Sylvia's Journal

Family members and friends who have become part of the family over the years came together from Oakland, Michigan, Cape Cod, and New York to reminisce and enjoy being together. When I first entered this family, some 30 years ago, such get togethers were very much defined by the consumption of large quantities of strong spirits and much cigarette smoke. Everyone showed up with their wicker baskets full of large bottles filled with clear or brown liquids. The people in charge of the reunion then were Axel’s parents, aunts and uncles; the women mostly homemakers and men who had fought in WWII. The annual reunion was something they looked forward to, as much as I dreaded them. They have all passed on since then.

Now we are in charge and we bring mostly small brown bottles. Hardly anyone smokes and no one gets plastered anymore. We are from a different time and a different world.  This includes Woodstock which is celebrating its 40^th birthday. Cousins Phil, Kristen and Bobby were there and there were pictures to prove it which all of us thought pretty cool; they even still have their 6 dollar ticket stubs.

Axel had been interviewed at the Joan Baez concerned (on his birthday) and the broadcasting of the special Woodstock interviews was scheduled for yesterday on the Today Show. We suffered through one and a half hour of repeat footage of nonsense, advertisements and C-news and gave up looking for Axel being interviewed one half before the end of the show. We could not stand it any longer.

Nephew Michiel has decided his name is too difficult for Americans to pronounce. I stood next to him when he introduced himself to one of Axel’s relatives as ‘David.’ We picked up on this transformation quickly and now even his brother and dad call him David, and, although not yet right away, he eventually does respond when you call him by his new name.

The transformation of a year in America, after less than a week, is already visible (and audible). He’s speaking English as if he has lived here all his life (and, his little brother is not doing badly either).  I am afraid the nice British English he learned in school is already overshadowed by his new American accent. He also secured himself a crash pad in New York City by hanging out a good part of the day with Britta, the daughter of Axel’s cousin, who is also a freshman and off to NYU in a couple of weeks. We noticed the exchange of email addresses towards the end of the day. He worked hard at that and he deserved the positive response.

It was hot and humid at the place halfway up the mountain where we came together. Towards the end of the day we drove down to the village and immersed ourselves in the river; this included Chicha who learned to master fetching a stick that went downstream quickly and swam heroically against the current, encouraged by all of us. Little dachshund Stewie was not able to do this and kept busy retrieving stones from the riverbed, whether thrown at him or not.

Refreshed, we returned to the mountain, ate leftovers, played the ukulele, told stories, looked at some very old photos and checked out the family tree. When it got dark we sat around the campfire roasting hotdog and s’mores. In spite of the multiple insect bites it was a glorious day and another wonderful reunion, to be continued over brunch this morning.