Every Saturday before Easter my dad's family gets together in Garrison, TX for the "Easter Davis Family Reunion". This has been going on since way before I was even thought of. My sister and I spent every Spring Break there as kids and we loved it. I realized today how many wonderful memories I have of being there. It's literally in the sticks so there's no cable, no shopping, just dirt roads and mother nature. The old homeplace, as they call it, where my grandmother and her nine brothers and sisters grew up, is still there. It's atleast 75 years old and it survived the raising of 10 kids, numerous grandkids, greats, and now great greats. Amazingly it's still standing, although one of my aunts refuses to step foot in it for fear of the ceiling caving in or the floor rotting underneath her. It did seem so much smaller than I remember, but I guess I'm a little bigger too. Sadly they did finally tear down the old outhouse. I wanted Alyssa to experience that;)
My grandmother, MeMaw, passed away in 1996, two months before Alyssa was born. I went to one reunion the year after her death, but it wasn't the same without her there so I never went back. Well, one of my cousins started a blog and all the family gets on, even the older ones, and my aunts kept asking us to come. So today, Alyssa, Lori, and I loaded up and first went to White Rock Cemetery, where my dad and MeMaw are buried and placed some flowers on their gravesides. Most of the people buried in that cemetery are our relatives so that was neat to show Alyssa. My great grandparents are buried there, as well as some uncles and cousins who have passed over the years. After that, with the help of my GPS, we ended up on a five mile long red dirt road, with absolutely no cell phone signal, on our way to the homeplace. We were chased by dogs, saw a dead cow in a pond, and almost ran smack into a calf standing in the middle of the road. I so wish I had a picture of that. After those few near death experiences and a lot of laughs we finally made it there. To be honest I dreaded going. I thought Alyssa would be bored and I thought it would make me sad to go back, but it was just the opposite. I think Alyssa must have liked it, b/c she's going back with my sister tomorrow for the reunion. She says she wants a cow. LOL!! I'm so glad I went back to my roots and shared some of them with my daughter. I'm looking forward to bringing the whole family back next year.
She got a 1st year ribbon and a carnation from her teachers!
The big performance
On our way to recital