When we left Kent and Joanne's on Saturday night, the Pavlovich boys (Michael and Ray) were still singing with Bill and Chris -- I think the Sambuco lubricated their voices -- but we gave up and headed back to the Gravity for the night.
The Gravity was a good choice -- clean, quiet, working TV. For what we were doing, you don't need more. A place to put your stuff, and a place to sleep. Wifi would have been good, but we weren't there much anyway.
Sunday morning weather was beautiful -- low 70's clear and sunny. The sun glistened off the prison towers above us ;) I took a walk over to the restaurant to find that they open at 9 on Sundays. It was only 7, and I needed coffee.
Linda's iPhone located Mcdonnell's Restaurant in Carbondale, that was open. I plugged it into the Garmin and headed down the highway, right to the front door. I'm told this place has been open forever, and it showed: wooden tables and chairs, even had the old jukeboxes at the tables. Looking at the selections, I don't think they've worked since the 90's. The service was good, the food and coffee were great! We got in just in time, as church was letting out and the place filled up quickly.
We headed to St. Joseph's Church for Mass. When the Swegel-Tedesco clan is in town, the church fills up, and we saw many of our family there. They acknowledged the family, but the services were dedicated to those in service, not only the military but the police, firefighters, emt's and others that serve and protect us at home. They had a color guard that processed with the American flag, the flags of Slovenia and Italy, and several others. The hymns included God Bless America and others.
From there, we headed for the Browndale Sportsmen's Club for the main event. Coffee and doughnuts were already set up, with lunch to follow a bit later.
The more we attend these events, the more family we get to know that we don't usually get to meet. The Swegels, the Tedescos, the Vidella's, Glia's, Shivitz's and so many others that can trace their lineage to Frank Swegel and Mary Intihar. According to Josie's research for the family tree, there are over 950 of us out there.
Joe Pavlovich (the driving force behind the effort to put this together) told me that we were down a bit in attendance this year to about 270. I'm sure that the economy had a lot to do with it.
The temperatures warmed up into the low 90's, and most stayed in the shade. The food was good, the beer was cold and the sense of family was wonderful!
One thing that I missed -- Since Mom and Dad didn't come up this year, and Aunt Polly has passed, we didn't get the traditional singing that they always provided in the past. It's something that has been a part of the family gatherings as long as I can remember.
I spoke with Ray Pavlovich (my Dad's cousin); he has some reel-to-reel tapes of previous gatherings that have them singing the old songs along with other memories. I urged him to send them to me, and I'll get them converted to digital, then send them out on CD's to any of the family that want them. I did the same with the tapes my Dad had of Uncle Jink and his accordian, and I think it's important that we capture these memories before the tapes become unusable.
An update on Aunt Josie (remember, she fell on Saturday). She showed up for a short while at the reunion. Her husband John came up and took her to the hospital (nobody else was able to get her to go). After three hours, they told her they would call someone in to read the xrays. She got fed up with the typical service you receive at the hospital, and left. The swelling at her eye (where the glasses hit her) was down some, and she had a hand and wrist strap on her left arm. Some bruising, and she said she was a bit sore, but fine. She's tough!
We helped clean up a bit and went back to Kent and Joanne's to say goodbye to the cousins. We allowed the Garmin to lead us back, and it picked the shorter route, which took us down a road that wound around the mountain and got smaller and smaller until it was only a single car's width, with no barriers and a deep drop-off. But it took us past the huge windmills on top of the mountain, probably within a half-mile of them. Wow, are they huge!
We did get a bit of the old music, as they harmonized on "Uncle Moon" and "Good Night Irene." It was good.
Back to the Gravity, and up at 6 to pack and head for the airport. We had a better trip home, as all of the flights were on time. Again, the US Airways people were great with the electric carts, and we were whisked through the airports from gate to gate. I'm going to send them a note of thanks for their friendly and courteous people -- not what I consider the norm in most airports.
It was a short trip, but we filled it with adventure, family, music and love -- the criteria that we believe is essential in our lives.
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