Reun-ing

If all goes well, by the time this posts, I will be in South Dakota at a family reunion.

Because it's the Fourth of July weekend, apparently a LOT of people will be reun-ing in and around my home town. There are a couple of high school class reunions going on - for people who graduated in years ending in either 6 or 1.

My dad's school (he grew up in a town about 18 miles from where I grew up) is having an "all-school" reunion this weekend. It's not a great big town, but when you invite everyone who has ever graduated from the school over some 100+ years, you can bet there will be a big crowd.

So it could be kind of interesting who we all run into at "home" this weekend, along with the 40+ members of my dad's family who will be there.

I'm guessing that (again, if all goes well), by the time this posts I'll be having a glass of something alcoholic, sitting and chatting with a bunch of cousins (all of us trying to remember either the last time we saw each other or who shot off the "wiz-bang" that burned the picnic blanket at the Fourth of July picnic in my grandma's backyard way back when).

There will be much food, and much talk of food. There will be many relatives and talk of many more relatives. And, yes, I expect there will be fireworks in the streets at sundown. (Hopefully all of the literal sense, and not the metaphorical.)

There's something kind of amazing about reunions. There's the mix of dread and excitement going in. There's the feeling of being part of a shared experience. There's the combined relief and angst - and talk of the next one - when they end.

Should make for an interesting weekend.