Reunions

I’ve always heard that it’s not good to live in the past, and I’m sure there’s a lot of truth in that.  But I love reunions, always have.  Some of my fondest memories of my childhood were the family reunions we went to.  My earliest memories were of the Barnesville, NC reunions on my grandmother’s side of the family.  There was a main road through the Barnesville community.  The Britts lived on one side of the road, the Jenkins on the other.   Many Britts married Jenkins – my grandmother was a product of a Britt-Jenkins marriage.  They were all tobacco farmers, and I spent a couple of summers as a young boy working tobacco – great times.  My grandmother, Effie Britt, married John Bunyan Martin, the finest man I ever knew.   He came from a very large family which also had regular Martin family reunions in the small town of St Pauls, NC, where he grew up.

In about the mid-1970’s, my parents bought a mobile home in Ocean Lakes Campground near Myrtle Beach.  This began an annual family beach reunion  for the Cooper clan.  After a few years, as our families were growing larger, they sold that and we began renting a house in Garden City called Ruby Red.  Hurricane Hugo in 1989 picked Ruby Red up and set it down in a marsh about a half-mile away, so we moved to a bigger house in Surfside Beach.  Since the early 80’s we haven’t missed a year of gathering with all my siblings and their families, now with grandchildren and great grandchildren, at Surfside Beach.  Those reunions aren’t the same without Leigh, but we still love reconnecting with family.  We now occupy four large houses plus a condo and have in excess of 60 people attending each year.  We’re looking forward to our next one coming up June 16-23.

But my love for reunions is not limited to family.  We just returned from my Army Officer Candidate School reunion in Scottsdale, Arizona.  My OCS class had our first reunion in 2003 at Fort Benning.  We had such a great time, that we’ve continued the exercise by having a reunion every two years since then in different parts of the country.  As “President for Life” of our class, I and Louise play a big part in organizing and coordinating these get-togethers.  This bi-annual reunion has become an important part of our lives, not just as a memory of the past, but as something to look forward to.

Since moving to Clemson, I have enjoyed reconnecting with my baseball buddies through the annual Clemson baseball reunion.  We just completed one this past weekend with the Florida State series.  Although I was only officially involved with the 1967 team, I knew many players from other years and have gotten to know players from other eras.   Also, since moving to Clemson, Louise and I have reconnected with many old friends and fraternity brothers through our tailgate group.  Every home football game is a reunion of sorts.  At these occasions we are among our most-cherished friends who have played such a big part in helping us get our lives back together after the tragedy of losing Leigh.  And finally, coming up this weekend is what we call a “Deacathon,” a reunion of our fraternity.  Delta Kappa Alpha (Deacs) was founded in 1960 as one of the first eight local fraternities at Clemson.  It went national as Alpha Tau Omega in 1970.  But the “Deacathon” is a reunion of the members and wives from the ten years that we were “Deacs.”  We’re expecting 80 or more people, the finest friends a person could have.

So, two reunions down in the past week (OCS and baseball), and two coming up within the next month (Deacathon and Cooper Family Beach).  Life is good.  If going to and loving reunions is living in the past, then I plead guilty.