Family Reunions...the memories

Family reunions in Pineland, SC when grandma Irene was still alive went a little something like this...ALL her kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and church members from Gillison Branch Baptist would descend to a little blue house with a rusted tin roof down a dirt road we affectionately called “The Hill”. Grandma Irene would wake up before the crack of dawn; you knew this because how she walked her feet drugged across the floor. She would then wake everyone else up throughout the house with this unexplainable aroma coming from out of her kitchen. It wasn’t just your typical breakfast smell. Her homemade biscuits were beyond ordinary they had a whole lot of “extra” to them. She took that recipe straight outta God’s personal cookbook. Over breakfast all my female cousins picked grandma’s brain trying to figure out how she made them so fluffy; so tasteful. What was her secret?

After breakfast it was then time to prepare for the big shindig (Google it). Hopefully, somebody paid Donald Stevenson (the fruit man) to come cut our yards. Every aunt and cousin was responsible for making their best dish. My cousins would typically head somewhere to go get the bushels of crabs. I was in charge of cleaning the carport area because that was where the magic show happened. The magic show typically involved whoever cooked the best batch of crabs from the previous get together. But everyone in my family where like Houdini when it came to making a mean low country boil. They threw all these different types of seasonings and ingredients into a big pot with little water but what seemed like a 12 pack of beer. When the water seemed perfect and the smell tickled our nostrils it was then time for those blue crabs to meet their maker. After what felt like took forever those blue crabs were now a bright orange. The magic show was a huge success. The magician would then take her prop (the crabs) and dumped in the middle of the table. At this point, it was every man (woman) for themselves and God for us all. I would usually grab 2 at a time because the elders in my family had first dibs. Over a cold soda for me and cold beer for the adults we created our own piles of shells over family stories. We heard these same stories over and over but they always seemed funny. Music would be blasting out the speakers and the spades table was always litt. My cousins and I use to play the most competitive basketball games and the one uncle who couldn’t shoot always came over to brag about what he did in his glory days. We just laughed and paid him no mind. See, family reunions back then just felt different.

As summer begins to fades away never allow those memories in your heart to fade away. Since, my grandmother passing in February 2005 these family reunions have become extinct. Cherish those special moments with your family because at the end of the day...there is nothing like FAMILY!