This past Sunday was Father's day, as I'm sure many of you are aware. What few realize, however, is that Sunday was also the 61st (or around there) Geissinger Family Reunion.

Wait.... Why would I be going to a Geissinger reunion when I'm a Bauman and my Mother is a Hackman? Let me explain.

Awhile ago, I wrote that Mennonites had a love of genealogy that borders on obsession. This is one of the many facets of that obsession. You see, it's not enough that you go to your OWN family reunions, but you have to go to any reunion you can figure out your relation to the family. In this case, My Grandmother's Mother (on my dad's side) was a Geissinger. That's right, I was at a reunion because of my Great Grandmother's former last name.

This means that, aside from my immediate family who shows up, most of the people at the reunion my age are second cousins or further removed. Let's just say that this is a rather large reunion (80 people this last time, a lot more when I was growing up)

My family hasn't attended this reunion for the last couple of years because we almost always have something else planned for fathers day. This reunion is also infamous because it seems like every bug in the state of PA seems to think it's a Geissinger and comes to join the party, making the human Geissinger's rather uncomfortable and itchy from the bites the bugs bring to the event.

But for all of this, there is so much I love about this gathering:
1. The food-Where else could you have the choice of a dozen different combinations of meat and noodles (always called Casserole). Or have a choice of desserts that would make any mouth water.
2. The people... For example, my great aunt Ruth walking around in a bright red dress that stops right above the knees, but with her prayer cap placed firmly on her head. Or my great-uncle driving up in his corvette and getting out dressed in overalls and carrying a box full of cherries he brought from his store (he owns a greenhouse, and a lot of farmland around here) People watching is great at these reunions.
3. We had a keg of birch beer there... that speaks for itself
4. MennoMoments: these are just things that only seem to happen when I'm with a group of Mennonites. Let me illustrate:
It was coming to the end of the reunion and they were passing around a cake lid for donations towards paying for next years reunion (rental of space, kids games, birch beer keg, etc), and the "family secretary" told us the minutes from the last meeting, down to who led worship and what the weather was like. He also said that the family balance for reunions was around $165, which was just enough to pay for this year, after donating the extra amount donated to a charity of the families choosing. The big debate this year was over where the extra money from the donations should go.
Of course, EVERYONE had a charity they knew of that the family should support, and so they started shouting why their charity should be chosen. We are all very loud people, so this alone was entertaining. And then someone suggested that they split up the money so that they could go to different charities, "just to be fair." The amount they were arguing about: $28.
Next up was the question of where and when to hold the next reunion. This question is asked every year because no one really LIKES where we hold it, and everyone complains that it's on fathers day. So my grandfather suggested that they hold it at the church that a lot of them go to, and if they hold it just two weeks later, they can use the tent that the bible school uses, saving a lot of money. People said that this was a great idea, but it didn't get accepted because it meant that there would be change.
As I said... Mennomoments. maybe other familys have this as well.. but it just seems to happen whenever Mennonites gather.



Oh yeah, and I saw a bumper sticker that said: I Break for shoofly Pie.... I LOVE PA