Blodgett - Pierce Family --- Family Stories
Memoirs of life growing up on a farm in Chautauqua County
by Barbara (Blodgett) Vannier
Family Gatherings
On the slightest provocation our extended family had a "gathering". Most often it was
to celebrate someone's birthday, but anything could bring one on - an anniversary,
a homecoming, going off to school, finishing the grape harvesting.
Family gatherings always included a meal. Four or five families were invited. Each family
brought food and their own dishes. The food was served buffet style. Teenage boys filled
their plates several times, then ate four or five pieces of pie for dessert.
The entertainment varied with the season. The men were all farmers, so they talked about
farm topics - prices, planting, harvesting, hired help. The women traded recipes, talked
of the appetites of teenagers and keeping them filled up, sewing. Sometimes there were
card games or other games for both adults and children. In suitable weather there were
outdoor activities - badminton, croquet, hide and seek. Once in a while Uncle Clyde gave
everyone a slide show of the places they had visited on a trip.
These gatherings were rather loosely organized affairs. Attendees could be both close
and distant relatives from either side of the family. But usually it was just one side
of the family or the other that attended.
Gatherings could be hosted by any family. When my family was the host, everyone
registered their height and the date behind the dining room door. We lost a lot of
interesting data when the dining room had to be repapered.
Besides the ordinary family gatherings, once a year, in August, my father's side of the
family had, and still does have, a family reunion. This reunion started out as a small
family gathering in 1874 and has met every year since then - 136 years so far. These
reunions grew to be quite large - many times over 100 people were in attendance. Even
now we usually have over 40 attendees.
When the reunion first began in the 1870's these families were all neighbors - within
an easy buggy ride of each other. This close proximity continued until the advent of
the automobile, when families began to spread out. This process has accelerated, until
now relatives come to the reunion from all over the country. There is still a family
presence in the Fredonia area, but the character of the relationship between all the
families that now attend the reunion has changed. These days many of the families
are not really acquainted with each other because of the distances between them.
They are no longer neighbors. Some are meeting each other for the first time.
It's a different world now.