The flavors of a family …

It seems like, as we move through these days of smartphones and wi-fi and such, we tend to distance ourselves from what used to be accepted traditions, doesn’t it?

Like, oh, family reunions, for example.

Certainly some of us tend to fall off that wagon now and then, and there’s usually a genuinely acceptable reason when you can’t make it to that once-a-year gathering, and it seems the older you get the harder it is to make yourself go anywhere, truth be told.

But then you start thinking about how it’d be nice to see that cousin or uncle or nephew at something other than a funeral and you start leaning toward pushing those roadblocks down and getting over to that get-together at least one more time.

Then, of course, there’s always the food, which in itself is a major motivator, particularly if you take the time to remember some of your favorite contributions from that relative you just know still masters the art of a particular dish.

Sadly, those culinary memories fade into a past you can’t reclaim as the years take their toll and it makes you realize you’d best take advantage of that chapter in your life while you can.

I’ve been blessed throughout my lifetime to have had two significant family gatherings, one on my mother’s side, the other on my daddy’s, that stir memorable recollections of times when life seemed gentler and less troubled.

My mother’s clan would assemble every June on the grounds of Chopped Oak Baptist Church down in Toccoa, Georgia, where life seemed less busy and everybody under those old oak trees was genuinely glad to see you and sure wanted you to be well-fed before you got back on the road to the ‘big city’.

To this day I recall my favorite selection on that vast table of home-cooked wonders was my cousin Ollie Belle’s palm-sized, butter-drenched fried apple pies, a pile of goodness that disappeared quickly and was well worth the nearly three-hour drive to savor, even if you ended up with only one or two.

And the Burgess family reunion has been no slouch in that department, either.

Each October for decades we’ve gathered in the activity building at May’s Chapel United Methodist Church, across the road in Maiden, N.C., from the house where my father was born.

Mama loved to serve up her unbelievable potato salad that she’d set out proudly on the long food table, sometimes accompanied by a big platter of deviled eggs, and there was little doubt it would vanish before the day was done.

This year’s version of that giant family buffet was no exception, with its amazing variety of casseroles and fried chicken and meat loaf and macaroni and cheese and so many other dishes you couldn’t count ‘em all.

Not to mention the dessert table, where we were blessed with bowls and platters of treats like the best banana pudding you’d ever put in your mouth or maybe an incredibly creative chocolate éclair concoction fit for a king there among the pies and cakes and such.

That and it was genuinely nice, too, that you could visit with so many smiling relatives and get caught up without thinking about all the bad things going on around us, even if just for an afternoon before you had to get back to reality.

There’s a lot to be said for family reunions, my friends, and I hope you get to enjoy a few in your universe.

Time is all we’ve got, and time spent with family is priceless.

And, well, the food’s a pretty decent punctuation mark.

There are no flavors better than those created to share with people who love you and who are genuinely glad to see you.

Let’s hear an ‘amen’.