[speaker001:] hi hi I'm Carol and I'm calling from Garland Texas
[speaker002:] yeah uh this is Jan Noak I'm in Dallas
[speaker001:] oh okay because yesterday I talked to someone upstate I'm not even sure where and my husband talked to people in Utah so um anyway let me press one
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] okay um let me see I think we've only planned one family reunion in our life so we don't do this too often
[speaker002:] I
[speaker001:] um most of my family's in California but my husband's is in San Antonio and so we did this in San Antonio and um it was an experience that I I won't do again
[speaker002:] how big a family do you have
[speaker001:] um well it wasn't that big of a family but um it just got out of hand and um so many people were coming that we were trying to figure out how much food we were going to need and and um how much um beverages we were going to need and this and that and oh it just grew and grew and grew and um when the time came only about half that amount of people came so it wasn't you know you have to really just get an accurate amount and but overall we all had a good time we saw people we hadn't see in a while so
[speaker002:] did you have people coming from far away
[speaker001:] no it was all in the San Antonio area
[speaker002:] uh sometimes it's
[speaker001:] but it it just kept growing and growing and growing and growing and we're going oh my gosh so
[speaker002:] well you have you have family lives too close together they see each other too often they uh they don't take that kind of thing seriously
[speaker001:] uh-huh basically yeah
[speaker002:] and if uh
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] they they come from far away it's uh it it they take it more seriously
[speaker001:] uh-huh I think you're right yeah
[speaker002:] yeah my family's not very big but uh we're kind of
[speaker001:] your family's from where
[speaker002:] well I have a a a brother lives in Indianapolis a sister lives in Chicago and my folks live back in Buffalo New York
[speaker001:] oh no
[speaker002:] uh I I guess we have reunions about once a year or so
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] we got together over Christmas my wife's family they're they're all in upstate most of them are in upstate New York they have regular uh regular family reunions every summer
[speaker001:] oh those are nice
[speaker002:] and it's yeah it is it's uh
[speaker001:] and I'm I'm sure they're a lot more organized too because they've done it before
[speaker002:] yeah and it's it's just something that they they plan on doing every summer they just have a weekend picnic and uh every year everyone asks when is it happening and where is it happening and they just plan on being there
[speaker001:] that's great oh yeah that makes a big difference too when everybody's real eager to participate yeah well that's great
[speaker002:] yeah they they had a family reunion for uh well for my mother-in-law at her seventy fifth birthday and they managed to get just about everybody everybody into town uh last November including a a number of people from out in California
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh
[speaker002:] so is uh it it was good it uh it worked out very well
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] one interesting interesting thing that they did at the time is they um they videotaped the the whole shebang which
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] it made a nice remembrance of of the entire party
[speaker001:] yeah more people want to come back again
[speaker002:] yeah they want to come back
[speaker001:] yeah that's good
[speaker002:] so so that that works pretty well that way
[speaker001:] my uh my grandmother in California is um which is my dad's part side of the family is planning a reunion um this spring but we won't be going because um I don't know how they thought of this it's going to be on a cruise and um it seems like most of the family is uh going you know all the nieces and all the grandchildren and all that are going most of them are going but it's too costly for us but anyway they're going to go on a cruise and um it sounds really neat it really does
[speaker002:] yeah I I can go for that that what what the I I guess interesting if you had uh uh a very extended family that that kind of involved a lot of people that that cousins and things that you don't really know that you've never met it'd be interesting to meet a lot of those people
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] uh I don't know how you would go about uh getting them together but that uh would be uh
[speaker001:] and a friend of mine um she plans her family reunion um every year and they go camping and she says they have the greatest time and she says usually everybody shows up in exception to maybe one person but she said they all go camping and they have a really good time for the whole weekend so that's
[speaker002:] yeah I kind of wonder what what kind of tradition we're going to establish for our family you know I had hoped that our our kids get together uh at least regularly
[speaker001:] yeah yeah right now we only have two children so I