First of all, thanks tons for taking the time to read the last, really lonnnng post and for sharing your stories via comments and email. I was touched and still am by the support and kindness from all of you. So, thanks.

I went to a reunion over the weekend for my dad's mom's side of the family. It's always in this little town where I first lived, population still around 100, I think. To borrow a line from Tim McGraw, it's a "map dot ... a stop sign on the blacktop". It could easily describe this little town (and of course, the next verse is "and I caught the first bus that I could hop from there" - and I did, but I digress):



After the usual kick-ass buffet at the Church Hall, we busted tradition this time and took a drive south of town to see some 'important sites' in our family history.

Man, who knew??

Here's a shot of the one-room schoolhouse my grandmother (now in her mid-80's) taught at:



It sits up on a hill, on a piece of property that friend's own. I have memories of driving past the schoolhouse, but never being able to go inside. This time, we got to. Probably the highlight of the tour for me.

A picture of my grandmother on the steps of this schoolhouse:



My Great Uncle, now 90, came into the schoolhouse with us and told us about having gone to school there, how the desks were set up, memories of coming to school from their homestead a few miles away in bad weather, etc. For many years after they'd stopped using the school, it had been used to store silo. The interior is wrecked, but the blackboard (probably just slate) is still attached:



On Sunday, we went to a concert. And the story in and of itself about the concert is crazy. Just silly. But the end result out of a total waste of money and a day in the hot fucking sun (and numerous applications of sunscreen, by the way), was this:



I'm nursing that this week and staying inside like a good white girl. Or pink, depending.

Labels: family reunion, memories, pictures, sunburn