I don’t know about you but family means a lot to me. Not all family members are stellar, not worthy of mention but they are family.
My husband’s family has a reunion every year on the same Sunday in July, and though its been held at different places, for the past ten or more years its held at a State Park. Organization is simple, someone rents the pavilion, and lets major family members know for sure the date and location. Someone provides a few simple games for the children (there’s boating on the lake, too), and a notebook for attendance and update in contact information. A collection ($5 for each family group) is taken to pay for the next years rental, and some years they have enough money left over to pay several years. It is a covered dish picnic, with each family providing a meat, vegetable, and desert dish and drinks that would feed their attending members. Upwards of fifty family members attend, coming from as far away as Florida (we are in Pennsylvania). It’s a great time to catch up and get reacquainted with aunts, uncles and cousins.
What has this to do with the Civil War? A lot. In the nineteenth century, these yearly gatherings weren’t necessary as families were closely involved with each other most of the time. Living near the same towns, they gathered for church meetings, quilting bees, and other community doings. Even the children’s schooling was centered around the community, and family needs. Allowing the children the summer “off” is a throw back to that time and need. The children helped with the farming chores during the growing and harvest times. They helped with the butchering, canning and smoking of meats.
Folks had to rely on their families for help and support. Not just their blood relations, but their church and community families. They helped their neighbors with harvests, wives helped other wives when babies were born, or when someone was ill. They kept an eye out for each other. They didn’t have hospitals in every town, nor stores for produce and food products. They grew and processed these themselves. They killed the stock, cleaned and prepared it for storage and eating. How many of us today know how that was done? Only those involved in the modern day versions, or those old enough to remember.
I’d love to hear your early experiences with family.
Tags: civil war, family life, family reunion, nineteenth century life
