Family, Food, Fireworks, Fun
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
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A family reunion is one of the few events where an observant young person can see examples of all ten commandments being broken and upheld all in one day. The seven sacraments and the seven deadly sins are also quite evident. Our family reunion was always held on the 4th of July and that added even more learning opportunities. My grandparents hosted the family reunion for many years at their place in rural Texarkana, Arkansas. This event happened every year when I was a child and was held until at least when I was in my early 20's. My wife did get to attend one of the last ones and that was a learning experience for her - but she married me anyway.
The reunion was for my dad's father's family and the variety of people that came together at our family reunions was quite astounding. High school dropouts, rocket scientists, engineers, war veterans, police officers, farmers, crooks, homemakers, drunks, school teachers, people of various levels of wealth, and people of various faiths were all welcome. The people who were greeted the most warmly were those who had not attended in a couple of years. I enjoyed listening to the adults get "caught up" with each other.
It was fun to watch and listen as people drove up in various types of vehicles. When a new car was spotted the speculation would start as to whose it was. There were also the expected comments if a "foreign" car was seen. My grandparents lived down a long dirt road and I noted that there didn't seem to be much difference between a Cadillac and a Buick or a Lincoln and a Ford when they were covered in dust.
Although this was my grandfather's family, my grandmother, Mima, was the heart and soul of the reunion. Mima was the person in our family who kept up with birth dates, wedding anniversaries, and other people's health issues. Mima worked herself to a frazzle to make sure that everyone was happy and she was always the one who gave thanks and said the blessing before we ate.
Food was always very plentiful and you learned quickly what to eat and not eat. It only took one upset stomach to learn to avoid anything associated with the phrase, "It will probably be ok if you just scoop that part off." Another clue that something might not be good is if something had to opened outside in case "it didn't smell right." I also avoided anything with fluffy in the name especially if fluffy was followed by a color. Fluffy pink anything or fluffy green anything were definitely not going in my mouth. Finally, anything with salad in the name was probably not a real salad and it likely had rotten mayonnaise from sitting out too long.
You made note of who brought what dish. The lesson learned there was that the good cooks were good and the bad cooks never improved. The best cooks were my Mima and my mother so I was pretty safe just sticking to the things that I knew they made. I do admit hiding Mima's pies just so I knew I would get a piece. Occasionally I would venture away for their items but I was usually disappointed. It seemed over time that the bad cooks figured out they were bad and they started doing their cooking at the Kentucky Fried Chicken.
There were many young people at the reunions. I was told they were "distant" cousins but I never understood the exact relationship. Regardless, we had alot of fun and that fun usually involved fireworks. Today there seems to be a wide variety of fireworks one can purchase but then we got four things - firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, and sparklers.
Firecrackers came in several varieties but the best were "Black Cats." Black Cats were loud and powerful. We learned valuable physics lessons from fireworks. For example, if a firecracker explodes in a cow patty (manure), the cow patty will be projected in all directions. The distance of the projected manure was determined by the number of firecrackers and the firmness of the manure. I understood all of that and became pretty good at predicting the results of pending explosions. To this day though, I can't figure out why the person with the newest, whitest shirt always received the most direct cow patty hit.
Bottle rockets were the most versatile of the fireworks that we would purchase. As the word "rockets" implies, bottle rockets could propel themselves and other things. We became very good at attaching bottle rockets to all sorts of potential vehicles. Paper airplanes, balsa wood airplanes, Hot Wheels® cars, and boats of all types all benefitted from a little extra propulsion. We learned the ideal placement of the bottle rocket on the device as well as when it was necessary to add weight to the device to balance the sudden acceleration. This was good fun and the flaming paper airplanes were also quite exciting. We usually ended up racing bottle rocket boats across my grandparents pond because the boats could be reused and the threat of a flaming paper airplane flying where it shouldn't was much less. Bottle rockets could also be used in many situations where one would use firecrackers. It doesn't take much thought to realize that bottle rockets and cow patties were extra exciting.
As the sun set, the day would end with the sparklers and Roman candles which were not as exciting to me as firecrackers and bottle rockets. Sparklers and Roman candles were necessary because that is what would attract the adults to go to the fireworks stand. I did learn that beer made adults do dumb things as the Roman candles were sometimes not shot correctly. Fortunately there were never any major injuries.
The large reunion dwindled as that part of our family aged and become more scattered but Mima always enjoyed the 4th of July and fireworks. One year, when my parents were traveling my family spent the 4th of July with Mima. She was excited to spend the day with us and away from her assisted-living residence. The most fun part of that visit of course was the fireworks "show" that our two oldest children put on for us that day. The children entertained us and Mima laughed and giggled the entire time. Watching our oldest children entertain their great-grandmother will always be a favorite memory of mine.
Another favorite recent memory of mine, was watching my dad give a physics lesson to my daughter with fireworks. The lesson involved a bucket of water, a tin can and a firecracker. The correct arrangement of those items resulted in the tin can being propelled high into the air. I am not sure who was more excited when it worked but both my dad and my daughter had a great time.
The first words that our youngest said to me this morning was, "Did you see the fireworks that mom and I bought?" We will have a small family gathering today, grill some food (nothing fluffy in sight), and of course enjoy the fireworks this evening. In addition to the normal blessings that we say, we will give thanks for the courage that our nation's founding father's displayed on July 4, 1776, and all who have sacrificed since then for the ideal of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.