Atkins Family Reunion

Several months ago, Grandmother invited us to the first ever Atkins family reunion, and since we love Grandmother, we agreed to attend. The reunion was in Clay, LA this past weekend at the Methodist church. This was no Bott reunion, but let me tell the whole story for those who were unable to attend.

First off, we decided that since I had to be at church both Friday night and Sunday morning, we would drive over early Saturday and home Saturday night. That turned out to be not as bad as it could have been. We got up pretty early on Saturday to try and get out of the house by 6am. We didn't quite make it. We pulled out of the driveway at 6:25am.

I knew that Dad was following the same strategy, so when we got to the Highway 110 exit on I-20, I gave him a call. Let's take an aside to discuss some Texas geography before I tell you any more of this story. Dad lives in The Colony which is a good 30-45 minutes west of my house. Highway 110 is about 15 minutes west of Lindale. Gladewater is about 20 minutes east of Lindale. So, back to the story. I called Dad's cell when I got to the Highway 110 exit to see how they were doing. I commented that we had gotten off to a late start and didn't get out of the driveway until about 6:25am. He said the same thing happened to them and they didn't get started until 6:30am. So, I figure Dad must be pretty close. He drives faster than I do, he's probably not too far behind me.

Dad tells me that he just passed the Gladewater exit. He's approximately 30 minutes ahead of me! Unbelievable! Needless to say, Dad arrived ahead of us, and just to be sure that we didn't have to read road signs, read directions, and try to drive all at the same time, he called about four times after he got to Ruston to give us turn-by-turn directions to the church. Sometimes there's no question about his parentage. J

After we arrived, we went into the church sanctuary where all of the attendees were seated with one gentleman at the lectern reading through the family tree and having different branches that were present tell about their family. Grandmother let Dad introduce his family, and he did fairly well other than when he forgot about Caci. The rest of the room proceeded to tell of their branches, and the food in the next room was getting colder and colder by the minute.

Next up, it was time to share fond memories. Grandmother stood to share her memory which went about like this:

When I was a little girl, I remember visiting my grandmother and grandfather, and I remember Grandmother calling us all to breakfast. When I went to the table, I noticed that all of the dishes were bottom side up and the chairs were pushed in. I thought that was kind of strange. Later at lunch, Grandmother called us again and it was the same thing. All of the dishes were bottom side up and the chairs were pushed in. Again, I wondered about that. Then at supper, I noticed it a third time, and having that Atkins curiosity, I asked my Grandmother about it. I asked her why the dishes were always bottom side up and the chairs were pushed in. Grandmother said that was an excellent question, and then Grandfather came in and said grace.

I thought I missed part of the story, but Jeffrey confirmed that that was the whole deal. So, why were the dishes bottom side up? Who knows.

So, after everyone finished sharing memories, they read the names of those that died, we heard a lady sing, they passed out door prizes, and then we got to eat. It was like a church service, and it was not easy keeping the kids occupied while we waited for the food. In the midst of all that Lynn (my stepmother) leaned over and asked if all family reunions were like this. I told her that when you've gotten together every year for 30+ years like the Botts, you pretty much just eat and visit all day.

Anyway, we finally got to eat, and the kids were all "starving." Leah and the girls sat outside, and I chose to sit inside with Grandmother. We had a nice visit over lunch and then I went outside to find my wife and kids. What I found out there, though, was my dad taking pictures of a shack. I asked him why he was taking pictures of it, and he said that it was the house he lived in when he was little. Interesting. I never remembered hearing about him living in a shack before, but maybe I just wasn't paying that good of attention growing up. Regardless, I'm sure he got some good pics once he hopped the fence, went through a gate, and got onto the property. I saw a herd of goats coming from where I was sitting and thought that I might get nearly as good a show as when he hopped a fence on the golf course, but the goats seemed to just ignore him. Oh, well, it could've been good. J

It didn't last much longer than a few hours, and we headed out about 2pm to go back to Dallas. On the way, we saw a B-52 doing touch and go at Barksdale, and we stopped a park I know that's at the end of the runway to watch for a little bit. The kids loved being that close to such a huge airplane. After we continued on our way, we stopped by Caci's house to see the remodeling and visit with the kids. It was a nice visit and the kids all had fun playing a little baseball in the backyard. Caci had to get to Tyler and we had to get to Dallas, though, so we were only there for about an hour.

We ended up getting home about 9:30pm and everyone went to straight to bed. It was a long day, but it was a lot of fun.