I continue to enjoy each visit to your web site. There is always something new. I truly enjoyed the new memories page. It's fun to jog the memory a bit every now and then. I spent a lot of time, not just reading the list, but thinking back to those times. and events they signify. Memories of old friends are still so dear.

As a child of the mid 40's, growing up in the 50's and 60's left a ton of wonderful memories. Trying to categorize them, 1 through 10 with 1 being the best is impossible, too many 1's. But somewhere in that top list would be the great times I had at family reunions.

Since we were not close to my dad's parents in either miles or relationships, most of my fond memories are of my Mother's side of the family. Her Mother's bunch use to hold their reunions in the middle of the summer at Honey Island Swimming Pool. We'd gather at one of the privations across the road from the pools sometime after the pool opened. The men would set-up for numerous domino games or horse-shoe tossing. I think once or twice they tried to have some kind of a ball game in the field but that wasn't the norm. The women would do a lot of catching up on events that had transpired since last they saw or talked with each other and the kids headed to the two pools.

Because of the large size of our group; us younger kids pretty much filled the smaller pool while the older teens enjoyed the deeper pool. Once the fun started we didn't care who joined in. Kids who were alone became distant cousins for a short while. We'd line up for the slide, or plop our behinds in rented inner tubes for floating, or tip over the tube of unsuspecting cousins. Some of the bigger kids would stand in the shallow end and toss younger cousins into the air, allowing them to land in a huge splash. The cry of "me next" could be heard far into the distance. We had swimming races and battles were fought to dislodge a cousin from the shoulder's of his water horse and the really good swimmers had to prove how far they could swim under water without breathing.

Listening to one of our elder relatives talking about family history and then the meal prayer was lead to a magnificent feast. My Mom was a wonderful cook but so were the other ladies and this was the time to taste different things. You would never find a bucket of KFC or Church's chicken on the tables. These ladies fried their own and most added their own personal touch. The earlier games the guys had played were mere child's play compared to the cooking contest the women were having. No prizes were given out for winners but at the end of the meal, those with empty pots beamed with pride. I did my best to make them all winners.

The rule of not swimming for 30 minutes after eating was strictly enforced. Moms, Aunts and Grandmothers keep a watch on the kids and would remind us that we couldn't swim for 30 minutes. Since I was a skinny kid with hollow legs and big feet, I was know to try lots of the different foods and deserts. It wasn't unusual for me to make numerous hits, especially on the different chocolate cakes and fruit cobblers. After each hit, someone would tack on an additional 30 minutes . . . If I wasn't careful it could be mid afternoon before I was allowed to swim again.

My Grandfathers side of the family had about the same kind of reunions except they were held way way way back in the woods. The Big Sandy area I think. About the only difference was we swam in a creek rather than the swimming pool , brought our own tire tubes and did the buddy system check from time to time. Some of the family, men and women, would try their luck at fishing way up stream from the swimming hole. Down stream was a ost cause. Since our huge families were often connected through marriages, many of the same people attended both reunions.

This probably isn't the kind of memories you were looking for but as I sat thinking back, these seemed to be some of the most satisfying ones for me. Thank you ...... Ron Eller class of '63