Party turns into reunion (8/29/05)

I’m running out of places to hide stuff. My family is coming to our house to celebrate my mother’s 77th birthday this weekend. I have been busy all week stashing craft supplies out of sight and carting the detritus of everyday life upstairs. It’s bad enough that the place is in the middle of an ongoing remodeling project, they don’t have to know that housework is usually at the very bottom of my to-do list.

Not only do I feel the need to clean everything in sight, I have to make sure all the plants are watered right before they arrive as Mom will check each and every one of them and God forbid one single pot should be dry. I would never hear the end of it. She will sigh and say something to the effect that she expected better from me. Then the next few times I talk to her she will ask me if I watered those flowers yet.

Several other family members have also invited themselves over to celebrate her birthday. I received an e-mail last night informing me that there were extra relatives coming. I haven’t seen one of them since he was just a child. He is now married with a little girl of his own. As I have yet to meet his wife and daughter, I feel the need to scrub even more to prove I’m not a total slob.

Lest you think I’m complaining about all this, I want you to know that I am looking forward to being surrounded by people with the same memories I have. There is an easy familiarity in hearing the identical stories that we have told for many years and sharing them with the newer members of our clan who may not have heard about how my cousin and I used to jump out of the haymow or how our grandmother made butter by hand.

I can predict the questions that will be asked and by whom as they are the same questions that have been asked every time we get together. The answers haven’t changed in decades. It’s part of what we do.

In addition to rehashing old stories I have a new project to work on this weekend. I have a first draft of our family history. I want everybody who comes to go over it with me and tell me what I have wrong and what I have right. I want birth dates of children, spouses and parents. I want to record the stories about when they were little and what other family members remember about them. Plus I intend to take pictures of anybody who shows up and add them to the mix.

Then when my long-lost second(?) cousin from Wapakoneta, Ohio calls at the end of September and we meet at last, maybe my family history will be more similar to his than what it is now. I have already found out that my great-great grandmother was Manerva not Minerva thanks to information he provided. I have no idea what else I have wrong but I intend to find out. There will be more than enough people milling about to set me straight.

This weekend started out to be a simple birthday party for my mother. It has evolved into a mini-family reunion complete with unknown relatives. Maybe I should give out prizes for the youngest, oldest and the one who came from farthest away. I don’t have time to gather prizes. I have more cleaning to do, a birthday cake to bake and presents to wrap. Plus there are a few more things I need to hide before they get here.[[In-content Ad]]