One of the things you might think would be lost to the Covid-19 battle is family reunions. Not so! My family got creative and held a Zoom reunion. I thought, oh boy, here we go. Get out your web conference bingo cards and just go ahead and cover “I think you’re muted” and “barking dog.” Well, we had some of that, but all in all it was a great time. Over forty people attended and everybody participated. We didn’t get to share our potluck dishes, but we did share our memories of favorite foods. Fried chicken was the overall winner of course. Most of my cousins are farmers. Normally they would all circle up the lawn chairs and talk about crop yields, herbicide rates, and Ernie’s new Deere combine. But this time we talked about the old home place. Our family historian traces ownership of the family farm going back over 200 years. It helps that he’s a retired professional historian. A Zoom reunion also has the advantage of allowing participation from far away. People who likely wouldn’t have made it back home. And it certainly worked out that way since Hawaii and Florida were among the eight states represented. No prizes for the longest distance traveled though. There were brand new babies and my 99 year old aunt. My aunt is tack sharp and had no difficulty participating in Zoom. Of course, getting the presenter rights away from her once she got going proved a bit difficult. So Covid didn’t take down our reunion. We actually had a lot of fun. This is the way we’ve got to do things for a while. Adapt. Make good choices. Don’t get tired and give up. Don’t start thinking it’s over. We’ll manage. Just hang in there and keep doing the right things. Enough outta’ me. Back to work.■
