State of the Reunion

We're in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania for the annual family reunion. Not my family, but Linda's. Yet somehow it feels like my family.

Last night we went to a cookout at Tommy's house - part of the long tradition of this weekend. We haven't attended the reunion for 14 years, but within minutes Ed whom I didn't recall was saying to me, "You're not really that guy from Australia who made martinis, are you? He was tall and thin. Obviously they feed you well in Australia."

I do vaguely recall that Dave and I made martinis 14 years ago, and I know I am the only guy from Australia to ever attend this event. I was never tall and thin. It's interesting that after 14 years Ed remembers the martinis, but not me. Perhaps I didn't make them well enough. Or too well. One or the other, I suppose.

It was only a few minutes later that Phyllis recalled for everyone within earshot how I had made an atrocious drive on the first tee of the family golf tournament. It was a bad shot. OK, it was horrible. The ball went a grand total of about 20 yards, only 2 or 3 of which were down the fairway. The rest of the distance was off to the right and into a bush.

That is actually quite unique for me. When I was golfing most of my drives went off to the left. It didn't help that they were making a video of everyone's first drives, and my effort became the highlight reel that day as people watched it over and over. But no matter, what is endearing is that Phyllis can still remember that bad drive after more than 20 years. And loves to tell everyone about it.

As I said, somehow this reunion feels like it's my family.

And speaking of families, today is Peg's 91st birthday. What a wonderful way to spend it, catching up with so many of her family.

Besides being a great mother-in-law, Peg is also my biggest fan. Last night there were about seven of us sitting around chatting, and Joanne asked if anyone had read her cooking blog. Shortly thereafter, Peg told everyone, "Don writes a blog nearly every day, and it's great. It's the first thing I read when I go on the computer."

Tommy thought for a second and said he only read a couple of blogs and didn't really have time for more. Joanne decided we'd talked about blogs long enough and changed the subject, and my chance to increase my readers into the double digits fell by the wayside. But it was nice of Peg to try. As the old song goes, "We belong to a mutual admiration society."

More reunion this afternoon, and David and I have decided to try to replicate the Bloody Marys we discovered at Dick's Place in Mendocino for the group. We'll see how Ed feels about those cocktails 14 years from now.