© Another Day in the Country
Is lull a real word? It must be, because we use it every once in a while. And the computer spell check seems to recognize the word once I put in that second “l.” For sure this is what I’m looking for — a lull!
We’ve just had the Schubert family reunion, with 40 people returning to Ramona like the swallows to Capistrano. They came to this quiet little town of their ancestors, looking for a lull in their lives for a day or two. They come to touch bases with far-flung family. And Ramona is the touchstone for the Schuberts.
Part of this coming together every year is reminiscing. Shared memories are what knit a family together. “Remember when Aaron hit the piñata and didn’t miss once?”
We look at old family photographs. “Remember that reunion when Gary brought the girls and Kristina was only a year old, wearing that little hat?” And imagine now that this is the year that Kristina planned the whole reunion. For us who are now the older set, this was the most enjoyable part of the family reunion — seeing the next generation plan and choreograph the event.
“The Schubert Tailgate Party” was the theme, complete with a t-shirt that had an old pick up truck on the front with a license plate that read “TIM 1960-2009.” We played games at this family party — any kind of competition that we could dream up, in fact. Kristina divided us up into two teams: orange and green. We got points for our side when we won at anything including foot races, kickball, pitch or bocci ball.
Vicki and Kara even did arm wrestling — mother-in-law vs. daughter-in-law. Now that was something you don’t see very often. They did this competition during a lull (imagine that) in the other game playing. The younger competitor finally won after much labor, cheering, hollering, sweating, laughter. “I’d have got her if we hadn’t taken a break in the middle,” Vicki panted.
There were only a few lulls in the family reunion from Friday night until Tuesday morning. During the lulls we shucked corn for dinner, sat on the porch swapping stories , and watched one generation drive the youngest generation around and around the streets of Ramona on a tractor.
Ken brought little motorbikes for the younger set to ride and during a lull in the activity his tiny grandson put on his helmet and motocross suit (complete with yellow Sponge Bob garden gloves on his tiny hands) to show us what he could do running an obstacle course on his little motorbike that had training wheels on it. We laughed. How the world turns from one generation to the next.
Right after dinner there was a lull and cousin Alan from California fetched our 102-year-old aunt Anna from Herington for a little while. She and her sister Frieda from Wichita sat on the sidelines chatting with various relatives.
“Do you think Pat and Jess get lonely when we all leave?” Micah from Colorado wanted to know. There had been non-stop action for five days with relatives coming and going. “Or are they looking forward to a lull?”
When Jana from California relayed the conversation to us, in a lull following the departure of the last of the Colorado clan, we laughed.
“I’ve been looking for a lull for 10 years,” Jess said, “and I haven’t found one yet that lasted long enough. It’s why we came to Ramona!”
The very nature of a lull is that it doesn’t last long. That’s my theory. If it lasts longer than 5 minutes it’s something else — like an incident, an occurance, a happening, an event, or even a family reunion. And now the Schubert’s tailgate party is over and the participants are almost all gone back to their own corner of the world while we mind Ramona.
Jana and our little grandson are here for a few more days. Another day in the country, with a 2-year-old in the house. There are definitely no lulls!