhood home.
At 98, he is riding out with one of his sons and daughters-in-law, and will ride back with another couple. His entire family will join with all the rest of us to swell the number to 82 relatives for a three-day reunion.
Since the leadership is moving from the children of Chester and Pearl Gray to the grandchildren and great grandchildren, we are incorporating entertainment that will pass on some of the family traditions and heritage.
A visit to the Bushwhacker Museum will give us a chance to set up our own family archives for permanent storage elsewhere in the future. A dinner at Lester's and my church will give us a chance to be together in one room and catch up on each branch of the family. It will also give us Thorntons a chance to show how great our Vernon County friends are to help us with this dinner.
And we will not neglect more active things. Relay races in the canoes on our pond (Gray Lake), a 10K run, volleyball, croquet, horse-shoe pitching tournaments, a play station for the little ones, a wading pool, and our traditional night time hiding/strategy game of Go Sheepie Beat It (some call it Run Sheep Run) will keep all ages involved. A self-conducted history trail of important places on the farm has been created to show the younger generations just where it was that the family played Ante Over or where the outhouse was located.
Somewhere in there we will have a business meeting and in the evening the talented parts of the family will be pickin' and singin' in the rented tent.
Two family members are catering the meals with assistance at each meal from different hosts and hostesses from the original branches of the family.
Our parents would be very happy to know that over three decades after their deaths, their children are still "coming home."