Family Reunion!

We had our large Family Reunion this June, the Glen/Pat Crookstons were in charge, so before we ever made it to the mountain work was being done. There were two years of planning, then right up to the last minute (and even once we got to Hawley) everyone was doing different tasks. Dad and Daniel completely revamped the cook trailer, Mark R. (who happened to be at the cabin the few days before the reunion) worked with dad to finish it up (as you can see it went from breakfast to lamplight on more than one day). Aunt Louise, among other things, had a huge project getting the address book updated. I baked! (A lot)

I made a huge pumpkin dump cake (do not triple the recipe in the Bosch!) and cornmeal rolls for the "Thanksgiving" dinner, and white and wheat rolls for pulled pork dinner. I think I stayed in the 10x10 area of the kitchen for over 8 hours that day! But it was fun and I did different roll outs and recipes.

Thursday night Beth and Daniel with their families came, and Friday morning we all headed up to the lake! Grandpa and two of his brothers were there (Jimmy and Richard) with their wives (Lucy and Carol). Grandma was on hand ready to help, enjoying the great-grandkids, and making sure Grandpa and Daisy the dog didn't get into trouble. Dad was either making sure the trailer worked right, we had enough water, telling William he would go fishing as soon as he could, fishing with William or motoring kids across the lake in the boat. The kids were either rolling around in the dirt (OH... it was so dirty! The fine powder would just float through camp if anyone so much as walked! Or worse yet, the wind would pick it up and plaster it to everything!), riding the two bikes Daniel brought, racing the trucks Jon brought (both adding even more dirt to the camp), playing in the hammock Cia brought, throwing fishing lines (or more commonly rocks) into the water, or like the rest of us eating!

The food was, as always, the main event! We had a huge "Thanksgiving" dinner on Friday night with two turkeys and some chickens in the deep fry (purchasing the turkeys was the one thing that was forgotten in the rush to get everything else done - and when it was attempted - only two could be found in Show Low that weren't an exuberant price, so some chickens were added to the mix). We had rolls, vegetables and baked potatoes! Dessert was pumpkin dump cake! A huge hit! The next morning there was eggs, bacon and pancakes (plus a million left over rolls!). Lunch was a sandwich affair, with chips and soda, and dessert was served at cabin site A2, where Carl and Annie's cabin used to be.

As part of tradition we drove up to the old cabin site, searched for our name on a tree (so many kids came for their first time this year that they had to carve their names on a new family tree). Magically a huge tree formed a perfectly naturally teeter-toter, by being between two other trees and over one, the kids loved this and it entertained them and the adults for a good while!

Because we love tradition and magic we had to do a donut tree! Grandma asked Daniel and I to be in charge this year, and we got the special magic words from Grandpa and carried on the tradition under their watchful eye.

So it isn't hard to figure out the magic, but who is going to question it when you get a donut at the end? As Tim said, "Grandpa got away with a lot for so long because our payoff was good!" Or something to that effect!

After plucking donuts off the tree and even better, eating watermelon freshly cut, we all gathered round for a group picture!

With nothing but my baby tripod, I had to get down to set it up!

Back at camp, after a delicious dinner by Aunt Denice's family of pulled pork, we got down to the one thing I was supposed to be in charge of all along: The Play!

Dad came up with the idea a while back of doing a small play about our Crookston ancestor that was on the Mayflower - hence the "Thanksgiving" theme! So it was handed over to me. I did the research, typed it up and finagled a few costumes, what I didn't do was finish it or print it out - so instead of handing it over to dad to narrate, like I planned, I had to narrate with a little ad-libbing into it. I asked Ian to be Stephen Hopkins, our ancestor, which was the best move I made! The kid was perfect, he did just enough listening to me, playing it up, and adding his own moves. After it was over he cracked me up, when he walked by Dad's trailer and looked at me and said, "I'll be in my trailer." Uncle Loyell thought Ian did a great job and told him so, Ian asked if he thought I'd pay him. So Uncle Loyell gave me a dollar to give to him, after I did, Ian went and showed some people saying... "My first acting job, and I got paid!"

Besides Ian, everyone else did a great job too! It took more coaching (during the play) because they were all younger, but it was fun! The trips on the Sea Venture and the Mayflower (the row boat). All the little kids (but the Indians - which I had to stop from getting in the boat) got in and then out and then in and then out of the boat, and loved it!

The final scene of the play was a descendant line, from Stephen Hopkins down to Carl and his four boys. Here it is:

Stephen Hopkins
Giles Hopkins
Stephen Hopkins
Mary Hopkins
Thankful Maker
Barry Chase
Stephen Chase
Eli Chase
Olive Chase
Rosabell Pitkin
Carlton Crookston

Here is the play:

Scene One: Sea Venture
There was once an adventurous young man named Stephen Hopkins who kissed his wife goodbye and set sail to the new world, on the Sea Venture in 1609. One day off the coast of Bermuda a violent Storm wrecked the sailing ship and cast those on board into the sea. Stephen made it to the shore with 150 passengers. Because the boat was gone Stephen didn’t feel that the governor still had command and tried to get others to stop listening to get others to stop listening to the governor as well. They spent nine months on Bermuda before making their way to Jamestown.
For this attempted mutiny Stephen was put on trial to hang, he was so sorry and cried for his life and his wish to return to his family, a long with the rest of the company speaking up for him that he was let go and sent home to England.
Back home in England he was reunited with his wife, Constance Dudley, and two children, Giles and Constance. Stephen worked as a minister’s clerk. They were a family for a short time before the mother and wife died, but Stephen soon met and married Elizabeth Fisher.

Scene Two: The Mayflower
In 1620 Stephen and his small family were recruited to fill space in the boat that would carry the puritans to America. He did not share their faith but he was willing to give up everything for the adventure and promise of the new world.
Once aboard the Mayflower in the small cramped space Elizabeth gave birth to a new son, Oceanus. The ship was small, and there were a lot of people, many that were sick. But the Hopkins family survived the grueling Journey. Once the new colonists landed at Plymouth, what would be their new home, building a village and governing a people began. Forty-one of the men signed a governing document called the Mayflower Compact, signed aboard the ship November 11, 1620. Stephen was one of those men!

Scene Three: Life in Plymouth
Life in Plymouth was very difficult, sickness and hunger overtook many of the puritans. Caleb, Elizabeth, Deborah, Damaris and Ruth were all born to Stephen and Elizabeth in the New World. Hopkins and a few other ‘strangers’ didn’t lose any children to diseases which distressed the pilgrims, for most of the next generation were not of their faith. They also had new neighbors to learn to get along with. The Native Americans were just as curious and cautious of the pilgrims as they were of them. They spent many months unsure of what moves to make. Then one day Samoset walked boldly into the village saying; ( Samoset comes in and says: “Welcome, Englishmen!”) He spoke a little English and talked with the Pilgrims. He stayed the night in the Hopkins home! He later brought Squanto, who had spent time in Europe and could speak even better English, to herald the approach of Chief Massasoit. Massasoit and the Pilgrims talked and made a peace agreement, signing the treaty right in Stephen’s home on the 22nd of March 1621. Now the Pilgrims had established connections with the surrounding people. Squanto stayed with the Hopkins and taught the colonists many things about the land and people they now lived with. (Squanto teaches the people to farm, hunt, and fish) Stephen was picked to be part of the emissary to Massasoit. He traveled with Edward Winslow on a dangerous and trying journey to speak with the Native leader. They walked for miles and miles, surrounded by unknown woods, with very little to eat, but were received well by the chief and treated kindly. (The two men walk to meet Massasoit)
Stephen was important to the governing of the village. He was assistant to governor through 1636. After which he lived only eight more years before he passed away.

Scene Four: Descendants
Stephen’s oldest son Giles, married a girl from Massachusetts and had a son named for his father, Stephen Hopkins. This Stephen grew up, married and had a daughter named Mary. Once Mary was grown she married and had a daughter named Thankful. Thankful married a Chase and had a son that she named Barry. Barry had a son that he also named Stephen. Stephen had a son named Eli, who had a daughter named Olive. Olive had a daughter named Rosabell. Rosabell had a son named Carlton who grew up and married a beautiful girl named Annie and had four handsome boys.

It was a really fun reunion and we have such great memories (and pictures) to prove it! As I was talking to my friend Ruth, who lives in a nursing home, the only child of two deceased parents, both of which died her father in Nazi service in Russia, and her mother behind the iron curtain in East Germany. She was married for a little while to an American GI before they got a divorce, but wasn't able to have children, I thought how lucky I was to have the family I do, and how lucky we are to be able to share times like these together. She loved looking at the pictures of the family and thanked me for bringing them in.