Memory Monday #5

     I do have one other memory of before my dad came home from WWII.  I must have been about three years old; my mom and grandmother (who was my dad's mother) took Judy and me to a family reunion of my grandmother's kinfolk.  My dad  came from good farm people and the reunion took place on the original farmstead in Missouri.  My home town was in Illinois but we were only 20 or so miles from the Mississippi River and my dad's family was on the other side of the river in Missouri.  None of us lived too close to the river to be concerned about flooding though.

     What I remember most about the reunion was that Judy and I were the only little kids there...we got a whole lot of huggin' and kissin'...UGH!  I also remember that they had great food (I enjoyed good food at an early age!), lots of homemade cakes, cookies, pies, AND  homemade Ice Cream!!!!! YUM!  But, my mom wouldn't let us eat any of the ice cream because it was made with unpasteurized milk!!  Mom had a friend who had contacted undulant fever as a child which, according to my mom, left her sterile.  (Now I did look up undulant fever and created a link if anyone is interested in it! And there really is such a thing that you can get from unpasteurized milk so I guess she wasn't totally paranoid!!)  She didn't explain all of that to us at that time...just wouldn't let us have any!!  Knowing my mom...and my grandmother...who did not always see eye-to-eye...I am sure there was a lot of pressure on my mom...but she DID NOT give in!!  She was a "townie" so, I imagine she was considered kind of prissy to these "country folk"!!

Allison Family Reunion- 1943

     Judy and I are the only little kids...front row, right..I am the littlest one.  Mom is on the back row, right...You can just see her head peeking out between a couple of ladies.  We really didn't know any of these people..and except for my grandmother, and never did get to know them in the future.  I don't know if they never had reunions again, or whether we just didn't go to them.  I do know a few "family tales" which I will relate in later Monday Memories!!