It will soon be time for the 99th Annual Longe Family Reunion. Pretty incredible to think that for 99 years the Longe family has been getting together and celebrating family. Sadly, I do not believe it will continue for much longer. It began in 1923 with my great grandmother, Mary Ellen (Evans) Longe. Originally it was a weekend event. Several family members owned cottages in the Chelsea, Michigan area, and the entire Longe clan would pack into these cottages and bring campers, and food and stories and create amazing memories. There was a huge book kept to record the minutes to all of these reunions, there was a page for everyone to sign in, and pictures for each year, including family groupings, and pictures of the show. Yes, there was always a show, with skits. There were also games and prizes for the kids and many other fun festivities.
I loved looking through the old, leather bound book and seeing pictures of my dad as a boy. I enjoyed also reading about what the older reunions were like. It got to be part of the tradition to read minutes from the previous year’s meeting and to pick one from many years ago. There was always a family meeting that was recorded by a secretary, where old news and new news was discussed, such as marriages, births and the like. This was also where a chairperson was selected to organize the next year’s family reunion. There were years where they had hot air balloon ascensions, which must have been very cool. In the early years there was swimming, horse shoes, skits, and always a lot of food and laughter.
When I was growing up, my great uncle Dan owned a sheep farm in Chelsea. For many years we had the reunion at his farm. That was so fun. It was before there were so many freeways, so it was a long process to get there, especially from a kid’s point of view. We’d be impatient and excited to get there, and upon arrival would immediately go tearing around the farm. We loved checking out the old barn, where brother Dan found some 1930 comic books one year, which Uncle Dan let him keep. We also loved checking out the sheep, which technically we weren’t allowed to do. There was a huge cauldron filled with large chunks of ice and pop and beer. This was the one day a year we could have unlimited pop and loved to sink our hands into the icy witch’s cauldron to pick out a cold one. Games were played in the massive field and food was shared and a hilarious show was put on, organized by my dad. I always loved the reunion and spending time with my cousins.
My dad stopped putting on the show when he turned 40, so my cousin Jim Hasten and I decided to continue the tradition. Jim was 13 and I was 14 at the time. We continued until Jim got married to his beautiful bride, Kathi, and moved to Arizona. I continued the show after that, although it wasn’t the same without Jim’s signature character, Bart Snarf, ‘barfing it out and snarfing it back up again’. Thankfully, he would still come into town every few years for the reunion and contribute to the show. I stole from some of my favorites like Tracy Ullman and Monty Python. I also, occasionally would have original ideas. My brother Marty would also sometimes put on a skit with some of the younger cousins, which was always fun and funny. Now, over 50 years later, and after unsuccessfully trying to pass it on to the next generation for many years, I’m still in charge of the show.
Our kid’s generation does not have the same feeling about the reunion as my generation and my parent’s generation did. Partly, they are not as connected to their cousins, 2nd and 3rd cousins, as we were. And, many have moved out of the area and have not participated regularly. A lot of their parents have also lost interest apparently, as the number of people who show up for the reunion has diminished greatly. COVID did not help either. My husband Greg and I were nominated chairpersons the year of COVID and since we couldn’t get together in person, put on a ZOOM reunion. It was different for sure. We got a lot of people from out of state who do not usually attend, but many of the regulars did not show. I think overall it was pretty successful. Everyone got a chance to talk, we had a trivia contest with prizes, and got to see some family we hadn’t connected with in years. Since, we didn’t meet in person, I stupidly offered for me and Greg to host the following year’s family reunion too. We did meet in person the following year which was a lot of fun to get together in person again. The attendance was very low.
Now, the reunions are one day, in fact, one particular day, the last Sunday in June. This was to accommodate those who worked on Saturdays as well as to let people know the date in advance so they could plan vacations around it. But the writing is on the wall. I believe we will have a hundredth reunion, but I suspect it may be the end or will drift off soon afterwards. As it is, the book is no longer kept up. With all the modern technology of taking digital pictures, there are big gaps in having any pictures at all. It’s funny, that we consistently had pictures when we used old fashioned cameras. The minutes also have been spotty, because no one wants to record them anymore, including me, since I still put on the show. The book is our visible evidence of how our reunion is deteriorating. Tim and Tracy bought new books and transferred the aging pages into it to preserve them a number of years ago, but it has not been kept up. The history is no longer being recorded, except for annual sign ins.
I guess we should celebrate that it continued for 100 years, the one year that was skipped was the year the founder Mary Ellen Longe passed away. My mom, Betty Longe, is the last of her generation to attend. She is now 93 and has been attending since 1952 when she married Bob Longe, only missing one year when she was having a baby. She may hold the record for the person not born into the Longe family who attended the most family reunions, having attended 70 so far (this year will be 71). Go mom! She definitely always enjoyed the family time, comeraderie, and laughs.
Thank you, Mary Ellen for starting the Longe Family Reunion in 1923. It’s been a good run and I personally have enjoyed them during my lifetime. I’m sorry we didn’t do a better job of keeping it going. Fortunately, there are still the books to see the history. Maybe we can continue to have some kind of gathering for those still interested in visiting and seeing how our ancestors enjoyed themselves growing up and sharing the stories. After all, who doesn’t love a good Longe story?