Big Families

*A small part of Our Generation--the Grands














*Granny as a young woman





















*The Original Eleven with Granny and Granpa, circa 1968











I am sitting here on the pull out hide-a-bed in the guest room of my Uncle Doug and Aunt Edie's home here in Denver. It is Friday night, however, it'll become Saturday in just maybe thirty minutes. The whole clan has gathered to celebrate Granny's life. It is really nice to be here with this family.
Because Daddy was in the Air Force, we always lived in different places. We moved. a lot.
From birth to ten years old, I lived in all these places:

1. Rome, New York (for six days!)
2. Aurora, Colorado on Lowry Air Force Base.
3. Arlington, Texas and New London, Texas for a little while.
4. Aurora, Colorado, again.
5. Bangkok, Thailand for about 2 1/2 years.
6. Satellite Beach, Florida (Patrick Air Force Base)
7. Houston, Texas (Grandmommy and Pop's home)
8. Universal City, Texas.

We moved to "U.C." shortly after I turned ten years old. As our times came, each of us kids moved out, but--a fact which is so rare with military families--we, as a family, lived at 422 for 21 years. I left 8 1/2 years after we moved there. I joined the Air Force and was gone for 4 years, coming back now and then to our home for short vacations.

Since our life was so topsy turvy, we seldom made it home to Denver. Nowadays, we meet every three to four years for a family reunion.

So here we are this weekend, having what could be considered a very special family reunion. We'll be going to Daniel's park at 7:55 a.m. in the morning to eat breakfast made on the grill out there in the fresh air. We'll also have a short memorial Granny. This place--Daniel's Park--is a place of memory and history for our family. Not only during family reunions over the past many years, but also the Original Eleven went there many, many times. It is part of the culture of being Peay.

I remember watching Uncle Thomas making pancakes on the grill out there. It was--I believe--one of the first times I ever had whole wheat pancakes. They are now my favorite kind of pancakes, better than IHOP's harvest grain even! Whenever I eat whole wheat pancakes, I think of Uncle Thomas for a moment. That memory of looking up at him and watching him make whole wheat pancakes on the grill is my favorite one of him.

Daniel's park is just part of the being a Peay. It seems to me that having Granny's Memorial there is just about perfect. After Granny's Memorial, we'll all be heading over to 3003 to have what has been styled "The Last Thanksgiving." Of course, it wont' be the last Thanksgiving there, but it will be the last Peay Thanksgiving. We will be having a traditional Thankgiving dinner complete with Turkey and mashed potatoes and gizzard gravy and all the other special parts of that kind of dinner. Sadly, Peay family cranberry salad will not make an appearance because there are no cranberries available in the supermarkets. I'll miss it. It is definitely yum-dilly-icious.

I imagine the family fellowhsip tomorrow will be lovely and unique. Being with the Peay's--en masse--is always so interesting. We didn't see them too awful much growing up. Usually holidays and such were spent with Daddy's family--usually just Grandmommy and Pops. Sometimes Aunt Gail and her sons, Charlie and Chris would visit then, but mostly not.

Needless to say, there weren't a ton of people at these Ford events. Max was--maybe--twelve. At Peay gathering, however, an army attended even just the "Original Generation"--Granny and Grandpa's children were eleven people. They alone were nearly more than the max at Ford Thanksgivings.
The Original 11 had--between them--19 if I'm counting correctly. These nineteen (my generation) have had--so far--9 children between them. I'm sure more are on the way eventually. In fact, Marcia is 8 months pregnant. And happily, the first one of the next generation arrived earlier this week. On the 5th, my niece, Amelia, gave birth to the first child of the "great-great" generation.

So, you can imagine, when we all get together--with husbands and wives and fiances, and children etc., it is quite a crowd. It is above 50 people. It is a hullabaloo. It is chaos. It is crazy. It is loud. It is hectic. It is wonderful. There is just something special about big families--something extra special.

Though the reason for our gathering this weekend is partially sad (We will miss our mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great grandmother), we know she lived a long--93 years, dude!--hopefully mostly happy life.

She was crazy and wonderful and thought outside the box and she made us laugh and made us think and I'll miss her special raspy voice, and her just plain special "Granny-ness."

I'm so glad I can remember it and I'm so glad I can remember her. And I'm so glad that I'm part of this large, noisy, kooky, wonderful family which she and Grandpa (and God) created! Life is good and I"m the luckiest girl in the world to have come from the places I have. :)