A Family Reunion

This weekend I traveled back to a place my father affectionately calls Home, back to Pinetops, North Carolina.

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A place where I spent almost every summer of my happy childhood running barefoot, climbing trees, listening to echo’s in wells and breaking or spraining various parts of my body.

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Long before Nintendo, PSP’s and Game Boy’s, my cousin’s and I would pick “china-balls” off of grand-ma’s tree and mercilessly throw them at each other. (Ouch! They were quite hard!)  We’d play hop-scotch in lines meticulously drawn in the earth, and sit on grandma’s porch to play a throw-down game of jacks.

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My father hails from a family of 13 siblings and was raised in a time when large families were not shunned, but appreciated.  Though he may have been considered poor by national standards, that “reality” was cushioned by the overwhelming sense of love, laughter and affirmation in his home.

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Yes, his family had their share of hard times, but other families had it hard, too.  And his parents didn’t teach his siblings to dwell on what they didn’t have, but to be grateful for what they did have, and they certainly had each other – as my father’s numerous and hilarious childhood recollections attest to. –

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Thankfully, this sense of “family” extended to my generation as well.

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During the summers, my brothers and  I (the “New-Yorkers”), as well as our other of town cousins, would descend upon North Carolina, and travel from one Aunt or Uncle’s home to another to slumber – feeling safe, being loved, gettin’ whippin’s and learning what it meant to belong and be a part of a very large and extended family.  Of course, we didn’t know that we were learning anything, we only knew that we were having fun, and loads of it! –

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In our parents absence EVERYONE was our mother and father.  Our biological parents never feared for our safety or had to wonder if we were being “touched” or treated in an inappropriate or unfair way.  That just wasn’t a part of our family’s fabric.

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Cousins slept three to a bed, on the floor or hanging off of couches if necessary.  We were denied in no one’s home, but accepted everywhere with extended arms and open hearts.  No thought was given to “Can we afford to feed all of these kids?” –

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Yes, my parents gave a financial contribution but it definitely could not have covered all of me and my brother’s summer expenses; but that definitely wouldn’t keep us from going, it wouldn’t keep us from being with our family. –

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We kids were cherished!

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I have so many wonderful memories and lessons learned that I will share on Wednesday’s post, but for now…

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Fish frys…

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…line dances,

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and pigs sliced wide open and cooked on a homemade grill… –

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are all crucial elements of a great family reunion! –

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This is what my childhood in the south was all about.  This is what my family is all about…and I Love It!  And I love them!  –

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Note: Sherry and Felicia (pictured above) want you to think that their smiles are genuine and that they were very sweet and kind to me when we were kids, but the “truth” is that they were both guilty of grossly mistreating their sweet and innocent cousin from NY.   They routinely cut out large chunks of my hair, tar and feathered me and threw me into dumpsters.  (Okay, I may have stretched the truth a bit, but I think I remember them ripping the head off of my Barbie doll?  Okay, that’s a lie too.)  Still, don’t let their phony North Carolina and Maryland smiles fool you!

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Additional Note: Uncle Reginald used to scare the Dickens out of me by chasing me around his haunted basement when I was just a young child with darling little pick-tails.

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(There, the “truth” is out!)

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Until next year!