What an excellent family reunion! There was a completely different cast of characters at this affair than at Michael's on the Fourth or Andrew's in Ohio. Between the three events, I now know about ten more relatives than I did before starting this adventure. In fact, some of the people I met, I knew as a child - which hardly counts since that was a very long time ago.
During dinner, a beautiful lovebird landed on the table. We caught it and gave it food and water -which probably saved its life. Kathy Trotta's daughter took it home and is fervently praying than no one claims it. I can't blame her, before she called dibs, I was mentally adding it to my traveling family.
Meeting Herbie, Linda, Steven and family (Uncle Herbert's two sons) actually left me speechless, no exaggeration. It was remarkable to me how much Steven looks like his father, and Herbie - who I knew better than Steven growing up, did not look anything at all as I remembered him. Janice and Tommy (Ann and Al's daughter) brought the video of Aunt Ann's 8mm films including the family reunion in 1970 at Tallman State Park. I was all choked up by the end of it, after seeing Mom (so pretty) and Dad, (so young).
The quality of the video was not great, and it was sometimes difficult to identify who it was exactly. I found myself shouting out identifications, and I think I scared Janice just a little :) but, when I saw Kevin - who was maybe three, my memory opened up and well, it made the trip for me. Uncle Al, who has his own copy of the video, really enjoyed watching it with the new audience although I suspect that it was nice just to see all those images of his family again.
Meeting Janice made me sorry that I hadn't made a greater effort to see her when she was at Jean's in Culver City - certainly, I will in the future.
Now that the reunion is over, I guess I need to nail down my plans for the next month...so many choices, I am truly blessed :D
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