Previous Reunions...

Mother and Stephen, Mary and Ellen, and - I presume - Paul and Lee have all returned home from the Furey family reunion in northeastern Ohio last weekend. I didn't go, though I wish I had. I should have known I'd feel this way. The previous reunions - in 1985 and 1996 - were at a volunteer fire department hall in Canton (I believe) and at Uncle Louis' home, repectively, where this latest encore took place. Of course, since I wasn't there, I have no pictures from last weekend. The purpose of this post is to "prime the pump" as it were, hoping to nudge one or more of my siblings - or cousins - to share some of their pics.

Most of the following are from 1985, when Uncle Arthur still lived on the Farm, and the Parker contingent stayed in a cabin at Atwood Lake.

First order of the day is to visit Uncle Arthur at the farm and let the kids see the barn where we played when we were their age.

After we let them run wild for awhile and bleed off excess energy by climbing on the tractor and chasing each other with sticks...

...we got them to sit still for a few shots...

...visited with Uncle Arthur, had some lunch and cleaned up.

At the VFD hall, we took group photos with various configurations. The picture above shows Ellen and Angela, et al, milling about smartly during the Chinese fire drill. The shot below happens to be Mom's generation and mine. I like this particular version of it, wherein Daniel is being directed by his mother and several of his aunts to "Exit, stage left".

Of course, in the cabin at Atwood it took a while each morning to build up enough steam to get the family moving in unison. Above, a young Angela has a cig while David wakes up Grover. I thought all this time it was Oscar the Grouch; much to David's disgust, my Dad always referred to it as "that purple worm".

It was crowded in the cabin, but David and Joey didn't really have to sleep on the shelves of the TV table.

We got them fed and corralled, then worked on getting them dressed for the day...

...then took a few more pictures and went on about our business.

These 1996 pictures, except the last group shot, were taken at the farm (shortly after Uncle Arthur moved out, I believe). The last one was taken in Uncle Louis' back yard. It occurs to me - since I don't see my kids - that I missed this one too, so I'm not sure who the photographer was. I was driving my family up the coast highway in Queensland, Australia...

Mary, Angela, and Cathie gave Drew and some others a tour of the barn...

...then gathered on the front lawn of the farm house for a casual group shot.

Ellen and Allison, next to the driveway, pose across the road from the barn.

Richard and company, Melissa, Daniel and Andrew in this case, all look ready to eat again. Time to load up and head back to Malvern.

This is the Parker subset of revelers, 'cept those in Oz. Also missing in action is Paul's and Lee's daughter, Lauren. I don't know whose dog that is.

As I said, I hope we'll see some of the 2010 pictures soon. In the meantime, Stephen has posted a great painting he just finished of St Philip Neri Catholic Church in Dungannon.