My Family & Memories: #reunion

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Tradition

Family Traditions . . . interesting concept. Do they continue today? Yes and no.

When I was growing up, it was traditional for us to spend Thanksgiving Day with my mom’s family. It was a large family – she had 8 siblings and several of them had large families. Location changed every year, alternating between Washington and Oregon. It was the host family’s responsibility to obtain a place for us to hold the big dinner, usually a community or Grange hall.

We would arrive, bring in whatever food items we were responsible for. There would be turkey and ham, potatoes (both sweet and mashed), gravy, vegetables (I don’t ever recall there being a green bean casserole!), salads, and lots of desserts (mainly pies).

Kids would play outside (for some reason it was usually nice) but if it wasn’t, then we would be in the hall. The older boys would play with a ball, I think the younger boys tried to join in. Us girls would congregate somewhere and visit.

Sometimes, somebody would bring a film projector and show home movies from past events. We would all gather together and eat. Afterwards, there would be games then gathering up the leftovers and heading back home.

This ended after the grandparents had passed away. Although, it was replaced by the annual family camping trip in July. Actually, I think we had the family camping trip as well as the Thanksgiving dinner for several years. Now, it is just the camping trip. A destination was decided and everybody showed up when they could. Most of the time, when I was growing up, it was somewhere in Washington State. The men would go
fishing or hiking into a lake to fish. Sometimes, us kids would join in. However, in the past few years, it has been in Oregon at the same location. I haven’t been able to attend as it
conflicts with my husband’s family reunion. There’s usually just one day (a Saturday) that is set aside for the annual potluck mid-day meal. For those who live close, this made it a day trip for them. There would be games to play – lawn games or cribbage tournaments. Mainly visiting and the group photo. The younger generation is now responsible for organizing this.

That’s mom’s side. Dad’s side was Christmas. Much

smaller family as Dad had only one sibling and she had no children. We would gather in the early afternoon, have a big meal (can’t remember if it was turkey or ham) with all the trimmings. When I was working, we would switch the time based on which schedule I was working (morning shift vs afternoon shift). After eating, we would open our gifts to each other. Now, it’s my family as a whole and we have Christmas breakfast then the kids open their gifts. Adults no longer exchange gifts. BTW, I still have that doll bed shown in the picture. It was made by my grandfather.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Reunion

Family Reunions and Class Reunions are common for us. Growing up I remember Mom’s class reunions. Mom (Joyce Keesee) graduated from Rochester High School in 1956. The class size was very small – between 20-30 people. I can remember helping her put together reunion booklets detailing the life of the classmates – what happened since the last reunion. Rochester also put on all-class reunions every year. We would go to the family picnics. Dad (Bill Kludt) never went to his class reunions. He graduated from Centralia High School in 1955. Although, he stayed in touch with a few of his buddies. His grade school, Galvin, also held student reunions. But he didn’t attend those either. Although, his sister did. Of course, the school no longer exists – it closed in 1961 as a grade school but was used by the college for an electronics class and was headquarters for the ESD 113 Film Library from 1971-76. It was offered for sale in 1984.[1]

I graduated from Centralia Senior High School in 1978. I remember attending our first class reunion 5 years later – it was held at the old Scout Office in Chehalis on a Saturday with a family picnic the following day at Borst Park. We also had a reunion at the former Centralia Eagles (it’s now a church). The last two reunions have had a social at Dick’s Brewery on Friday night with the main reunion being held on Saturday evening at the Grant Hodge Legion Post 17 building in Centralia.

My husband, David, graduated in 1969 from Tumwater High School. I remember we attended his 20-year class reunion. It was the first time I met his buddy, Stan. Stan was in his Dress Whites (Navy). We also discovered that one of David’s classmates is the mother of a girl in our son’s daycare. We’ve attended several more reunions as well as annual socials.

Our son, Nathan, graduated in 2007 from Tumwater High School. Unfortunately, he has not been able to attend any of his class reunions. The first one was when he was in the Navy and now, he lives on the East Coast.

Family Reunions were popular on my mom’s side. We didn’t have any on my dad’s. Mom’s immediate family always got together on Thanksgiving. We got so big we could no longer hold them at people’s homes – we had to go to community halls. Every year they were held someplace different – alternating between Washington and Oregon. Then we started having a family camp-out every summer. These also moved around. This tradition is still continuing. Although, I haven’t been able to attend.