|
Reunion
activities
These
activities are from many reunions, reported first in Reunions magazine. We invite you to e-mail
us your special reunion activities.
Homecoming
Collage at an Arkansas reunion
by Neva Barnes McMurry
My siblings, our descendants, "coat-tail" kin, and many
others who had "scattered like quail," as Mama often said,
enjoyed our Barnes Family Reunion in Northwest Arkansas back in
the early '70s. They came from Georgia, Oregon, California and nearby
Hog Eye, Arkansas, between Prairie Grove and West Fork, where we
grew up.
Our
daughter Colleen suggested making a collage to fit the occasion.
She gathered a large piece of cardboard, assorted magazines, newspapers
and miscellaneous items. Armed with scissors, glue, knowledge of
the expected participants and her creative streak, she selected
slogans, titles, parts of sentences, headlines, suitable numbers,
cartoons, even a poem - appropriate, since she, I, and my father
"dabbled" in poetry. She started with "What's good
about family reunions?" Everything else was clipped, arranged,
and glued to complete the whole.
As
family members arrived, Colleen encouraged each one to autograph
anything that appealed to them.
Our
little mother, Faye Barnes, pounced on "We're smaller, but
we carry just as much weight." With today's connotation of
weight, we might do better with my daughter Wilda's rejoinder, "I'm
not short, I'm concentrated."
Brother
Jack, from nearby Hog Eye, has a farm and tractor so he autographed
a cartoon of a family in a car loaded with luggage asking a man
on a tractor, "Is this the road to 'Purple mountain majesties
above a fruited plain'?"
My
brother Walt chose "Tomorrow is too late," and added,
"Today is the first day of the rest of your life." His
wife Idl signed "Jokes I like" for many were shared.
My
sister, Evelyn Powers, preferred, "Someone's singing off-key."
Her husband Bill often dragged out his guitar at times like this
to encourage sing-a-longs.
My
sister-in-law Ruby signed "Meet a sharp new redhead from Oregon."
She added " ... but just look at her now." Her husband,
brother Robert, agreed with "Only Oregon gives you nine ways
to go . . ."
My
daughter Letha's autograph asked, "You may have traveled far
and wide, but how high have you been?" In spite of the suggestiveness
of that choice, her record high was probably the local mountain
farm where she and her husband Lee Sharp maintained a ham radio
tower, which they used for boosting emergency radio transmission
signals on the ham radio network.
"With
a juicy deal like that, you can't go wrong," was selected by
nephew Ricky. His sister Donna chose, "Due to a lack of interest,
tomorrow has been cancelled."
Nephew
Harry liked, "The week was a grind, with phone calls and late
nights and skipping lunches, but now the job is done and . . . .
" Anyone who doesn't think advertising works? Even I, a non-drinker,
can fill in that sentence.
My
name is nowhere to be seen - faded? Or was I too busy? But I would
likely have picked the one about fossils because we had our own
fossil bed on the hillside where we grew up. Touring old stomping-grounds
has always been a part of family get-togethers. Treks to our old
home place were always a good day for the grandchildren. That would
be part of the collage's "World of our Childhood in the Ozarks."
Other
names faded in spite of my clear shellac coating. I'd like to be
able to read who signed "50 Years Old — Going On One Hundred"
I'd like to remind him, now that he's 75 — you're halfway there!
About
the author
Neva Barnes McMurry was born near West Fork, Washington County,
Arkansas. She has written and published local history to preserve
information about people in her community and their way of life.
A recently published book, Around and About Webber Mountain,
is about her community and family during World War II era. She lives
in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, surrounded by her children, grandchildren
and great-grandchildren.
PREVIOUS NEXT
|
Reunions Forums 
