okay um do you participate in family reunions
i did for years i don't have enough family left to have them
uh-huh did you uh were they far away were they close
that's
well i come from
a family that was very large in Bell County
uh-huh
and and my grandfather came to Bell County on a covered wagon
oh how neat
and had ten children and so sometimes we would have a reunion with that group
uh-huh
and then sometimes we would go to Arkansas where they came from and have a reunion with the entire group you know
oh that would be fun
yeah it was a lot of fun
yeah well we uh we have a family reunion on my mother's side of the family that's uh oh it started probably about forty years ago um
because i remember going as a teenager before i was ever married and then my husband and i went uh while we were still dating and it's still going on and
it used to be held at Lake Brownwood down at Brownwood Texas but now we hold it at uh Lake Texoma so that the Oklahoma group doesn't have to drive as far
um-hum
and uh we have had as many on a Saturday night it starts on Friday and goes through Sunday and we've had as many on a uh Saturday night as about two hundred and fifty
um now we would have group like that in Arkansas we'd have two hundred and fifty or three hundred
uh-huh
yes and we took uh i assume you all brought in food and everything
well so many of us came from a long way that we we'd usually at a motel and we bought food there
oh uh-huh uh-huh it's i know on Sundays we all elect now to chip in and we go get Kentucky Fried Chicken and bring out and uh but we kind of take our food for three days and uh
but
um-hum hum
now our grandchildren are participating in it and just love that they have all this little batch of cousins that they get to see once a year
um-hum
um-hum
enthused and uh
with it and our children you know thoroughly enjoy it so it's been kind of nice it started out when i was a youngster and watching my mother now i'm to the mother was and uh i am uh
um-hum well
um-hum
now the older generation and doing more of the cooking and watching my daughter you know participate more
um-hum
and everything and uh
well it's something i really miss because i had twenty seven first cousins
oh my word
and you know we were very close family but my father's generation was enough older than i my father would be a hundred now
oh uh-huh
that they're all dead and in fact many of my first cousins are dead
oh are they
and course they have their own families and grandchildren and all that so
we really very rarely all of us get together
get together any more
and and we're a long way away and and the younger generation the next like my cousin's children i don't know very well you know
uh-huh uh-huh
but it so it's i doubt that that will come to be again but as long as my oldest aunt lived we we got together once a year
i think i do think now we have noticed a waning of interest and i think as as parents
get older and start dying off i think sometimes it is hard to keep the interest going
well and and folks have gotten so mobile i mean like i have
a son and a daughter and two nephews that are grown
um-hum
and a brother who has a new marriage and a younger son but my brother and his wife live in Nevada my daughter lives in Colorado one of my nephews lives in New York City one nephew lives in Memphis
um-hum
and my son lives here but i think it's very unlikely we'll have a family reunion you know
yeah you probably do good just to get your immediate family together
yeah and i'm divorced and really only immediate family i have left is my my i have a son and a daughter
uh-huh uh-huh
but my family's really all dead
uh-huh
but it was great pleasure while we did it you know
oh yeah they're a lot of fun well my sister i have a sister and then we have a son and a daughter and we have three grandchildren and and our son and daughter are both married and uh
um-hum
our son's not as interested in it as our daughter but our daughter our daughter is really interested and uh
did it does it bother you if your children are not interested in it
i beg you pardon
does it bother you if your children are not interested in it
oh a little bit i i wish that our son was you know and um
um-hum
but uh the cousins are closer to our daughter's age and than to our son's and just totally different interest group and plus and he's just he's newly married and doesn't have children and
uh-huh
um-hum
you know i'm hoping that as they you know are married a little bit longer and have children that they may be more inclined to want to go
um-hum
you know to it i know that
what what kinds of things do you do to try to get your children interested to talk to them about it
well talk to them about it and you know tell them some of the things we're doing now when he was a child uh a young oh preteen you know when he was like ten or twelve he loved going he had another cousin he was close to
um-hum
and we but that cousin kind of quit going and as he got to be a teenager um he wasn't quite as as interested he was more interested in
rock and roll and this is more country western group and uh just lack of interest
um-hum
