Pre Family Reunion

Saturday is our family reunion -we have been planning it for -oh I don't know -4 months? Anyway it is my Maternal Grandfather's side of the family. He had a brother and three sisters. The sisters never had any children that lived and so that connection died -once I think my grandfathers first cousin(s) came. One even brought some of his grandchildren -but they had so much more money than we did and were spoiled shits -we tried but they never came back. Now his brothers children and their families are starting to fall away. Illness, distance, lack of interest other commitments.
The story goes that my grandfathers father "The Hampton" came to the US from Scotland with his first cousin"The Henderson" . They had gotten in young men trouble with the local football team (Rugby) drinking etc... and the parents decided to send them to the sisters and brothers all now living near Philly. They came with their bag pipes ( left in the attic of my great-grand mothers house -the bag had rotted away and no one wanted them) and their clubs (golf clubs in a linen white bag -we may still have them) and their plaids (lost forever). Who knows if it was true. We lost track of the bothers and sisters of my Great-grand father. And the stories have migrated over the years.
I actually made it to Scotland -not to Aberdeen -but I kept saying to my sister all the time we were there -all these men look like Uncle Charles -my grandfathers brother. smile I never saw anyone that looked like my grandfather who was very tall and thin and had piercing blue eyes. Eyes and a look that made you want to confess to chopping down all the cherry trees in the world. I now realize he must have been a genetic throwback to some beserker Nordic raider that landed in Aberdeen and left his seed to co-mingle in my family genes.
No one knows that story. I just haven't written it yet. :))))))
I am looking forward to this reunion. My mother started hosting it after my Grandfathers sister got to old (so the family thought) for the work involved. And as my Grandfathers oldest girl grandchild -alot of work IS involved. My Mother sort of decided not to have it any more. When we were little my Grandfather's four children and their families (both boys and both girls married and had children -Total 11 living grandchildren) all got together at my grandparents home in York, Pa for Thanksgiving.
I cant remember when the summer reunions started. the first one I remember, was in 1956 my grandfathers mother , Kate's , 80th birthday. I think that would have made her 24 when her first child was born -my grandfather. She had married when she was 23. I think back then, she must have been an old maid.
The story goes that she met my Grandfather when he walked into the weaving room of the mill where she worked in Lima, Pa. She remembered a man with a plaid scarf and a Scottish bough so think she could barely understand him. He was on a job interview and said he decided to marry her the minute he saw her. I think he was younger than she was.
Every birthday and special occasion he would write her these terrible rhyming poems in her cards. My mothers brother recently gathered as many as he could find and copied them into a book for his sisters, We have since copied and recopied them and now all grandfathers Chas's children have a copy. sweet. I will have to remember to bring it to the reunion.
Recently my grandfathers girl grandchildren have decided to try the reunions again. Not at my parents, but at a park. It is a first for our summer reunion. Our cousin from California and her Missionary brother and his family from Africa are going to be there. But alot of people have sent their regrets and now my parents aren't coming.
This why I am so glad we all are on the Internet . I will be able to write a letter and upload pictures to everyone that didn't come. So next year -and I really mean it -everyone that is Healthy enough to come -will rearrange their lives to participate in something so wonderful their children will want to continue.

I think it is called Family.