Sunday, August 13, 2006
Reunited: The Camp Family
A couple of weeks ago I received an email from my mother. What's funny is the fact that I hardly ever open any of her emails. They are all usually forwarded jokes, celebrity photos and some other nonsense that have been floating around since the world has gone gung ho about the internet. Somehow my instincts told me to open this particular email, even though it didn't have an eye catching subject.
There it was. An informal announcement about the Camp family reunion taking place Labor Day weekend. I can't tell you how many times I had to reread the message to make sure I was seeing what I was reading. The family hasn't been together since the mid-90's. Usually when we came together it was during those sad occassions - yanno funerals and if someone was having a get together of some sort it was only a certain sect of the family.
In light of the recent death of a cousin that I hardly knew - who was only a few years older than me, some cousins decided the family has been long over due for a reunion. As all of the original 11 Camp children have passed on, it has been left to the army of decendents to keep the ties. What a task this seems to be. I can sit here and ramble on about my great-great grandparents Willie and Currie Camp and their 11 children, but when you start to talk about my cousins, the rambling will start to sound like a passage from the Bible - yanno the whole "James and Dollie begat Doris and James Jr. Doris begat Norman and Cecelia. Norman begat Quinten and etc."
I love the fact that my family is so huge, but the sad thing is, by the time my generation of cousins and I came into the picture, each sect of the family was starting to break away and it seemed harder to keep the ties as the elders began to pass on. Growing up I would hear all the wild stories off how all 11 Camp children came together every Friday with their familes and it was like a family reunion all year round. My great-great grandparents had a huge house on Jackson Street in DC which is long gone from the family. I wish I grew up around that time or at least been a fly on the wall. Between my great-grandmother, Granny, and Aunt Veat, the sister that was closer in age to her, those two were the party hardy girls. Well actually, as I sit here over my grandmother with a few of my cousins, my mother and Aunt P as we swap stories, I'm hearing that all of the Camp girls were a bit "off the hook."
With the family reunion in a a couple of weeks, a few of my cousins have convened here at my grandmothers to gather family photos and scan to the pictures to be included in a CD/photobook for everyone in the family. It's been very amusing seeing the pictures and hearing the stories behind them.
I just can't wait for the reunion to hear who is gonna tell the biggest lie or tallest tale about how what situation became to be.
Posted by KomplexPhemale ::
8:35 PM ::
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