It's that time of year again! That's right, time for the family reunion. Time for a 7 hour drive from Roanoke to Nashville. Time for a cookout at the F.O.P. lodge. Time to see people whose names I may or may not know.
Okay, I enjoy seeing family. Mostly. I enjoy seeing family members I know. Anyone else get the impression at family reunions that for every person you know, there's someone else you don't know? And amazingly, you don't know them, but they know you. Or at least they did twenty years ago when you were 7 years old and 3 foot 6 inches tall. "Oh, you've gotten so big!"
And then there are the people that you just know you're not related to at all. Not even a little bit. People who somehow find out there will be free burgers and dogs.
In the past these reunions were fun. I was a kid. The cousins were kids. We played some kind of outdoor sports and ran around doing the things that little kids do. Now we're adults. We know what the grown-ups were talking about when they sat around under the big maple tree. How do we know? 'Cause they're still talking about the same things, and we're involved in the conversation now.
This year was a little more difficult than years past. This was the first reunion without dad. So, of course, there were a lot of comments about how much he was missed. I love my dad, I miss him every day. But I just didn't want to be reminded of all that grief all over again. So I had a hard time today. And I'll have a hard time tomorrow when my grandparents are there.
I'm not saying I'll have an emotional breakdown. Though it's been awhile. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment