the journey
Our first leg of “the journey” started out on Friday past about 8:30am as opposed to the desired time of 7am. This was because one or both of us were a bit slow. Leaving our comfortable residence in South Carolina, we cast ourselves upon the roadway in a general westerly direction. Our Honda Odyssey was packed mostly full, but leaving enough room for the portable potty for highway emergencies.
We traveled mostly in an uneventful manner with only a few minor construction slow-downs and including two fuel stops, one for the vehicle and one for the Spice and I. We arrived in Mississippi about 71/2 hours later and stopped at the Welcome Center for some information on places to spend the night on Saturday night when we were to be on the road again.
Then about 14 miles later we arrived at the residence of my aunt and uncle, he is my Dad’s youngest brother and the only one of his siblings still living. We caught each other up on the goings and doings of each family for an hour or so and then went over to my sister’s place for supper (the southern evening meal). She has 7 offspring and they were all coming in for a special 20 year memorial for their Dad – as well as the reunion.
Four of my sister’s offspring live in Mississippi, two others are from Milwaukee and one lives in Augusta, Georgia. The one from Augusta and one of the Milwaukeeans had already arrived, with the other to come later that evening. The meal was great and the efforts at amusing each other with experiences past and almost present were even better.
The hour grew late and we went back over to my kin’s to spend the night. Next morning we broke the fast with them and enjoyed more happy chatter. This uncle is a WWII vet and has shared many interesting stories with me over the years. A couple of years ago I went to visit him for the specific purpose of interviewing him about his wartime experiences. This was done using my small recorder, then taken home and transcribed on my computer. The result was 39 pages of experiences before, during and after the war – very interesting to me.
Uncle is 86 and had a stroke a couple of years ago – about three months after my interview with him – he still gets around fairly well with his “walking stick”. After breakfast, he and I went over to the aunt’s brother’s place and filled a chest with ice from his ice machine. We then took the ice over to the community center where we were to have our reunion a couple of hours later. This building was built for and by the members of this rural community many years ago – without government help – it is a great place for gatherings such as ours.
We left the ice, turned on the air conditioners to cool the place off and went back to his house. By the time we got back, my aunt had finished her food prep and we got the goodies loaded up and headed off to the reunion.
TBC - ec
We traveled mostly in an uneventful manner with only a few minor construction slow-downs and including two fuel stops, one for the vehicle and one for the Spice and I. We arrived in Mississippi about 71/2 hours later and stopped at the Welcome Center for some information on places to spend the night on Saturday night when we were to be on the road again.
Then about 14 miles later we arrived at the residence of my aunt and uncle, he is my Dad’s youngest brother and the only one of his siblings still living. We caught each other up on the goings and doings of each family for an hour or so and then went over to my sister’s place for supper (the southern evening meal). She has 7 offspring and they were all coming in for a special 20 year memorial for their Dad – as well as the reunion.
Four of my sister’s offspring live in Mississippi, two others are from Milwaukee and one lives in Augusta, Georgia. The one from Augusta and one of the Milwaukeeans had already arrived, with the other to come later that evening. The meal was great and the efforts at amusing each other with experiences past and almost present were even better.
The hour grew late and we went back over to my kin’s to spend the night. Next morning we broke the fast with them and enjoyed more happy chatter. This uncle is a WWII vet and has shared many interesting stories with me over the years. A couple of years ago I went to visit him for the specific purpose of interviewing him about his wartime experiences. This was done using my small recorder, then taken home and transcribed on my computer. The result was 39 pages of experiences before, during and after the war – very interesting to me.
Uncle is 86 and had a stroke a couple of years ago – about three months after my interview with him – he still gets around fairly well with his “walking stick”. After breakfast, he and I went over to the aunt’s brother’s place and filled a chest with ice from his ice machine. We then took the ice over to the community center where we were to have our reunion a couple of hours later. This building was built for and by the members of this rural community many years ago – without government help – it is a great place for gatherings such as ours.
We left the ice, turned on the air conditioners to cool the place off and went back to his house. By the time we got back, my aunt had finished her food prep and we got the goodies loaded up and headed off to the reunion.
TBC - ec
posted by mreddie | 12:22 AM
4 Comments:
Hi Mr Eddie ~~ Sounds as though you are having a great time visiting
with family. Reunions are lots of fun
I hope you and your wife continue to
enjoy, and I guess taking photos.
Thanks for your comment ~~ and yes I did forget something, but fortunately
I have it covered this time.
Take care and drive safely, Merle.
merle - We have and are enjoying family visits. On Sat. it was the extended families and now it is my direct descendants - older daughter and her clan. ec
I'm glad you interviewed your Uncle, and got those stories. There is always great value in one's personal experience, and it is a blessing to share it.
bonita - The war experiences were fascinating but the times before and after then were also very interesting. ec
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