Since both my money and paid time off aligned this summer, I attended a reunion on my father’s side of the family. I hadn’t seen them in nearly ten years.
I’ve only consistently reunited with my immediate family who were in attendance, but it was strange to see them since it was not Christmas.
I’d decided to attend at the last minute, which is why I’m the only one without a family reunion T-shirt.
I made sure to take my father’s picture with his two sisters. I didn’t know if we were going to take any formal group pictures and wanted to get as many as I could.
When I look at long-established married couples like my parents and one of my sisters and her husband, they seem like generations from a by-gone era.
One of my cousin’s wife had her first novel for sale. Reminded me of the time back in 2011 when I took my first novel to the reunion on my mother’s side of the family. Much later after the fact, I discovered that one of my uncles didn’t like the fact that I’d sold my book at the reunion.
Soon after most of us had finished eating, we made the tremendous effort to get everyone on stage to take a group picture.
Then, we took cohort pictures, starting with the 70+ age group.
Next, the 60s group took their picture.
The 50s group started making too much noise, led by one of my sisters, as they made their way to the stage.
For some inexplicable reason, once my group, the 40s, made our way to the stage, only two of us were present in the room; so we had a good time, like the childhood friends we’d been growing up.
Throughout our photo shoot, we kept yelling for another cousin who we knew was in our age group, but was probably outside smoking.
We made the most out of “waiting” for him.
Finally, three other cousins joined us.
The 20s group were far too cool to show out, not having to prove their vitality, but rather show they were no longer children.
Then the teenage and younger group all sat in front of the stage. They should have been the most energetic, but they were pretty subdued as well.
Then, to put the puzzle pieces together in yet another fashion, we took “immediate” family pictures. So, here are the immediate descendants of my parents, starting with our “getting ready shot.”
Followed by the “we got our shit together” shot.
Here are the descendants of my Uncle Earl and Aunt Florence.
Next up, Aunt Carmenta’s descendants.
Here is Aunt Roventa’s family.
And I can never have too many pictures with my sisters with some cousins thrown in.
Here’s perhaps the most sacred picture of them all: the surviving children of Mama Rose Peatross Roberson.