Unearthing a life.....

[click on me to make me bigger]

I really do miss those family get-togethers we used to have at my folk's home in Smyrna and (as with this one) later on in Royal City. They were always large ... with the ranks bolstered by both paternal and maternal relatives and old friends from the 'slope' and the 'valley'. Food was plentiful and sumptious and sometimes there would be homemade ice cream. There would be anniversaries, retirements, and birthdays centered around my parents -- and, eventually funerals. Then the house was sold and the meeting place lost and we have not gathered again in this new century.

The picture above was taken in the summer of 1974 when my Dad retired from the Milwaukee Railroad after a lifelong career as a Section Foreman. At the far left is a glimpse the shiney new roto-tiller we got him to help him ease into retirement. At the right I am kneeling behind Bookworm and daughter Erin, with daughter Kelly looming over me. Standing in back, centered on the tree trunk, is Mom, then Dad (moving right), brother David, Kelly, Dave's wife Babe, sister Norma's husband Buzz, brother Neil (with a beard), and Neil's son Steve. To the left of Mom are brother Eric, Grandma Galena Belle, Eric's wife Bev, and my sister Norma. Directly below Norma is her daughter Kismene and, moving right again, son Chris and two more daughters. And Kevin. Far left seated is sister Doris with cousin Kathie Roach behind her and Kathie's Mom behind her. And Neil's daughter third in from the left on the ground in the yellow shirt. It just gives me pause. So many neices and nephews not even born yet. No grandchildren of my own yet.

Now all these old folks are gone, we young adults are crowding into our sixties and seventies, and the 'kids' are having a few grandchilrdren already. Even with the deaths, the ranks have swollen larger and larger .... and if the family seems to be shrinking, it is only an illusion created by a lack of a geographical center where we might congregate and make contact one more time. We are legion!