When I was a child, summer vacations were always spent on my grandmother's farm in southern Alabama. There, my cousins and I spent long, hot days hoeing acres of butter beans, field peas, tomatoes and okra. We rose early to pick the ripest fruits and vegetables, then spent hours in the kitchen, canning the harvest for the winter. Evenings found us rocking in the double-swing on the wide front porch with enormous bowls in our laps. While the swing rocked, we popped peas out of their shells or snapped beans into the bowls.
And we talked. About the boys and the stores and the adventures of our city-lives. Listened to our cousins from Alabama share their own tales of boys and cows and what Ol' Man-this and Ol' Lady-that had done lately. Hung on every word that fell from our Massachusetts cousins who spoke so differently from the rest of us but had the best stories to tell.
As I grew older, I missed those summer days. I went to college, which meant I needed a j-o-b during the summer or there'd be no money for brain food, aka pizza, once classes started again. I married a Navy man, and we moved...a lot. We had children and spent our vacations visiting their grandparents. Too many years passed. My grandmother's house changed hands several times and, although family members still own it, it's no longer the gathering place it once was.
This weekend, though, a bunch of us cousins did get together again. And though it had been a l-o-n-g time since many of us had seen each other, we made ourselves at home on a front porch where we shared the stories of our lives...and vowed not to wait so long to get together again.
Family, it's one of the central themes of Harlequin American Romance. I so enjoyed touching base with my family this weekend. How about you? Any plans for a family reunion this summer?
5 comments:
All our family is in California. No reunion this year. We only go back every other year now. This summer we are going to Pennsylvania to see One Direction in concert. This is my 14 year old daughter's Christmas present.
What a terrific present for your daughter! Have a great vacation!
Sounds like you had a great party.
We are having a 90th birthday party for dh's uncle in July. About 80+ members of his family - spanning 4 generations - will be there as they almost all live within a 80 miles of here. My kids live close by but the rest of my family is very scattered across the country, none of us living within 900 miles of each other so we really don't see each other very often.
Hope you have a wonderful time in July, Linda. Wish your dh's uncle a very happy birthday for me!
Leigh
We have a family Christmas at a local restaurant, although when the kids/grandkids were smaller, we hosted in our own homes every year. There aren't any other relatives on my husband's side, except for two elderly aunts far away. As for my side of the family, we get together every couple of years, whenever my sister travels over 2000 miles to visit us all (whereas in years gone by, we visited them instead).
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