For me, one of the highlights of a recent family reunion was a newspaper account that somebody brought about a previous reunion, all the way back in 1929. The "Daily Local News" story ran for more than a column and detailed family deaths and births, the new officers, the songs and poems that were performed, and one woman's account of her trip to Europe (she liked Switzerland best). There was also a spirited discussion about why some attendees had chosen to remain single: one woman explained that "she found she could make a better living for herself than any man could make for her." Because of the heavy rain, the usual baseball game was replaced by quoits in the wagon shed.
On the same page of the newspaper there was a story about a "booze raid" at a Pomeroy home ("25.5 cases of beer, alleged to be high-powered home brew, three bottles of whisky, a bottle of gin and a dime slot machine in good working order" were seized).
And this "looking back" item discussed the Chester County weather on Aug. 4, 1879: "This weather is severely hot and debilitating in its character. For over a week the mercury has daily risen into the nineties and each day the heat becomes more intense. Yesterday was a sweltering Sabbath, and to-day the thermometers show only a change for the worse. Where this is to end we know not, but have faith in Christmas helping us out by way of the North Pole."
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