Back when family reunions were fun - in other words when I was a teen - the Ridnour Cousins Reunion was held the first Sunday in October. Family members took turns hosting. With the exception of one family, which lived in Missouri, we never traveled far from home.
This picture of my Aunt Evelyn's family was taken when we hosted the reunion in 1957. I knew my first cousins on Mom's side of the family very well - we saw each other at a family dinner at least once a month at at Grandpa & Grandma Ridnour's.
The reunions included the families of my Grandpa Joe's sisters, Aunt Florence and Aunt Lottie - so those kids we didn't know quite as well, but at least we saw them once a year and got acquainted. Of course there were a few like the Haley boys, Don, Dave & Tom, the Travis kids, Ron, Russ, Shirley & Janiece, the Palmer's, Dale, Marv & Donna, and the Haley girls, Connie, Jolene & Cheryl that we knew well because they were neighbors and/or we went to high school with them.
Eventually no one wanted the extra work of hosting and the reunion site was moved to Grove Park in Corning. Someone was delegated to get there early and nab the shelter. Besides its central location, this was also the Play Park where all the swings, slides, merry-go-rounds and monkey bars were located which gave the little kids something to do while the adults visited after the noon meal.
It got to the point few of the young married with children cousins attended and eventually this Ridnour Cousins Reunion dwindled away. The picture of my Aunt Evelyn, Mom (Ruth), Grandma Delphia and Aunt Lois was taken one of the last times we had the get-together at the park in Corning.
In the meantime some more distant cousins had gotten ambitious and began the 3R Family Reunion. They had done a lot of family research and made the connections between the various spellings of Ridnour, Ritnour and Ridenour. Yes, we were all related. A newsletter was started. More and more distant family members were tracked down. The 3 was dropped and it became R Family Reunion as more spellings of the name were discovered. People came from all over the country - Washington, Oregon, Montana, Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania (where our ancestors originally settled when they came to America), Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, of course, and some other states I've probably left out.
The gathering place for the two-day event was the community center in Corning. Once again, it was fun - interesting to meet new relatives from all over, exciting to add to the family tree as information was gleaned from research others had done, fascinating to see pictures of those long ago great-great-great-etc. forebears. Then, too, this group began dwindling down. The picture above is of the last time the reunion was held in Corning.
The following year it moved to one of the churches in Creston which made it convenient for me as we had moved to Creston. This picture was taken two years ago. I didn't attend last year. Since then several more of the regular attendees have died. The people who were the ones who really got us together have had some health issues and would like to turn things over to someone younger, but there have been no volunteers to take on the task.
Few of the descendants of my great-grandparents attend. When I stood to introduce myself two years ago, I had taken along some pictures of my grandparents and great-grandparents which I showed as I gave my lineage. Some guy laughed and said "Didn't know we had show and tell" or something to that effect which may have had a lot to do with my not going last year. I thought I had left being laughed at behind in high school.
Today is the reunion. I had pretty much decided not to go. Then last night one of the cousins called to remind me about the dinner and ask if I was planning on being there. I didn't really say yes or no, but now I'm going to feel guilty if I don't go. I've already decided not to go for the meal, but I do need to go to the library this afternoon and it is just across the street from the church where the reunion is being held. I could stop in long enough to assuage my guilt......
Who knows, this may be the last R Family Reunion......
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