2001 A King Odyssey

2001 King Reunion

The 2001 reunion was held in Farmington Town Park on Saturday, July 7, 2001. While attendence was down slightly from other years due to conflicting plans, we managed to get 91 people together for a few hours of conversation and snacking. Attendees brought some tasty desserts and snacks which were enjoyed throughout the day. 'Kings' ranged in age from 93 to 2, with a couple of pets thrown in for the day. Mother Nature reminded us a couple of times who was in charge with a few sprinkles, and the stiff breeze blowing meant that we spent some time chasing paper goods. The group was an amiable one and the time was well enjoyed. We all wore name tags with the lineage back to George's children and a picture of the ancestor we were descended from on them, color coded for family; and several spent quite a few minutes pushing color coded locater pins into a large map of the United States in an attempt to show where the King family had located through the years. It's too bad that we have no information about several of the offspring in that generation as we were only able to place a single Fairport pin for some. Of course, while we have spread across the country, there are a lot of descendants still living here in the general area and we were forced to extend the immediate environs to a raft just off the New England coast, in order to represent all of the people who reside in this general area. There was some joking as to what area it was, and Clark King, mayor of Fairport, offered to take those sea-going people under his jurisdiction. Thanks, Clark, for your concern.

There were also a couple of pins that were placed incorrectly, but diligence corrected the errors.

After waiting patiently, lunch was ready about 1:30 and everyone lined up to grab something to eat.

After eating, the family got themselves organized for some reunion pictures and then some games for the kids. There was a peanut hunt with a special search for peanuts with the letters K I N G for prizes out of the prize bag, and a scavenger hunt that required the kids to pester the adults for the items needed. While it ended up being girls against the boys, both teams were declared winners. The boys finished first, but 'found' some of the items on their own, instead of finding the adult who was keeper of the item in question, while the girls got everything from the adults keeping the items, but required a little more time. All children made a trip to the prize bag for a gift of their choice.

Meanwhile parents were renewing acquaintances, catching up on happenings and sharing old photographs that some people had brought to share. Then some of the 'young' Kings played some volleyball. After a trip back to the snack table to see what might have been missed, people started saying their good-byes and drifting away back to their other lives. Mother Nature pushed all of the people left under the pavilion to continue conversations and good-byes and painted the sky to resemble the multitude of colors representing the many King descendants.

Everyone professed to having a good time and promised to bring more people for the next reunion. God willing, we'll be there.

Here are some links to group pictures and fun