Friday, June 26, 2009

Is it time to say goodbye?

When is it time to acknowledge the death of a family tradition? My family has been going to the same lake every summer, for as long as I can remember, for a family reunion. My aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts and great uncles, cousins removed several times, second cousins...you get the idea. We all gather to eat, look at each other across the pavilion and realize we have never ever ever talked to each other in our lives.
This is what it has evolved into.
When I was little the reunions were a blast. My grandpa would arrange games that were played by everyone, especially the kids. Water balloon fights, sack races, three legged races, pinatas every year, swimming, watermelon seed spitting contests (we only had this because my aunts are wicked good at this, I suck), Frisbee games, baseball games, stuff like that was arranged every year. Now that my grandfather is older and not able to handle the arrangements, nothing gets done. I tried to make some fun stuff happen last year, but no one was interested in helping me.
So as the family reunion rolls around again this year I find that I have less than zero interest in going, and I am not the only one. Most of my great aunts and uncles don't feel like driving up for the reunion, the only one of their generation attending is my grandpa. This means most of their (great aunts and uncles) children probably will not attend. Yeah, that leaves my aunts, uncles and cousins, all of whom I see on a regular basis. Not so much a family reunion as a family get together. I feel no real need to go, add the fact that it is over an hour away and I feel even less need to go.
So the question is when do you declare a family tradition dead, and not worth carrying on as a tradition anymore? When half the people stop showing up for it. When it is no longer the joyous occasion it used to be and has turned into a hassle? When the many generations seem to just not care about getting together anymore it just doesn't seem worth it. Any thoughts?

2 comments:

Rachel said...

My family used to have similar reunions every 3 years. After the last one, we all agreed it was a lot of work and decided to change it to every 5 years. Maybe you guys should stop having it annually.

JoAnna said...

I dont know Rachel, if we did if 5 years from now I dont think anyone from my grandfather's generation would be alive to see it happen:) So maybe every other year at the least. I think we are going to start having summer picnic type things with just our immediate family which will be nice.