In June (yes, I am really late posting this) I went to Cottonwood, AZ for a Girdner family reunion. This reunion occurs every 3 years and is for family of James Pleasant Girdner (called JP) and his wife Nola (Lockhart). They had 4 kids: Glen, Dale, Stanley, & Eva. Stanley is my Grandfather.
I flew into Phoenix on a Thursday, visited with some friends at the airport (who used to live in Santa Rosa) and then met Dad and Millie's when they arrived about an hour later. We rented a car and then met Willis, Susan and Jimmy for dinner and then off to Cottonwood we went. It was dark when we arrived and we were tired.
Friday, we went to the high school gym which would be the home base for our reunion for the next 3 days. The family is from Cornville really but a lot of family history is in Cottonwood too. Dad went to school at this high school, but now it's a museum.
Somebody went to the trouble of building our family tree and posting, by family, on the walls of the gym. Each person had their own sheet of paper, often with their photo on it and it was placed in birth order in org chart fashion. It was very visual and I appreciated it.
Four self-guided tours were prepared and everyone choose where they wanted to go. I was torn between Grandpa Stanley's Hydroelectric sites, the Cottonwood Cemetery and Jerome. Dad wanted to take Millie to a museum in Jerome so I decided to go with them. Uncle Marvin, Sharon and Aaron came too - all 6 of us in the rental car. It was a squeeze but it was fun to be together. We were able to visit the Cottonwood Cemetery on the way. Once we got to the museum site in Jerome I was surprised to find a power plant there that my Grandpa worked with so I got to see some Grandpa Stanley Hydroelectric history after all. 
The photo on the right is the turbine; which means even more to me now that I'm working for a company that makes turbines for power generation. The photo on the left is the generator. This power plant was taken off-line in 2004. Amazing, isn't it; that it was in operation that long? Even though this is cool, the highlight of the whole 3 day week-end was listening to my Dad answer the questions of the Ranger behind the counter at the museum. Dad mentioned to him that he lived in Jerome as a boy and that started the questions. I learned things about my grandfather's work (I never knew that Grandpa worked in the mines (as an electrician), about Dad's childhood, about mining in Jerome and more). It was a fascinating conversation to listen to; I was finally that proverbial fly on a wall.
There was something special about this reunion, at least for me. Maybe it's just that I'm finally old enough to appreciate it or maybe it's because of the trivia game we played (as shown to the left here), but I gained a profound understanding about what a special upbringing the grandkids of JP and Nola had. Yes, there were hard times. Yes, the cousins moved around, sometimes they moved a lot. But, the 1st cousins (my Dad and his cousins) were a close bunch. They played together and worked together and built a lot of memories together. They played in the creek and swam in the swimming hole in the summer they rode on cattle drives and put up hay and so much more. I'm a little bit envious because I had some great memories with my 1st cousins but we were as close as Dad and his cousins. I also became aware, for the first time, that the siblings (JP & Nola's kids) had cousins in Cornville that they were raised with. 2nd cousins came to this reunion too.
Finally, I would like you all to know that I come by my love of horses and cowboys naturally. Here is my Dad's Cowboy 1st Cousins - Bob and George. They were raised on a ranch with horses- I think their Dad was the first horse-whisperer. :-) On the last day of the reunion, actually the last hour, some 2nd cousins (Ron, Sharon and I) got to talking about the history in our family and how little we (I especially) know and how quickly it will be lost. We also talked about how to preserve it. We finally came up with the idea of sending an email once a month with a question for each of the 1st cousins. They "reply-all" when they answer so they can see each other's answers. We'll do this for 30 months. Sharon volunteered to compile the stories and will bring the results to the next reunion in 2014. With each round of questions I learn a whole lot and gain a whole lot of pleasure reading their stories.
