Family Reunion

Trip Start Jul 13, 2010

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of United States Lake Butler, Florida
Monday, December 27, 2010

Went on a road trip to North Central Florida for a big family reunion. About sixty people were there for the event in the week after Christmas and before New Year's. Meme and her sister and brothers, my great aunt and uncles, are great storytellers. Matt and I had the opportunity to meet some third and fourth cousins at the dinner, too.

There is a museum in Lake Butler that is named for my great-aunt Marjorie, the historian. My great-uncle Bill gave us a private tour one morning, explaining the collections of old rifles, bayonettes, farm equipment, kitchen gadgets, photos, shipbuilding raw material, license plates, etc.

Aunt Marjorie has an exceptional doll collection at her house that she showed us. Uncle Bill also gave us the tour of his cultivated property, with its fig and citrus trees, gardens, pond and barn

the museum in the townsend building

. And Uncle Paige got the award for best storytelling on this trip. His account of his misadventures with his slingshot back in the day had Matt and me chuckling for days afterwards at the mere recollection of the refrain, 'but I tell you what, I could shoot that thing!' Apparently, he once shot a train with the thing and got into a bit of trouble.

Of the four siblings, Meme travelled the farthest to be there for the event, making the drive from Mississippi to Florida. She's a genuine world traveller, having also made the trek to Italy with Mom and my aunts, then to France to visit me. Talk about an inspiration for me with this travelogue.

I don't have any copies of the group photos from this yet, so have a look at some photos of the locales.

Slideshow