Current Happenings in my Life
Current Happenings 2000 | February 20

February 20, 2000 Past Issues: Jan 19, Jan 6.

Smith Family Reunion, Rio Bravo Resort in Bakersfield, CA.

I spent the weekend of Feb 18-20 at the Rio Bravo Resort in Bakersfield, California. It's about two and a half hours from where I live. The occasion was the Smith Family Reunion. Every other year, the descendants of my mother's father's parents get together for a reunion. This year there were about 110 of us.

William & Annie Smith and family, about 1928

William and Annie are my great-grandparents. Their oldest son, Dudley, is my grandfather. In 1926, he married Dorothy Fern Byram.  During the next 20 years, they had five children, including my mother, Esther. The picture on the left was taken for their 20th wedding anniversary.  My mother, Esther, married Mark Weathers in 1969, and the picture on the right shows how they look now.

Dudley Smith Family, 1946

Mark and Esther Weathers, 1999

The main events of the weekend were a big dinner Saturday night, and another big dinner and meeting on Sunday morning.

My parents came, and so did my sister Lisa, and her husband David, with their kids Naomi and Josiah. It had been quite a while since I had seen them.

I brought along my computer, and spent some time scanning old photographs like the ones you see above. Mom's cousins Chris and Laura put together a book of William Smith's autobiography, with a bunch of old pictures, and I scanned all the original pictures out of there. I also digitized some of the video taken during this weekend. My next project is to get all of that organized, and eventually make a digital version of that book.

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Created and maintained by Matthew Weathers. Last updated Apr 20, 2006.