Family Reunion

Family Reunion

Are we there yet? How much longer is it going to be until we get there? These are the aggravating questions I hear over and over while seating in the backseat of our car glaring out the window. After riding for five and a half hours my butt begins to feel like it has become part of the backseat. At the beginning of the trip it was not as boring because there was actually buildings and other things to look at while riding down the road. As we got closer and closer to Hattiesburg, Mississippi the roads get bumpier and narrower. It was like we were driving in the middle of the woods and at any moment a deer, a rabbit, or some sort of wild life would have passed in front of our car. It looked like we were heading to the middle of nowhere and we might not be able to make it back alive. Excitement builds up inside my sisters as they eagerly wait to reach our destination. Usually this is not the reaction from children when on the way to a family reunion, but our family reunion is no typical family reunion.

Our family reunion is at a water park. Yes! A water park I cannot wait for it, awesome slides, wave pool, is what I imagine when I hear the words water park, but this water park is not your normal water park. The name is Pep's Point that is spelled out in red, old, rotted bricks curved to spell out the name on a hill. The hill is a dirt hill with grass patches growing in and out everywhere on the hill with no certain pattern. Instead of a pool there is a creek, yes not a pool, a creek. There is a dock going into the creek, so you can jump off into the creek. Their so called slides are two concrete slabs painted blue going down the hill in curvy motions that ends into a square full of water. I have to use a wet, slippery, tore, mat to slide down which looked like people got hungry on their way down and decided to take a bite out of their mat. If my mat slips out from under me while sliding down I will get my booty scratched the whole way down. While journeying up the hill to the top to slide down there is countless number of signs that say slide at your own risk. Before we head to the camp-grounds for lunch it is a family ritual to see who can bring back the most kids with them. My Aunt Sherrie calls it the "youngin award". Whoever can track down the wild young kids and bring them back without their momma having to go look for them gets to have the first pick at desert. There are about twelve of them and ten of them belong to my cousin Rebecca the other two are my sisters, they are the easy ones to catch, it is the other ten that we always have to hunt down. The older cousins usually get together and catch them because it is impossible to hunt down the little pigs, they might be chunky, fat , and have no necks but those little suckers can move their feet. While chasing down the younger kids I can smell the food being prepared at the camp-grounds.

The aroma of my Mimi's chicken and dumplings takes over the whole area. The seasoned chicken covered in brown gravy overwhelms my taste buds and I cannot wait to get a full plate of chicken and dumplings. Walking