Grandpa’s Pronouncement at the Family Reunion
“Pack up all your suitcases, we’re going on vacation.
Don’t forget your sleeping bags and some alimentation.
We’re heading out in two hours for the challenge of your lives,
so load up all your kids and hurry up your wives.
I’m making a pronouncement that perhaps you won’t agree with,
but since you are the folks that I most enjoy to be with,
I spent all of your legacies on this giant bus
that it is my fondest wish to fill with only us
and set out for the summer having various adventures.
Most likely we’ll get lost and perhaps Gram will lose her dentures,
but all-in-all we’ll have great times that no one will forget.
You’re going to spend this summer with the finer set.
I’ve cleared it with your bosses. I’ve contacted your friends.
No need to call anyone. No need to make amends.
You’ll live without your boyfriends for a month or two.
Just tell them that your family needs some time with you.
Go and find your places–kids all in the back.
I have some games to play with you while your mothers pack.
No phones, laptops or notebooks are allowed aboard the bus.
I want communication to be narrowed down to us.
I’ll teach you snakes and ladders, Monopoly and Chess.
You can beat your Uncle Tom and your Auntie Bess,
your grandma and your sisters, your cousins and your brother.
Why bother to beat someone else when you can beat each other?”
The ending you might well project. The mom’s find fault. The kids object.
But once he’d packed us all inside and started out on our grand ride,
we settled down and all joined in to get to know their closest kin
and all in all, that summer trip, each tent-pitching, each skinny dip
turned into one fine memory, just as Gramp knew it would be!
(Click on photos to enlarge and view as slide show.)
Prompt words today are pronounced, legacy, challenge, alimentation and suitcase. Sadly, this is fiction and the photos a compilation of various friends and family. I wish this had happened, but alas, it didn’t. The fourth photo is a picture of part of my actual family.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
What a cool idea! And the poem too.
LikeLike
I wish it had really happened!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It would be wonderful! But if all the family was in agreement.
LikeLike
Great concept. I thought for a moment you had done it then recognised some of the photos were from other trips. 🙂
LikeLike
Great poem!
LikeLike
Great👏
LikeLike
Fascinating idea and poem. But if I were part of Grandpa’s family, I would have been friggin’ outraged and would have never talked to him again! That’s the toned down version. Yep, I have family issues. But I absolutely adore that photo montage!
LikeLike
Luckily you have Little Duck to calm you down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A wonderful, and a magnificent collection of photos — you do have a way with candid people pictures!
LikeLike
Regardless. it’s great to see so many smile and so much laughter. I miss the laughter and the hugs. And a wonderful poem. If only it had been just that way.
LikeLike
I had so hoped this could be a true story – such a great idea! But I enjoyed the slide show anyway.😊
LikeLike
I guess that’s part of the reason we write–to give ourselves what in life we missed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I enjoyed this!! I was picturing my own family packing up on a bus and taking off on a spontaneous (planned) roadtrip where everyone interacts with each other instead of their electronics.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds fun.
LikeLike