7-21-02

Comments from the Reunion

Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2002 10:14 PM
Subject: My reunion comments

I want to thank all the members of this huge family for returning my e-mails and going to the trouble of looking up names and dates for me. People were also very generous in making contributions toward expenses incurred putting this reunion together. We have a surplus fund for the next reunion of approximately $250 dollars. I will be happy to assist the family members who put together the next reunion with information I gathered for this one. I believe there are several mistakes to be corrected on the family "data" and I'm sure there will be plenty of additions to make in 2004.

Hopefully, there will be lots of pictures from this reunion turning up on the website. I look forward to seeing them all and seeing if I can recognize people without their T-shirts on. That didn't come out right! Thank you, Uncle Ted, for getting everyone in your family down here. Hopefully, David's "cover" won't be blown and the Barker family picked up a few "insider tips" on the running of their farm. I'm glad the T-shirt color passed inspection. Thank you too for sharing some childhood stories with me and memories of your parents while growing up. (Dad says it was a BB gun)

Many thanks to my little sister, Pat, for hosting this website for us and doing the work it takes to keep it updated. I look forward to keeping up with what's going on in everyone's family through their newsletters. Hopefully, everyone will have theirs activated before the end of this year.

Mary Briley
P.S. The house logo was NOT Pat's idea.

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Personally, I had more fun this year than in 2000. I knew half the names this time which made it easier to talk to people. In 2004 I'm hoping to get to know more about all of you besides your kids and husbands names.

I have to admit I thought about Bernice many times and missed seeing her smiling face and talking to her. She was so proud of her kids and I could see and hear her in each of them. My many thanks for the Ted Beck clan for coming.

I also wanted to thank Greg, Mary, Norma, and whoever else contributed their time and energy to pull this together. The T-Shirts were a great idea, the design idea was mine although Mary claims it was hers. It was her artwork however. I'm sure we will do this again in 2004 so start coming up with your original ideas.

I plan to make lots of changes to the site and get it working the way I want it to so stay tuned and send your comments so I can post them.

Patty Vanderford