Working Weekend

Let’s just say that when I go to Missouri to visit the fam, things never turn out exactly how I think it will. Several times, I’ve gone home and ended up at a funeral visitation or funeral. I’ve served as a chaperone for my brother’s youth group. I’ve even gone to a couple of weddings I didn’t expect to attend.

This weekend was no different. I grew up in a small town and sometimes the craziness reminds me of the fictional (warped) town of Stars Hollow from “Gilmore Girls.” At home, Memorial Day weekend generally means a 100-mile yard sale that begins in Jackson, Mo., and follows Highway 25 all the way to Kennett, Mo. My brother is the youth leader at the small church we grew up in, and they had planned a yard sale full of donated items to raise money for a trip to camp this summer. They were also selling baked goods, popcorn, and hot dogs. Somewhere along the way, I became the popcorn girl and spent most of the day running the popcorn machine and fixing hot dogs (which people were buying at 9:30 a.m.!). When it was all said and done, the youth group had raised enough to send two more kids to camp and I had a massive sunburn. Fun times.

Sunday brought my cousin’s high school graduation and my mom’s family reunion. Since we couldn’t be in two places at once, Dad, Jason, and Amber headed over to graduation, while Mom and I went to the Kennedy Reunion. To make things even more hilarious, each family represented had been instructed to wear a certain color of shirt. So we were all color coded: Bumgardaners were red, Pettits orange, Shoemakers blue, Kennedys green, Clifford and Maudine’s descendants were yellow, and Ina Mae, who never had children, was assigned to wear white. Since my Grandma only had two kids, there were only four of us in red. And as luck would have it, my mom and I were late to the reunion. We walked in, and the crowd broke out into applause, not really for us, but I like to think it was. And the place looked like a UT football game with all the Petitt orange. Since there was nowhere to stand, I was relegated to in front of the door, which was opened by weird Aunt Margie (not really related to the Kennedys and only marginally to the Pettits) who almost propelled me into the first table of reunion attendees. I’m not even sure she knew she’d done it. As it turns out, many of the extended family had begun celebrating the reunion and holiday a little early and were just toasted enough to be extremely chatty. Or bring cups of vodka spiked drinks around for my diabetic uncle to taste. And make slightly inappropriate remarks when all the great grandkids (me included) were getting our picture taken.

After everyone was back at the Ponderosa (my parents’ house), we ate some burgers and watched episodes of “House” on the DVR. And I fell asleep in the tile floor in my parents’ basement. More fun times.

Then came today. It rained, so Dad and Jason didn’t have to work. It stormed and thundered most of the day,so we went by the nursing home to see my grandma, then we all went to celebrate Memorial Day at the Chinese buffet in Sikeston, and I drove on back to Nashvegas. So I’m pretty tired after my relaxing weekend at home.

The next time I say I’m going to visit, I’m going to check out how much work they want me to do before I show up.