Hollifield Family Reunion Essay

Every year nearly the last week of July my fathers family all meets for a two day reunion in the small town of spruce Pine, North Carolina. Hollifields have resided in the area for oer 100 years There are many streets named after us and if youre walking around town some pack even let on youre a Hollifield just by looking at you. Although it is only two days long, the reunion is something I cherish deep in my heart, for its the only time I outfox to see my fathers family.One iniquity in 1974, my grandpa and a few other family members were sit down around reminiscing about their childhood. They were laughing at all the memories and good times theyve had and all the trouble they got into. My grandpa was discovering everyone he had been thinking of a panache that everyone could make some time to all come together for a couple days once every year. His uncle told him that they should start a family reunion. So head start in July of 1974 the annual Hollifield reunion began. Every one gets to the hotel Friday night and gets settled in and reacquainted a deal out of hugging, kissing, laughing, and eating. My baby and I get our own hotel room so close to of our cousins bring sleeping bags and stay both nights in our room. We maunder about what weve all done that year, whos dating who, what kind of cars weve bought we pretty much talk each others ears off. The next morning we all get up and find somewhere to eat and walk around town.Downtown Spruce Pine is absolutely beautiful. There are flowers and pine trees growing everywhere, and you can smell all the bakeries and barbeque pits. There are little stores with antiques and instruments, florists, wedding hook shops, and candy stores. It could go from 90 degrees with the sun shining to a humid rain in a matter of minutes. When it rains you can smell it a c times better than in California. After we walk through town we get to a huge, long wooden bridge. Its been there for years and underneath it flows a beaut iful creek and a park filled with laughing children frolicking in the sunlight. We normally go to the park and messaround on everything and then make our way to the creek. You have to go down a steep hill made of dirt and freckled with little patches of bright green grass. The boys perplex crawdads and crayfish while us girls dip our feet in the clear chilly water and wait for the train to pass.The train is large and used to transport char and freight. Personally, the train is one of my favorite parts of Spruce Pine. Its loud yet still soothing and controlled. After a few hours the rest of the family begins to delegate up at the park with fresh, good old-fashioned southern food. They unload the cars of barbeque, slaw, potatoes, mac and cheese, collard greens, green beans, pasta salads, and more desert than any amount of people should ever consume. Following our meal is the baseball game. The whole family plays and we get chosen randomly for two teams. In the end my grandpa tells us that everyone won and an most valuable player is chosen from each team who receives a golden trophy of a boy or girl with a tiny body and huge head, memory a baseball bat. We all clean up then head back to the hotel to get swimsuits and drive over to the pool. A few hours into swimming we adjudicate to go to the hotel and shower then all the kids find a place to eat supper.Upon leaving the restaurant someone informs us that the annual hide-n-seek game has begun. We press off running towards the hotel to find a hiding place while the person chosen as it stays and counts for 5 minutes. The game involves a lot of pushing, shoving, screaming, laughing, and those little chills you get when youve found a place and you know that any second you could be found. After the game we all head back to my sister and Is room and hang out. We stay up all night talking about everything that happened, who did the most embarrassing thing, which was the funniest, and other things we had encountere d that day. As the night goes by we start to notice our time is almost up. Most of my cousins live in NC so they see each other all the time, but as the hours pass my sister and I notice that our time in NC is almost over that well have to wait yet another slow, California year in advance we get back to the peaceful happiness of NC. Around 9 in the morning our cousins head back to their rooms to get make believe for our last meal together.For breakfast Sunday morning the whole family fills the back room of The Western Sizzler. Western Sizzler may be the best place to get breakfast ever. Its is 3 large buffet tables covered in bacon, sausage, ham, eggs,fruit, veggies, pancakes, waffles, biscuits and gravy, yogurt, granola, hash browns, country potatoes, varieties of juices, milks, sodas. And at the end there is a huge confection bar. We eat and talk and talk and eat. And eat some more and then a little bit more. We catch up with some of the older members of the family and tell the m what we did all weekend. My aunt Vicki walks around and takes millions of pictures with her big nice camera that has a flash that could blind the whole family at the same time. When everyone has finished my grandpa stands up and talks about all the great things that have gone on during the weekend, all the graduates and birthdays, all the births and deaths. We end the reunion by hugging and some let out (I wont lie Im one of the criers).If my family had never got the idea to have a reunion, I dont know when I would ever see them. The reunion brings us together in a quick two day span filled with great food, laughter, and all around happiness. It seems like when were all together nothing can go wrong. My cousins and I have vowed that when our time comes, we will carry on the tradition of the Hollifield Family reunification until the day we die.