THE BIG REUNION

After spending several days in Errington at my brother Charlie’s, we moved down to Duncan on July 30^th. We spent two nights at Garry and Barb’s and were fortunate to be able to plug into hydro to run the air conditioner. One day Garry and I walked into the Kinsol trestle which is an amazing old marvel. It is 125 feet tall and 615 feet long. There is a concerted effort to restore it so it can be used as part of the Trans Canada Trail. Government has committed to $4,000,000 and fund raising is underway for a further $1,700,000. On July 31^st, we were invited to their son Al’s for a birthday BBQ. Great meal and a darn nice house they just bought.

When we moved to the reunion site on August 1^st, Garry lent us his generator so we were able to keep Aileen and the cat cool as the weather was fairly hot. While attendance was far less than I expected, there was a good crowd and representation from many branches of the family. There are close to a hundred people in the group shot and lots had left before or came after. There was lots of visiting in the shade by the campers and it was fun meeting many unknown relatives and meeting others after 50 plus years. It was the 125^th anniversary of my great grandfather’s arrival in the Cowichan Valley from Scotland. He, a brother and a sister were actually heading for New Zealand and stopped off to attend the local Fall Fair. They were so impressed with the quality of the produce and friendly residents they decided to go no further. William, my forebear, had 7 daughters and at least five of the daughter’s descendants were in attendance. I made and sold 10 13x19 inch prints of the group shot on Sunday morning using up my mat and glossy paper. One of the highlights of the Saturday was one of the younger relatives who had just returned from a highland dance competition in Scotland and a friend who gave us a dance exhibition complete with a very accomplished bagpiper. The real highlight was many of us sitting in a circle sharing memories or thoughts on family or things of interest to family. The idea was similar to having a talking stick where only the person with the stick is permitted to speak. Our stick was invisible but fairly effective. Because of our association with the family Drummond, it was mentioned we are 23^rd or 24^th cousins to the Queen of England. Mind you, no bragging as we are probably more closely related to a lot of worse people!

Richard and Georgia (our son and grand daughter) are with us for a few days. Sunday afternoon we moved back to Garry and Barb’s for one night. After setting up the trailer, we went to Fuller’s Lake at Chemainus where we met our daughter Bev and Kevin for a swim. Later, they took us for Chinese supper in Chemainus. A, R, G and I stopped at Al’s on the way home as Al and Richard hadn’t seen each other in about 25 years.

On Monday we moved back to Charlie’s for a couple nights. We went and visited my parents in the care home Monday afternoon and A, R and G went in again on Tuesday. I was a little undisposed for awhile in the afternoon. R and I had gone to Nanaimo in the morning for paper and ink. I made a few more prints and ran off a bunch of CDs to give to various family members.

This morning we moved further up Island. We visited our friends Perry and Lynda in Cumberland. They enjoy seeing R and G as Richard was great friends with their son many years ago. We are parked tonight in Aileen’s cousin in law Bill’s driveway just south of Campbell River. Tomorrow we will drive R and G back down to Buckley Bay to meet daughter in law Robin and they will then go across to Hornby Island for a few days at Robin’s sister’s. We then plan to drive up to Port McNeill to visit family for several days. The weather is cooling off and rain is forecast. Hopefully not too much as northern Vancouver Island can be pretty wet.