Today was a much quieter day, starting with most of the family starting slow. We didn’t leave the hotel until after noon. Our first stop was the local Kroger, which had a remarkable gluten-free section, including gluten-free beer (A-B’s Red Bridge). This surprised us because Kroger is the owner of Ralphs, and Ralphs has a piss-poor gluten free selection. We’ll beat up my brother-in-law when we get home. We did make a manager’s day: It’s always fun to have the checker page the manager… and then give him lots of complements on his store. Leaves them with a smile.
After Krogers we stopped across the street at Whitts BBQ. This turns out to be the BBQ place recommended by the Christian group we met months ago at “They’re Playing Our Song“. We know this because there was a plaque on the wall indicating that the location we hit sponsors the DCA High School Show Choir.
After lunch, we checked in for the family reunion. Across the street from the reunion hotel was a plaque commemorating the founding of the first Reform congregation in Nashville in the 1850s. The original members included members of the Weinbaum family, which is the branch of my family reunioning. Thus, when folks tell you there are no 5th generation Reform Jews… you can tell them you know some.
We then walked down to the Tennessee State Museum. There were a number of interesting exhibits here, although a lot of material seems to have been removed for conservation. Still, we enjoyed the exhibits, and they had a nice display of quilts and confederate money, as well as information on the role of Tennessee in the Civil War… and California, for it was a Tennessean who was President when the land containing California was purchased as a territory.
We then went to the first reunion event proper. It was neat meeting relatives from all over; it was even more neat being told that they learned about the other family members from my website. I got to see some folks I know quite well and don’t see often enough (my cousin Les from St. Louis), as well as meeting relatives from Akransas, Mass., New York, Oregon, Texas, Missouri, and numerous other states. I planned on using my work laptop to display the family tree, but the read-only version of the tree I burned to CD using Roots Magic caused my PC to blue-screen every time the CD started. It worked fine on other XP systems, so I have no idea what the problem was. In any case, the evening was fun, and the big formal event is tomorrow evening (a dinner party). I’ll also note that one of the reunion organizers brought a globe of Mars… because one of the craters on Mars is named after a relative and famous Science Fiction author: Stanley G. Weinbaum.
Dinner was simple: we just picked up stuff at Kroger. We’re just going to rest tonight. Tomorrow will be the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, and the Weinbum-Jacobus Reunion Dinner Party.
