Just My Memories

Mother's Day night, my dad checked in the hospital with pneumonia. I left Monday to stay for the week. We brought him home Wednesday night. There was a surprise birthday party for one of my cousins 70th (J.E.) the following Sunday, so I stayed for it, headed home from there.That was my dad's first day out. We went to church, then to the party in Ball, La. just north of Pineville. Shocked that no one else from the family went to this. We were the only family that showed up. This could have served as a family reunion as well.

About a month later, I was back in Monroe for the Girod Reunion. I love going to reunions and catching up on all their lives, reminiscing old times. We were missing quite a few, this year. Thankfully we are able to rent the air-conditioned fellowship hall at the community's Bethany Baptist Church. Same price as renting a pavilion outdoors at Kiroli Park in hot hot weather.

I have very fond memories of the reunions being held at Bernstein Park and Zoo. In those days, all of us cousins would run free over to the zoo and the playground. Older cousins watching the younger cousins. It must have been hot then too, but it never slowed us down. Many years, I would go home with an aunt and family for a 2 week stay. If VBS was not over yet, then I'd have to wait to go. The zoo had an elephant that made the national news a few years back. Now, see if I had been blogging then, I would have written about it, but as it is, I don't remember. I know she was old and she was being moved somewhere else to be cared for. As I've said before, the blogs are more for my memory bank.

As I write this, being July 4th, our Wilks reunions have always been held on this date. The cousin who took these over was very sick last year at this time and passed away not long after. Needless to say, no one has picked up the responsiblity of holding it since. I miss seeing my family from that side. There's another one on my dad's mother's side on the first Sunday of June held at an old country church and cemetery, but my parents are the only ones I know that go. Don't know all the distant kinfolk. Wayne and I make a day-trip sometimes and go, mostly for my parents. The church members give up the church for the day. When I was a child, most of the Wilks family went to this, so us cousins would have a good time together. The dinner was always held outside under the trees with make-shift tables nailed to the trees. Literally it was the old fashioned "Dinner on the Ground".

I am so grateful I grew up in a family oriented environment. There is history from all of these families documented and still being gathered today. My sister is enjoying researching our family's past.

Father's Day was the next Sunday, so more family time was enjoyed. Otherwise, it's been a rather lazy hot dry month.

The month ends with Wayne's birthday (the 30th) turning him over to the big 60. We went over the following Saturday at Mark and Lisa's for swimming and grilling steaks. We pitched in together to give him a grillmaster grill for his own. Hoping this will spur some good cookouts at home like we used to have.

So today, July 4th has not been anything to shout about as far as activity around here. Wayne got called out to work b/c of an oil-spill and is still out as I write. Mary Ann and I went to Tailgators and shared a super good hamburger and fries.