Buffington Family Reunion `06

I traveled up north for my family reunion this last weekend. It was a pretty good time. We camped at Belfair state park on Saturday night with my sister Brandi, her son Aiden, and my Mom. This made it a lot easier for us to get up early and stake out a section for our family's picnic on Sunday. On Sunday a decent sized group of my family showed up for the picnic, some had driven all the way from Great Falls, MT for the event. I had a chance to visit with my older relatives (aunts, uncles, great aunts, 2nd cousins, etc). There was also lots of good foods to eat! I was a bit disappointed that many of my cousins, who live local to the event, weren't able to make it. Seems this is a continuing occurrence. Making me think that this tradition might end someday down the road when it's left to our generation to organize it. I can remember a long time back attendance to the family reunion was enormous. There would be around 100 people there, all of which we share blood with. Softball games, potato sack races, water balloon toss', BINGO, raffles, and a myriad of other corny fun kid games were organized. It was a fun event to look forward to every year. Lately the event is a shriveled shadow of what it once was. Usually it's just the older folks that make the effort to come to the event, and their numbers are quickly diminishing due to the reality of mortality. This is pretty saddening to me, especially after seeing the dedication of folks attending Darci's family reunion. Her family travels hundreds of miles from all over the country to attend their annual family reunion campout over Labor Day weekend. Folks driving RV's up from Arizona, taking flights in from Texas, even using their military leave (from serving in IRAQ) to attend the event. For some it's the highlight of their year. They all camp out on a stretch of family property west of Eugene, OR. The field looks like a mini Woodstock some years. Everyone pitching in to cook for the group meals each day, coordinating to play a round of golf on one of the days, bringing their music instruments to entertain, etc. You can really feel the love they share. Especially when people leave on the last day. Whenever a family leaves, everyone else runs out to the far stretch of field by the road, lines up in a long line, and does a celebratory bow with arms out stretched (much like the "We're not Worthy" bow from Wayne's World). I feel it's important that we try to organized something like this for my family. The majority of the youngest cousins are now grown adults, and the older cousins are now married and having children of their own. It's really time to draw the family closer and ensure the events survival for the next generation. Since my father has been the one to take on organizing the event for so many years, it only seems fitting that I lend a hand and try to help. After all this isn't anything new to me, as I've had plenty of experience organizing our stubborn group of friends for parties and campouts. Next year I'm going to try to organize the family (primarily the younger folks) into dedicating the whole weekend to the reunion. Doing a group campout from Fri-Sun, ending the event with the reunion picnic Sunday afternoon. I think it would be a great experience. We can get the little kids together to play, while the rest of us share good conversation and really get to know each other better. 361 days until next year, sounds like I have plenty of time to get the ball rolling on this. Wish me luck!