This summer was the biannual Abbott family reunion. Back in 1999, we all got together for my grandfather’s funeral in Minnesota. We realized that the last time we had all been together was for a wedding in 1987, 12 years earlier, and we decided that we should get together for more than just weddings and funerals. We had the first Abbott reunion in 2000, and we’ve been meeting every other summer in various places around the country for a week-long gathering.

This year we went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We stayed at the Drummer Boy Campground, a lovely, wooded, 95-acre property. The campground has over 450 overnight sites including RV sites, tent sites, and cabins. The property also has a general store, two swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, mini-golf, and a playground, and there are laundry facilities for those who are staying longer term. In fact, I was quite surprised to discover that there are RV people who come here year after year and who stay long enough to build structures such as wooden stairs up to their camper doors, wooden platforms and shelters for outdoor eating, and even fences to keep their little dogs corralled. It was quite a lovely place to stay.

Abbott folks arrived on Saturday and Sunday, so our first group activity was Monday. We hired a private tour bus which picked us up at the campground and headed over to Gettysburg National Military Park.

Our first stop was at the visitor center to watch a 15-minute introductory film about the park and the civil war. When we arrived at the visitor center at 8:45, Don said, “Guys, I thought the movie started at 9:00, but it actually starts at 8:45 so hurry into the theater so we can watch the movie.” As we were rushing in, Dean said to me, “These poor people who are already sitting here waiting for the movie to begin were thinking that they were going to have a nice quiet movie, and then our whole group runs in…”

After the movie, we were all ushered into the cyclorama which is a 360-degree painting of the agricultural land and the fighting scene outside of the town of Gettysburg in 1863. A voice-over narration described the day of fighting as spotlights around the room illuminated different parts of the painting that related to the narration. I will admit that it was cooler than I expected. And now I want to go visit the cyclorama in Atlanta that shows the fighting around the city in 1864.

After the cyclorama, we hopped back on the bus with our own private tour guide for a 3-hour tour around the national park. Our guide spouted off so many facts and figures about the battle that I can’t remember any of it, but you can always look it up on Wikipedia if you’re curious to learn more. What I will say is that the park is huge, and we drove around for 3 hours. We stopped a few times to get out and get an up-close look at something with the guide. One thing that surprised me was the vast number of monuments scattered around the park. It seems like every regiment from every state had a monument commemorating their part in the battle. There were statues of various soldiers and generals. There were cannons staged in various locations. 

In the decades after the war, observation towers were built in different areas so people could observe the battleground from above and evaluate and learn from the military strategies that took place below. In fact, students from West Point still come to the park to climb the towers and learn military lessons.

As we toured around the park, I saw lots of wildflowers.

The tour bus drove through Gettysburg itself, so we learned a little about the town along the way. Historic buildings have plaques indicating that they were around during the civil war. Abraham Lincoln visited on the occasion of his historic Gettysburg Address, and the house he stayed in has a plaque. Of course, there are also numerous tourist shops and restaurants that cater to the large volume of visitors that come through the area every year.

After the bus tour, we headed back to the visitor center to look at the exhibits. There were so many items from the war – guns, uniforms, flags, and other exhibits.

There were World Cup soccer games during the week of the reunion, and one afternoon 20 of us went to the Blue and Gray Grille and Pub to watch France play Spain. We took over 5 tables in one area of the restaurant, and people rotated between the tables to socialize during the game. Jennifer brought yellow card and red card bean-bag characters. Scott and Steph had a rivalry going on, and at one point, Scott gave Steph a yellow card, and she gave him a red card in return with her red iced tea glass. We all had a great time, and we made sure to leave our servers huge tips.

I was only at the reunion for part of the week, and there were other activities during the week where I didn’t participate – Blueberry Festival, Yuengling brewery tour, Hershey’s Chocolate World, the group dinner at Dobbin House Tavern, Abbott Olympics.

However, my favorite part of the reunions is always the evening dinners. Each day, a different group of families is in charge of providing dinner for everyone, and we all eat together. It’s a wonderful way to end the day, and it provides an opportunity to sit next to different people each time to catch up on each others’ lives. The daily activities are certainly an opportunity to catch up with people, but there is always the distraction of the activity itself. At dinner, you have each other’s undivided attention, and the time together deepens your relationships.

All in all, it was a wonderful week. It was so great to catch up with everyone after not seeing a lot of those folks since before the pandemic. (I had missed a couple of reunions in the meantime.) As I get older, I better appreciate time with family and the associated memories. 

I’ve reached a point of reflection in my life – amplified by our impending move to Italy – that makes me realize that time can be short, and things are changing. Since my last reunion in 2018, Terri has died and Dan has moved into a care facility. Some members of my generation have gotten busy with jobs and kids and other things going on in their lives, and they no longer come to reunions. I’m guilty of that as well. I considered not going to the reunion this year because I had already spent weeks away from work due to my arm injury. However, I decided that I needed to go and that my company could just deal with it. In the end, I am immensely grateful that I decided to spend a week with family this summer. Deep down I needed that.