Our family has developed some lasting traditions. Family Picnics is one of them.
Each year on Memorial Day and Labor Day, we have been invited to my sister Joyce and Ken’s home
for a picnic in their large lovely rolling yard, with shade trees and play equipment for the children to climb on. After these many years they are unable to host such a big crowd, because of illness and aging. I remember first going there soon after they were married some sixty years ago, for Easter egg hunts. They would hide the eggs in the shrubbery across the yard, so the children could run down the hill and find them. Here are Joyce & Ken welcoming folks to one of those picnic events recently. Ken died early on July 1, 2024.
Another sister, Rita and her husband, Bill, moved to a big cattle farm at the end of Kenton County, with a lake, fields, and big yard. Fifty-three years ago, was the first picnic there, always scheduled for the Sunday closest to July 4th. They set up a big tent, for the food and some folks to sit and play cards, etc.; 2 volleyball courts; golfing range; bean-toss area; swimming; and of course, the famous hayride that was driven around the farm
all day long, until fireworks time in the evening. Some families bring their own smaller tents and set them up overlooking the lake.
In 2021 the family presented their parents with a 50-Year Plaque to hang on the barn honoring the many years of offering this annual picnic for his family and hers. That could total a few hundred persons. Here you see just their big family in the hay wagon on that event.
On New Year’s Day each year we gather at my brother Joe and Lise’s home. They have a large two-story home, in Bromley, with room for a hundred folks or more. It is like a winter-time picnic event.
We are all grateful for all these opportunities to gather and enjoy each other and celebrate Birthdays and Anniversaries that have happened around each event. These verses express my gratitude for these events:
No one can say, “This is not as good as that.”
For everything proves good in its appointed time.
So now sing praise with all your heart and voice
and bless the name of the Almighty.”
Sirach 39:34-35.
July 3, 2024