March 28, 2024

Family get together

From a large family, I’m the youngest of eight children, we used to get together all the time. Not just with brothers and sisters (I dislike the word “siblings,” it seems so nonrelated), but with aunts and uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins and grandparents.

There was no, or very little, organization to this, we, or they, just showed up. It was usually on a Sunday afternoon. We, or they, would drive miles across country to just pop in. We never thought of calling ahead — that would have meant a long-distance phone charge. Upon arrival there would be yard games, a wild search about town for the only open store with ice cream, and maybe a couple of chickens with their necks wrung. Upon leaving, there would be armfuls of frozen meat, plant clippings and dirty, passed-out kids in the backseats of cars.

I don’t know what happened to all that, but our family never communicates anymore, let alone gets together. Of course, there are issues, but what family doesn’t have issues? It’s not just the Internet, or social networking, or the NFL on Sunday afternoons, we just drifted apart. Why? I dunno. Being too busy seems a trite excuse. I miss those days of getting together with family.

For Mother’s Day this year, I wrote an article about my mother, and included her picture. My column is spread around the state, in 20 or so newspapers. Lo-and-behold, I got an email and then a phone call from a long lost cousin, Pammie, from Agency. I knew I had some relatives in the Ottumwa area, but hadn’t gone to the trouble of looking them up. (I’m just as guilty as anyone.) Pammie had been reading my columns in the Ottumwa Courier for years, and seeing my picture, but couldn’t believe it was the same Curtie she used to play with. (Let’s see, it’s been 50 years or better.) When she saw the picture of my mother, her Auntie Grace, the “ah ha” moment occurred.

Presto-chango, a family get together! It was at Pammie’s house in Agency. In actual attendance were second cousin Pammie and her husband, Tedd, and their daughter Amy; my sister, Angel, and her son (my nephew), David; cousins, Robin, Shirley, and Roxie (Foxie Roxie); and my girlfriend, Ginnie; and, of course, me. I say in “actual” attendance because we were all there, eating baked beans, ham sandwiches, and Jello cake, telling stories about Gandma and Grampa Brown, Aunt Oma and Auntie Grace, and, with much head scratching, erasing, and telephone calls, making a family tree. In cyber connection, via the computer, of all things, were cousin Rick from Arizona, and cousin Neal from Idaho. Cousin Neal is in his eighties and is tech savvy. He had to tell me how to download Tango onto my Android so that he could be present — a new twist to an old fashioned get together.

I had brought one of my sculptures as a gift for Pammie’s flower garden for arranging this much over-due family get together. When Ginnie and I left, we took with us a tub of baked beans and a plate of death-by-chocolate brownies. My sister, Angel, and her son David, took with them a bird feeder made from a gallon ketchup jug. It attracts Baltimore orioles. I hadn’t seen a Baltimore oriole since I was a kid. But one was present for our entertainment while we were stuffing our faces.

We’re making plans for our next get together in August.

Have a good story? Call or text Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526 or email curtswarm@yahoo.com